When I first read this story on the BBC and Australian news site I couldn’t actually believe my eyes. An old man bitten by mice because the infestation was so bad in the nursing home he was at. Hello?
An elderly relative of mine is in a nursing home and I have to be honest, even if I didn’t work for Rentokil I think I would have noticed “mouse activity”. I mean, mouse droppings are hardly invisible and scurrying little furry creatures surely can’t be missed?? Regardless of whether its a private nursing home or a state one – surely someone should have noticed the comings and goings of the mice?
Now it appears that despite 500 sightings of mice in the week leading up to the event, the official report on the matter has concluded that:
nursing home staff and managment failed to protect residents from the rodents, which had infested the facility since it opened its doors in 2006, and cleaning, including the removal of mouse faeces, was not being done often enough. Read more from the brisbanetimes website.
A professional pest control company could have resolved this kind of problem very quickly by investigating the source of the problem as well as trying to use baits. They have experience of working in the healthcare environment and understand what can and can’t be done.
4 Comments
Outrageous! Not sure what else to say I am so horrified!
Terrible to treat our seasoned citizens this way. How horrible it must have been for that patient.
Do mice often bite people?
Mice wouldn’t normally bite people – I haven’t heard that one before – but there are several documented cases of rat infestations in run down areas where rats have bitten people as they slept, including biting babies faces.
I honestly don’t know if they were just investigating a possible new food source and just took a ‘little nip’, but usually any movement from the human victim should see them scurrying off back to their hiding places. Maybe babies and elderly people are less likely to disturb them – although it is still easier and safer to feed on things that are dead or inanimate. For mice or rats to throw off their natural timidity means that there has to have been a well established, severe infestation.