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Natural Science Forum / Biology / Microbiology / November 2005sick from mouse?
I was going to clean up in a storage/junk room. In that room I've got some bookshelves with dvds,cds, software, and books,etc. It's about 17 - 20 degrees Celsus in there. I had put a glueboard mousetrap there before and forgotten about it.The mousetrap is a paper glueboard thats folded into a triangle. Was back in the room to organize and thought I should check the mousetrap. It had moved from where I had originally put it but I just thought I had kicked it out of the way when I was probably earlier in there at other times. So, I bent down and wearing latex gloves picked up the glueboard moustrap to throw it away. Almost threw up. There was a spider remains at one end and a mouse at the other.The mouse looked like ( I only looked for a minute or less) it had been there for a while - collapsed body, and the tail was still there wwith the fur and other stuff ,sort of white strands around or on the body - but I'm not sure! I was trying not to look at it. Maybe it was just a small mouse. Took the mousetrap and threw it into a empty plastic margarine or yogurt container and then closed the lid. Tied a plastic shopping bag around that and then threw into the garbage. The mouse looked like it had been there for maybe 1 - 3 months but I don't know. Where did the remains (insides) of the mouse go? Could I have gotten sick before with germs,bacteria,viruses, moldm, fungus,etc, unknowingly? What diseases, parasites,etc do mice carry? Would any of the nearby things been contaminated with germs,bacteria,viruses, mold, fungus? For example could germs,spores,etc have floated onto those things (movies,dvds, cd, books,etc) The mousetrap was a foot or two away.The bookshelves are about 6 feet high. [a] m b c c c b. ( a is the bookshelves m is the mousetrap b is box of newspapers and other stuff c is crate of books and other stuff. The room has sort of a low shag carpeting, and near where I took the mousetrap away the carpet is dark - don't know if that's from before or germs spreading out. Do I have to throw those things all away now? What should I get rid of? > I was going to clean up in a storage/junk room. In that room I've got > some bookshelves with dvds,cds, software, and books,etc. It's about 17 [quoted text clipped - 38 lines] > germs spreading out. > Do I have to throw those things all away now? What should I get rid of? I'd recommend not jumping to conclusions. If you aren't sick, you don't have anything to worry about. Mice being mammals can be affected by plenty of the same things we can be affected by. Viral and bacterial infections. The one thing to be careful about apparently is dust from droppings and droppings of deermice in particular and other mice in general. Hantavirus is probably the most common mouse to human zoonosis. Here is a list of other possibilities * Argentine hemorrhagic fever * Bolivian hemorrhagic fever * Endemic typhus * Francisella tularensis * Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome * Helicobacter cinaedi * Hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome * Hymenolepsis diminuta * Hymenolepsis nana * Lassa fever * Leptospirosis * Listeriosis * Lymphocytic choriomeningitis * Ornithonyssus bacoti-induced dermatitis * Plague * Rabies * Rickettsialpox * Salmonellosis * Spirillum minus * Streptobacillus moniliformis * Tick-borne relapsing fever * Trichophyton mentagrophytes * Venezuelan hemmorhagic fever * Yersinia enterocolitica Keep in mind that many of these require direct contact and a somewhat fresh corpse. All that being said, most of those diseases are pretty exotic. Even Hanta virus needs exposure to lots of dessicated droppings. I doubt you'd have to worry about all this with one mummified mouse. Just clean up the area and disinfect it as well as you can and go on with your life. I think you'll be fine. Get a cat for rodent control. They're much more efficient at it. We had a mouse years ago that eluded our traps. Our cat found him in one night and took care of it. We found the remains in the living room in the morning. Good mousers can catch up to six per day (I read that statistic somewhere). This is why the Egyptians revered cats. They had large granaries and didn't have the luxury of chemical methods for rodent eradication. We have four cats in the house right now, three of which are young. The little toy mice are their FAVORITE toy. Judy Dilworth, M.T. (ASCP) Microbiology "Mike McWilliams" <michael.mcwilliamss@drdc-rddc.gc.ca> wrote in message >. There was a spider remains at one end and a mouse at the other. So just spray the carpet with lysol or clorox disinfectant? while wearing one of those N95 masks? quoted text about finding mouse corpse, maybe few months old. any dangerous germs? Just clean up the area and disinfect it as well as you can and go on with your life. I think you'll be fine. So use lysol or clorox disinefectant aeorsol spray while wearing those N95 masks made famous by SARS to get rid of the germs? Wont that spread germs around? What about physically moving boxes, books, dvds, all around? there wouldn't be spores or germs on or in them now? Haven't been in that room for two weeks now. Because there is no mousetrap or cardboard where it used to be (on the carpet) would the germs,bacteria, viruses (from under that spot) have floated or spread around onto my bookshelves or my boxes of books, etce. Have visions of Dustin Hoffman and Outbreak :-) With all due respect, it's one tiny little MOUSE. It's not the end of the world. You don't need N95 masks. Your kitchen sink (especially your garbage disposal) is dirtier than that little dessicated mouse. You need to get under control or get some counseling. Judy Dilworth, M.T. (ASCP) Microbiology <cleaning_my_stuff@hotmail.com> wrote in message > So use lysol or clorox