If you manage an office, you might think the hardest part is making sure that people show up on time, do their job, and you make a profit. Pretty simple, right? One thing that you also need to keep an eye on at the office is rodent identification and prevention. Let’s go over some ways to identify if your office has a rodent problem, how to fix it if you do, and how to prevent them in the future.
The most common rodents causing issues in offices are mice and rats. They can cause many issues for you both dead and alive. Rodents can go unnoticed in your office for quite a long time and it is possible you won’t even know one is there until it dies. Once it dies, how ever, you or your employees will know pretty soon from the smells they give off.
If you haven’t seen any rodents running around, other signs that you have or will soon have a rodent problem include; fecal droppings, nibbles missing from food, food containers chewed on, holes or gaps on the building’s exterior, the sounds of them running through the walls, or the smell of urine. As you could guess from those “symptoms”, having a rodent or rodents in your building can be quite distracting as well as possibly dangerous for your staff.
If you do have rodents in your building it is important to handle the issue quickly. One female mouse can have 6-8 babies in less than a month according to extermination specialists, Terminix. If you think you have rodents or want to make sure that you don’t, there are many things you can do to ensure the safety of your staff and office.
If there is no food, water, or easy way in, rodents are less likely to take up residency in your dwellings. Make sure that you make sure there are no water sources accessible, secure your trash in sealed containers and don’t let trash build-up, don’t allow workers to keep food in their desks or personal workspaces, inspect and seal any holes or cracks on the outside of the building, and keep the grounds well maintained.
You could also go on the offensive to make sure that there are no rodents in your office. You can have traps set and check them regularly. You could also call an mice exterminator to come out every few months to inspect and put down preventative measures.
The key to not having rodents in the office (or your home for that matter) is to make it hard for them to get in and even harder for them to get food and water if they do get inside. Make sure the employees know that it’s not because you are a party pooper that they can’t have snacks at their desks or leave out communal treats in a break room. Inform them that the reasons for such policies are to ensure that they keep rodents out of the building, and they should be understanding!