New research looked at managing house mouse populations in apartment complexes. As part of this study, residents were interviewed about their perceptions of mice. Want to know what those residents thought?
- Your inspection and communication with customers is essential. For the apartments with house mouse activity, only 27% had noticed it. This means a PMP is often the first one to advise the customer on the fact they have a problem.
- They knew that rodents carry diseases. While 16% of people were not sure, 80% responded that they were aware that mice carried disease. This is good news for PMP’s because there is no need to convince customers of the danger that mice pose. However, despite knowing that the house mouse can carry diseases, only 64% were concerned about mice infestations. Stressing the disease potential and the contamination issue could encourage residents to use your service and partner with you.
- About 50% responded that mice were hard to eliminate. This means many of your customers with mice problems may not be aware of what a reasonable expectation is on how long it will take to mitigate the issue and how much work is involved. Communicate with your customer on what your plan is and the time frame. Don’t forget to let them know what they need to do.
- While you are letting them know what they need to do, realize that only 54% of residents knew that “dirty” apartments were more likely to have mice. Around half of your customers may not know the link between sanitation and increase mice populations. When using bait inside locked stations like the MBS Mouse Bait Station, let the customer know the fewer food sources they leave around, the more likely the mice are to go to and consume the bait. Don’t forget to tell them to not disturb the stations! Always read and follow all label regulations when using rodenticides.
Performing a successful house mouse eradication is helped by communicating with your customer about the presence of mice, the hazards of having mice, the challenges with eliminating them, and doing their part with sanitation. Using a locking bait station like the MBS and snap traps such as the EZ Snap Mouse Trap can reduce populations but without the customer improving the overall sanitation, mice will be slow to go to these stations: they have another ready food source. Let them know where the issues are so they can help solve them.
For more on house mouse control and the best products to use, contact us here.
