The presence of rodents in buildings is usually regarded as undesirable from the viewpoint of food spoilage and contamination, physical damage, and the transmission of diseases to humans. The diseases transmitted by rodents include plague, sylvatic plague, pneumonic plague, murine typhus fever, Weli’s disease, rat-bite fever or relapsing fever, trichinosis, lymphocytic choriomeningitis, rickettsial pox, mouse typhoid or duck egg disease, poliomyelitis and favus.
The rodents that are of great concern in both domestic and commercial buildings in Australia are Norway rat, roof rat and house mouse. Rats and mice have different habits. For example, rats have a fear of new object or changes in their familiar environment. This behaviour can be the cause of their apparent disinterest in a new bait station for a certain period of time. Mice, on the other hand, although seeming to maintain a high level of caution in their movement, are very curious and adventurous animals. Thus, in order to effectively control rodents, we need to identify them. The image below shows the differences among the three.