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As this senior found out, mice infestations are hard to fix

For the past several months, a senior living in a Notre Dame Avenue apartment building has been fighting a frustrating battle with an age-old nemesis of humanity: mice.
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Notre Dame Avenue resident Sue Godin says she's been battling mice in her apartment for several months. Godin has called her landlord, who hired a pest control company, and the Sudbury and District Health Unit, but she said nothing has helped. Arron Pickard photo.

For the past several months, a senior living in a Notre Dame Avenue apartment building has been fighting a frustrating battle with an age-old nemesis of humanity: mice.

Sue Godin said she's at her wits' end, after several failed attempts to eradicate the vermin have failed. She's called her landlord and the Sudbury and District Health Unit, but she said in a recent interview nothing has helped.

"For eight months now I've been fighting with mice," Godin said. "It's gosh darn gross."

Godin said she has found mice feces in drawers, under furniture, near her bed, and can hear them in the walls at night. Her landlord hired a pest control company, and the health unit sent an inspector, but the problem persists.

"The traps aren't doing anything," she said. "They're in the walls and they're making nests."

Godin said the problem started last year when a neighbour in a nearby apartment passed away. The neighbour was a hoarder, she said, and when her apartment was cleaned out by workers in Hazmat suits, the mice fled to nearby apartments.

"That's where it all started — when she died ... now they're all over the building."

Because she has a dog, poison can't be used. And she's allergic to cats so that's not an option, either. While the traps laid by the pest control company has netted closed to a dozen mice, the problem continues, she said.

"I opened up my kitchen drawer to grab a knife to butter my toast and there was poo all over," Godin said, of a recent incident. "How would you like to be laying in bed and hearing these mice on top chewing the ceiling? I can't take it anymore.

"They have to be doing more than laying down traps that don't work. There's got to be something they can do."

Burgess Hawkins, the manager of environmental Health with the Sudbury and District Health Unit, said complaints about mice and other vermin are fairly steady in the city. Since 2010, they've received an average of about 25 complaints a year.

When they receive a call, an inspector is sent to investigate. The inspector tries to determine how serious the problem is by checking how much feces there is, and tries to determine how the mice are getting inside.

"If we see that it's a serious issue, we'll normally get a hold of the landlord and see if we can get the problem fixed that way," he said. "If we can't, then we'll get hold of (the city's) bylaw department, because there is a bylaw on the books that says ... the landlord can't allow vermin."

Usually the most effective solution is to call in a professional pest control company, which Godin said was done in this case, but hasn't worked.

While not referring to Godin's case in particular, Hawkins said hoarding can cause a number of issues.

"It's possible you will get mice, it's possible you will get cockroaches, it's possible you will get a lot of insects in general," he said. "It would really be site-specific because there are a whole bunch of variables."

Normally traps are the best option, he said, and a lot of them.

"And contrary to every cartoon you've seen, they don't like cheese," he said, adding that peanut butter and chocolate are far more effective.

"Those will work well as an attractant for a snap-trap."

The best strategy normally is to place several snap traps in several locations, and track where you're catching the mice.

"That will help indicate where they're living or where they're coming into the apartment," Hawkins said. "If you have a serious infestation, if you put out six traps, on Day 1 you'll have six dead mice. By about Day 4 or Day 5, you should start noticing them in one area ... and so they're likely coming in from that area."

While mice can breed and set up nests fairly quickly, Hawkins said the amount of food available to them and whether they have a warm and dry place to nest are major factors in how big the problem will get.

"In my case, when we had mice, they got into a bag of flour," he said, adding they like dry goods as a food source.

And there doesn't need to be a hole in a foundation for them to get inside – something as simple as leaving your door open in summer while you're bringing in groceries can allow them to get inside.

They carry disease in a couple of ways. One, they run through garbage, and then if they run through your food, it can contaminate everything.

"Also, they poop (and urinate) wherever they are, like most animals. So if they're running through your food, they can drop little pellets."

That can spread the hantavirus, which is sometimes present in mice urine and feces. The virus can cause fairly serious illness — fever, fatigue and muscle aches and pains in humans.

"It's an airborne pathogen,” Hawkins said. “The mouse (poops), and leaves its feces on the ground, which then dries out. You go to clean it up, and when you do, you create dust. So if the hantavirus is in that dust, then there is a chance if you breathe it in, you get the pneumonia associated with it."

So they recommend anyone cleaning up vermin feces use a spray bottle with water and bleach to reduce dust and kill germs.

Godin said she loves her apartment and her neighbours, and doesn't want to move. So she's considering more drastic steps.

"If I have to go away for a couple of days, I want them to put down some poison, then pick up the carpet, wash my walls, and let me come back in," she said. "Something drastic has to be done."

Vermin calls:
Rodent/vermin complaints for the last few years in Greater Sudbury:
2010: 23
2011: 22
2012: 28
2013: 29
2014: 24
2015: 25

Have a mouse problem or questions about mouse infestations? The Sudbury and District Health Unit has info available here, while you can find a fact sheet from Health Canada here.


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Darren MacDonald

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