Rat problem in Texas worried about disease!

[Ladybug199]

After seeing some rat dropping in the nesting boxes and food I tried to clean it out. I didn’t have on a mask at first and I am really hoping I haven’t exposed myself to hantavirus. Can anyone calm my fears about this? Do most people get it after heavy exposure or can you get it more easily than that? I have done some research and think they were roof rats. Are they the most common type of rat in Texas? Do they carry the virus?? Near Austin. Please help I’m very worried!

 

[azygous]

Don't worry. The one exposure likely won't infect you. Unless you're the type of person who has extremely bad luck, like getting pregnant the first time you ever had sex. Oh, wait. That's me.

You can easily trap the rats with a roller bucket trap. Google it. I swear by them.

 

[Willowspirit]

From the CDC website : Only some kinds of mice and rats can give people hantaviruses that can cause HPS. ... However, not every deer mouse, white-footed mouse, rice rat, or cotton rat carries a hantavirus.

So you are probably okay. But if you get sick take care of it right away. Good luck.

 

[Folly's place]

Don't leave out Leptospirosis, way more common than Hanta virus!
Figure out where they are coming into your coop, and fix it. Any traps you set may catch one or a few rats, but only poison in bait stations will get them all!
Mary

 

[cmom]

It appears as if you have an infestation of rats/mice. I had a coop that was infested. When I started renovating it, the rats literately poured out of it, they were coming out all over in all sizes. I had so many that I put out some rat bait boxes so other critters couldn't get to the rat poison. After the baits had been set out for awhile in the coop and in our barn which is behind the coops and replacing baits, eventually less and less bait was being eaten. I only found a couple of dead rats which I disposed of which lead me to believe that the rats were going down into their tunnels and dying. The bait box has a little window over the bait so the bait in the bait boxes can be checked often. I had no issues with other critters getting the bait. Good luck...

 

[Al Gerhart]

Yo, that is scary but you aren't likely to be harmed unless you are immune weakened or something has lowered your resistance. But your chickens are exposed to this all the time, another reason why rats ought to never be allowed to colonize a coop. You can't trap them out, or poison them out, or in most cases exclude them 100% of the time but you can control the feed. Do that and you have no rats and no rat poo or urine that might harm your family.