Tag Archives: rat extermination

Mice, Rats, Rodent Control

Mice Seek Indoor Shelter when Weather Turns Cold

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Mice and rats start looking for cozier accommodations when the weather starts to turn cold. With the arrival of fall, New York and New Jersey home and business owners may begin to notice signs of rodent activity, particularly inside garages, storage sheds, warehouses and kitchen areas.

The discovery of small brown or black fecal pellets on shelves, counter tops or inside cupboards are often the first sign of a rodent invasion. Mice are incontinent, leaving germ-laden waste wherever they scurry. Dried droppings pose their own health threat when pulverized particles are wafted into the air and breathed in. Only last year, an outbreak of potentially deadly Hantavirus that killed 3 people was traced to a mouse infestation in camping tents at Yosemite National Park.

Mice and rats are attracted to indoor spaces by food, water and warmth. Their ability to squeeze through small openings — a mouse can squeeze through a dime-sized opening — makes mice difficult to keep out. And once they get in, their prodigious reproduction rates — a single female can produce as many as 60 pups a year — can quickly lead to a major infestation.

The trick to halting rodent invasions is to pinpoint and block entry and exit points. Stern uses the innovative rodent Track & Trap system to locate entry points and stop mouse and rat invasions in their tracks.

Mice, Rats, Rodent Control

Smart Rodent Tracking System Allows Fast Extermination

When rodents move into New York City commercial buildings, the toughest part of extermination is figuring out how they’re getting in. Mice can squeeze through an opening the size of a dime, and rats can enter NJ buildings through small holes the size of a quarter which can make these disease-carrying vermin difficult to exterminate. An innovative product called Track & Trap mouse and rat control system takes the guesswork out of finding and eliminating all rodent ingress and egress points, allowing Stern’s knowledgeable rodent extermination experts to eliminate commercial rodent problems quickly and effectively.

How Track & Trap Works

Bait stations coated with a fluorescent chemical are placed in rodent activity areas. As mice or rats come to feed, the fluorescent chemical adheres to their feet and bodies, causing them to leave a trail as they move in and out of commercial buildings. Several days after bait station installation, Stern’s rodent extermination experts return with a special UV light that illuminates rodent trails, allowing our rat and mouse control experts to seal entry points, locate and remove nests and set traps where they will be most effective.

Protect Your Business Reputation

Don’t let rodents nibble away at your business reputation. Nip New York City and northern New Jersey rodent problems in the bud with Stern’s rodent control solutions.

Commercial Services, Disease Carrying Pests, Rats, Rodent Control

Rats Plague NY & NJ Metro Areas in Summer

Rats are a year-round plague in New York and New Jersey metropolitan areas, but they become particularly bold and problematic during the summer months. New York City’s habit of piling trash at curbside for collection contributes to the city’s constant rat problem, enticing rodents to forage in trash bags, frequently in plain site of pedestrians.

For many commercial enterprises, particularly restaurants, hotels and other members of the hospital industry, rodent control is a constant but necessary battle. Not only can a failed health inspection shut down your business, but it only takes a single rat scurrying across a floor to destroy a business reputation and send customers fleeing.

Effective commercial rat control must address both lower and upper levels of a building. Contrary to popular belief, rats are not just sewer dwellers. Norway rats, which are the most common rodent species in urban areas, do frequently colonize sewers and subway tunnels, but they also build nests in buildings and will even nest in wood piles or in ground burrows. However, roof rats, which prefer to live in attics and the upper stories of buildings, are also a problem in New York and New Jersey urban areas. Effective commercial rodent control must address possible rat colonization in both the upper and lower floors of a building.

Track & Trap rodent control systems identify rodent pathways, helping to prevent recurrence of rodent problems.

Cockroaches, Commercial Services, Rats

Cockroaches, Rats Found at NYC School Cafeterias

Your children aren’t the only ones grabbing lunch at New York City school cafeterias. Rats and cockroaches may also be feasting on cafeteria mac and cheese and hot dogs. In an NBC New York review of health code violations, most city school cafeterias passed periodic health inspections with flying colors. However, some city schools, including public schools in Bushwick, Harlem, Bensonhurst and Far Rockaway, were cited by the public health department for rats in the food area, cockroaches, flying insects, liquid waste, contaminated food, inadequate hand-washing facilities and other stomach-churning violations.

A number of the schools took responsible action and received passing marks when reinspected, but a few schools (NBC singled out Bensonhurst and Far Rockaway)  actually fared worse on repeat inspections. When interviewed by NBC, parents of students expressed “shock” and “horror.”

Mice, rats and cockroaches are persistent problems in large metropolitan areas like New York City. These noxious pests carry and spread dangerous diseases and their feces and dried droppings can cause serious health problems, including childhood asthma and deadly Hanta virus.

Stern Environmental provides expert commercial rat and mouse exterminating services and superior  commercial cockroach control services. Introduced to fight bed bugs, our cutting-edge Cryonite insect treatment system has proved to also offer extremely effective, non-toxic extermination of cockroaches and other insects.

When pests invade, call Stern Environmental for fast and effective action.

Rats

What To Do If Bitten By A Rat

roof-ratsRat bites are not only painful; they can be dangerous as well.  While some people think they are cute and cuddly, even domestic rats are not the most favored animals by most people.   Rats are not known to be the most cleanly of animals on the planet.  Rats are very intelligent critters.  In the wild, they will travel the same path over and over to move from place to place.  As they travel, they will urinate and defecate in any area that they are in so every place that they move within is contaminated by their urine and excrement.

The teeth of a rat are very sharp.  Rat teeth constantly grow and rats constantly grind them down so that they are able to consume food.  These extremely sharp teeth mean that being bitten by a rat will likely result in a deep bite wound.

If bitten by a rat, here are some helpful steps to follow…

To stop the flow of blood, apply direct pressure to the bite wound using a clean piece of cloth, gauze, or paper towel.  This could take a while depending on how deep the bite wound is.  After the cut has stopped bleeding, the wound must be disinfected by pouring a good amount of hydrogen peroxide or alcohol directly onto the bite wound.  After disinfecting, apply Neosporin to the wound and wrap tightly with gauze or bandage.  Be careful not to bandage the wound site too tightly as you will cut off circulation to the area.

Anyone who has been bitten, or even scratched by a rat, should seek medical help.  Deep rat bites may require stitches and in many cases rabies shots are given, especially when people are bitten by wild rats.  Failure to obtain proper medical care can result in transmission of a wide variety of rat borne disease to the rat bite victim.

Most people who are bitten or scratched by a pet rat do not become ill, but some do.  When in doubt, seek medical attention for all rat bites.