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Plague of mice spreading, say pest controllers

Last Updated: 2:29am BST 04/08/2007

Householders are facing a plague of mice this summer, heightening the risk of disease, pest controllers warned yesterday.

Warmer winters, the prevalence of rubbish on the streets and homeowners renovating their houses are all causing mice numbers to escalate at an alarming rate, say experts.

The pest control firm Rentokil released figures yesterday showing that homes and businesses with mice problems increased by nine per cent in the past year.

The number of calls in London and the South East rose by 23 per cent.

Although there is no accurate way of counting the number of mice, it is the second year in a row that calls to deal with infestations have climbed substantially.
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Experts regard this as a reliable indicator that mice numbers are soaring.

Savvas Othon, the technical director of Rentokil, said he was shocked by the increase.

"London, especially the centre, is a real problem," he said. "I think it’s down to councils such as Westminster putting out all the rubbish in bin bags rather than metal wheelie bins. If you go around the streets at 10 or 11 at night you see all these bin bags and lots of mice scurrying around."

Homeowners are often unable to deal with the problem with a seemingly endless array of traps, poisons and deterrents on sale. "People think a bowl of poison or a mouse trap will do the trick," said Mr Othon. "But mice like to move around."

A single mouse spotted in your kitchen is usually a male foraging for its family - and a sign that there are many more hiding beneath the floorboards or behind a false wall.

Oliver Madge, the chief executive of the British Pest Control Association, warned that the rodents posed a serious health hazard. "They have the potential to spread diseases just as much as rats," he said. "The problem is that they cannot control their bladders and urinate continually."

In recent months he had been called out to deal with mice that had eaten through fibre optic cables in an office in Swindon, causing damage worth £30,000.

Of more concern, Salford University found that 59 per cent of the mice caught in Manchester were carriers of toxoplasmosis - a disease that poses a serious threat to pregnant women.

Mr Madge said the best ways to keep mice out of the home were to make sure no food was left out, blocking up any holes and keeping the temperature down.

However, the increased use of central heating and the popularity of home renovations - creating ever wider cavities within stud walls and false ceilings - are making homes and offices the perfect habitat for wild mice.

Mr Savvas also blamed councils that had cut back on pest control. "Some are getting very proactive, like Manchester and Bristol," he said. "But many have cut their budgets and the first thing that goes is pest control."

Mice lovers were keen to point out that pet mice - or fancy mice, as fans of the domesticated mice call them - posed far less of a threat to human health.

Plague of mice spreading, say pest controllers (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/08/04/nmouse104.xml)

Another good reason to have cats. ;D 

Yuck!  I realize as a Christian I shouldn't fear anything.  However, I have had a rodent phobia since I was a child.  I pray this plague doesn't hit America.