Any tips on what to do if I do ‘encounter’ a rodent or its family?
Both
@She Cat and
@Freida have good ideas. To be honest, I'd probably freak at the scorpion too.
The rodents are fine, but scorpions? Eeeek!
why rodents will KILL YOU’ And it was not helpful
Your right that's not helpful.
Someone really needs to make a wikihow on how to write a wikihow.
I did not need to read about disease transmittion right about then
While the wikihow failed you, I can answer this.
The primary dangers from disease related to rodents are Hantavirus, rabies, tetanus and staphylococcus and think ecoli if you try to eat a raw one.... yeah, I know. People are weird.
Hantavirus is fairly rare and while bad, it is easy to prevent. The virus is spread through the feces of mice. When a carrier mouse defecates, the virus goes dormant and waits for a suitable environment to present itself.
Which basically means something like a strong wind or broom kicks up the dried out poo into the air, where someone then breathes it in.
Prevention becomes very simple, all you need to do is get a H2 mask (One of those mouth masks the dentist wears.) Any CVS Pharmacy carries them. Next, is to spray any rodent feces you find, with basic household cleaner before you wipe it up. Rubber gloves and safety goggles are not a terrible idea either.
And of course, wash your hands before you eat anything. But that's it. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.
Rabies: Don't let one bite you. ;)
Seriously. The series of rabies jabs is horrific. Huge needles, very painful. But treatable if done early.
Staphylococcal infections can range from annoying to lethal. Though it's not restricted to animal bites.
Any infected cut you've ever had, was likely caused by Staphylococcus bacteria.
Tetanus is caused by anaerobic bacteria. The vaccine is cheap and effective for 5-10 years. (Rust doesn't cause it either. That's a myth. If you are going to get anaerobic soil bacteria into a wound, it's because you cut yourself on something in the dirt. What is most likely to cut you in the dirt? Discarded metal, such as steel nails. Nails which rust because soil is moist, which causes steel to oxidise. Oxidisation of steel is called rust. ;))
I gotta be careful or I'll get a cramp from winking too much. :p
And of course. Don't eat one without cooking it thoroughly..... I can't imagine you would. Just being thorough.
Hopefully that's a little more useful to you than wikihow.
Maybe the scorpion can kill the rat??
Certainly worth a try. If it doesn't work, it'll eat the scorpion. So that problem would be solved, plus the rat won't keep him up with chewing noises if it had a good dinner. Lol!
it is the only potentially lethal scorpion in my entire state
At least you know where it is. :tup:
Though be sure to shake your shoes out in the morning, they like to hide in those.
Oh, and I don't know if it's all of them, but several species of scorpion fluoresce under blacklight. Impossible to miss a neon bug.