disinefectant aeorsol spray while wearing those > N95 masks made famous by SARS to get rid of the germs? [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > around onto my bookshelves or my boxes of books, etce. > Have visions of Dustin Hoffman and Outbreak :-) > With all due respect, it's one tiny little MOUSE. It's not the end of > the world. You don't need N95 masks. Your kitchen sink (especially your [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > Judy Dilworth, M.T. (ASCP) > Microbiology But what about the rest of us who are somewhat amused at the effect of "Too Much T.V.".... I swear that person is a typical american, living scared about one thing or another. As an American (and not a 'merkun), you'd sadly probably right. I haven't regularly watched the evening network newscasts since GWB was elected in 2000 and get most of my national news from newspapers and the internet, as I can't stand the fear hype, both on a local and national level on TV, that's incessant. So much of this hype is ridiculous, and I refuse to buy into it. As far as the mouse issue, I guess I've expressed all I can on the subject. I guess if you can't handle what mousetraps produce, i.e. dead mice, you shouldn't put out mousetraps. Get a cat - they'll deal with your mice in a natural way - biting off the head and gutting it in your bedroom, but at least they'll be gone. I have four cats and love them to death; however, cats evolved to perform one thing well - preying on small rodents. They are extremely efficient at it and everything they do is for that purpose. My kitty's favorite toys are fake mice. I've read that an efficient mouser can deal with six per day. This is why they were revered in ancient Egypt as they protected the national granaries in a day where there were no rodenticides or chemical means to fight mice and rats. Judy Dilworth, M.T. (ASCP) Microbiology > I swear that person is a typical american, living scared about one thing > or another. > is for that purpose. My kitty's favorite toys are fake mice. I've read > that an efficient mouser can deal with six per day. This is why they > were revered in ancient Egypt as they protected the national granaries > in a day where there were no rodenticides or chemical means to fight > mice and rats. I once worked at a large greenhouse complex, and they had a few cats to take care of the mouse problem. In one day, between traps and cats there were about thirty dead mice, and the only time we got to set the traps was during coffee breaks. I figure the cats did more than their fair share. On the germ-mouse connection, I have only known one person who got violently sick from mice, and I live in southern alberta, where there are plenty of farms, and plenty of mice. At the time, the doctors couldn't make a definitive diagnosis, and settled on hanta virus. They may have been wrong, but she was sick for about three months time. Cheers, Mike My understanding of Hanta virus infections is that it needs a large accumulation of dried mouse feces from infected deer mice. People inhale the dry feces and get the respiratory infection, which is pretty serious, that way. http://tinyurl.com/7wwc6 Below is a link to the CDC website. Directions for cleaning rodent INFESTED areas (i.e. more than one dead mouse) is included. There is a death in Canada (in Ontario) cited in the article. Judy Dilworth, M.T. (ASCP) Microbiology > On the germ-mouse connection, I have only known one person who got > violently sick from mice, and I live in southern alberta, where there [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > settled on hanta virus. They may have been wrong, but she was sick for > about three months time. Ahhhhh ..... > > I was going to clean up in a storage/junk room. In that room I've got > > some bookshelves with dvds,cds, software, and books,etc. It's about 17 [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > > kicked it out of the way when I was probably earlier in there at other > > times. Realized that the mouse and the trap had crawled from the original space. > > So, I bent down and wearing latex gloves picked up the glueboard > > moustrap to throw it away. Almost threw up. There was a spider remains [quoted text clipped - 28 lines] > plenty of the same things we can be affected by. Viral and bacterial > infections. > The one thing to be careful about apparently is dust from droppings and > droppings of deermice in particular and other mice in general. > Hantavirus is probably the most common mouse to human zoonosis. ^^^Deermice aren't around here supposedly^ > Here is a list of other possibilities > [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > * Listeriosis > * Lymphocytic choriomeningitis ^^ meningitis , that sounds scary. > * Ornithonyssus bacoti-induced dermatitis > * Plague [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > Keep in mind that many of these require direct contact and a somewhat > fresh corpse. Some more > I was going to clean up in a storage/junk room. In that room I've got > some bookshelves with dvds,cds, software, and books,etc. It's about 17 > - 20 degrees Celsus in there. The last shelf with books is about 5 inches from the floor. > I had put a glueboard mousetrap there before and forgotten about it.The > mousetrap is a paper glueboard thats folded into a triangle. Was back [quoted text clipped - 35 lines] > germs spreading out. > Do I have to throw those things all away now? What should I get rid of? I got rid of the mouse a few weeks ago. Can I still keep all the stuff (books, movies,etc) in the boxes and shelves? When I moved the mouseboard and threw it away, I was wondering about the space underneath. Is that space safe? Would that board have kept germs underneath from floating away? Now that it's empty could they have floated or all away or onto the shelves or. |
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