Rat and Mouse Infestation
In California, a landlord is responsible for abatement of a rodent infestation. According to the California Health and Safety Code, “ Every person possessing any place that is infested with rodents, as soon as their presence comes to his or her knowledge, shall at once proceed and continue in good faith to endeavor to exterminate and destroy the rodents, by poisoning, trapping, and other appropriate means.” As with other types of infestations, it is the landlord’s responsibility to provide timely and effective pest control.
Rats and Mice are a Threat to Your Health.
The following are dangers of a mouse or rat infestation:
They can start fires by gnawing on electric cables. Many ‘fires of unknown origin’ can be attributed to rats and mice.
They eat large amounts of food, and contaminate food supplies they infiltrate with urine, feces and hair.
They damage buildings, books, furniture and appliances by biting and burrowing.
They spread disease by biting, transporting fleas, lice, mites and ticks, and by leaving their droppings in food and other things humans contact. Some examples of diseases rodents can spread are bubonic plague, rat bite fever, leptospirosis, hantavirus, trichinosis, infectious jaundice, rat mite dermatitis, salmonellosis, pulmonary fever and typhus.
Babies in cribs are sometimes bitten by rats due to the smell of milk and food around the baby.
