Deer Mice & Hantavirus in Hoboken

Which rodents carry hantavirus

Hantaviruses are a family of viruses, and each one rides with a particular rodent species. In the United States the illness people worry about, hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, is mostly tied to Sin Nombre virus, which is carried by the deer mouse. That is why the classic warnings come from the rural Southwest and the mountain states, where deer mice move into sheds, barns and summer cabins.

Closer to home, the white-footed mouse, a cousin of the deer mouse that lives in woods and field edges across New Jersey, can carry a related strain known as New York virus. And the Norway rat is the natural host of Seoul virus, which causes a different illness that mainly affects the kidneys. Cases in the United States are uncommon, and several were traced to people who kept or bred pet rats.

The house mouse, the one that actually lives in most Hoboken kitchens, is not a known carrier of hantavirus in this country. It can still spread bacteria such as salmonella through droppings and urine, so it is not harmless, but it is not the hantavirus animal.

Are deer mice in Hoboken?

Rarely. Deer mice and white-footed mice need cover, seeds and open ground, and a square mile of brick row houses and towers offers very little of that. When Hoboken Rodent Control identifies the mouse in a Hoboken apartment, it is almost always a house mouse: uniformly grey-brown, with a long, nearly hairless tail and no sharp line between a darker back and a white belly.

A deer or white-footed mouse looks different. It has a crisp two-tone coat, brown above and bright white below, large dark eyes, big ears and a tail that is also clearly two-toned. If a mouse like that turns up, it most likely arrived in something brought in from outside the city, such as firewood, garden supplies or boxes stored in a country house, and it is worth telling us when you call.

How people get infected

Hantavirus is not passed by touching a mouse in passing. The usual route is breathing in tiny particles from dried droppings, urine or nesting material that get stirred into the air, most often while sweeping or vacuuming a closed space that has been left alone for a long time: a storage room, a shed, a long-shut cockloft. Bites are a far less common route.

That is the part worth remembering even in a city where the risk is low. The way you clean up matters more than which mouse left the mess, and the same careful method protects against the bacteria all rodents carry.

Cleaning up droppings safely

1. 01

   Air the space out first

   Open windows and doors and leave the area for at least half an hour before starting, especially a closet, cellar room or attic hatch that has been closed up.

2. 02

   Gloves on, broom away

   Wear rubber or disposable gloves. Do not sweep or vacuum dry droppings; that is exactly what puts particles in the air.

3. 03

   Soak before you touch

   Spray the droppings and nesting with a disinfectant or a freshly mixed solution of one part household bleach to ten parts water until thoroughly wet, then give it several minutes.

4. 04

   Wipe, bag, and wash

   Pick everything up with paper towels, seal it in a plastic bag and put it in the trash. Disinfect the surface again, then wash your gloved hands before taking the gloves off, and wash again after.

A few droppings in a cabinet are a reasonable job to do yourself this way. Nesting in insulation, a cockloft or a long-abandoned storage room is a different scale, and that is what our attic rodent cleanup service is for.

When to call a doctor

Early hantavirus illness looks like the flu: fever, aching muscles, tiredness, sometimes headache or stomach upset, usually one to several weeks after exposure. If you develop those symptoms after cleaning up after rodents, and especially if breathing becomes difficult, see a physician promptly and tell them about the rodent exposure. This page is general information, not medical advice.

For keeping the mice from coming back in the first place, start with our guide on how to get rid of mice and the exclusion and sealing work that closes the gaps.