Jun 3, 2012 – With Mice Come Ticks?
QUESTION:
I have a service with a large property management company, mostly commercial but with a few residential. I think I have done a good job with very good feedback from clients. I have serviced the residential apartment units for 2 years with no negative feedback. However, I currently am working on a mice issue for a "sensitive" client in one apartment. I have excluded the single mouse from her unit that was entering from a hole behind the fridge. I filled this with copper mesh, sealed with silicone and then put 1/4 hardware cloth over that. I feel I am done and now this client wants to spray for Lyme ticks inside her apartment! She thinks they will drop off the mice and bite her. Is there any chance this could happen? Is it not true that other than a dog tick other ticks like Lyme ticks cannot complete their life cycle inside? If there were a couple of mice in a wall is that a Lyme Disease danger?
ANSWER:
You have some challenges here, so let's discuss them first. You have a very important client in the Property Management Company and need to keep them satisfied that you are doing the best control you can, which seems to be the case so far. However, now they have a single tenant who is, perhaps, overly obsessed with the idea of Lyme Disease ticks being in her apartment, and if SHE is not satisfied that you have eliminated that threat then she is likely to make a loud and persistent complaint to the property management company. Your problem may be compounded by your need, or requirement, to verify the presence of a pest before you spray a pesticide, and if your best efforts do not find any ticks or other mouse parasites in this apartment you might be spraying a toxic substance there for no reason. This may be illegal in your state, and this is why I often encourage technicians to make the call to their local pesticide regulatory office and get their opinion. It may be that a single treatment with a properly labeled insecticide would resolve this tenant's worries and make everyone happy, but you need to be sure that you are doing so legally. Ultimately you need to please 3 different people or agencies.
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I have a service with a large property management company, mostly commercial but with a few residential. I think I have done a good job with very good feedback from clients. I have serviced the residential apartment units for 2 years with no negative feedback. However, I currently am working on a mice issue for a "sensitive" client in one apartment. I have excluded the single mouse from her unit that was entering from a hole behind the fridge. I filled this with copper mesh, sealed with silicone and then put 1/4 hardware cloth over that. I feel I am done and now this client wants to spray for Lyme ticks inside her apartment! She thinks they will drop off the mice and bite her. Is there any chance this could happen? Is it not true that other than a dog tick other ticks like Lyme ticks cannot complete their life cycle inside? If there were a couple of mice in a wall is that a Lyme Disease danger?
ANSWER:
You have some challenges here, so let's discuss them first. You have a very important client in the Property Management Company and need to keep them satisfied that you are doing the best control you can, which seems to be the case so far. However, now they have a single tenant who is, perhaps, overly obsessed with the idea of Lyme Disease ticks being in her apartment, and if SHE is not satisfied that you have eliminated that threat then she is likely to make a loud and persistent complaint to the property management company. Your problem may be compounded by your need, or requirement, to verify the presence of a pest before you spray a pesticide, and if your best efforts do not find any ticks or other mouse parasites in this apartment you might be spraying a toxic substance there for no reason. This may be illegal in your state, and this is why I often encourage technicians to make the call to their local pesticide regulatory office and get their opinion. It may be that a single treatment with a properly labeled insecticide would resolve this tenant's worries and make everyone happy, but you need to be sure that you are doing so legally. Ultimately you need to please 3 different people or agencies.
Lyme Disease is certainly prevalent in your area of the Northeast, but Lyme Disease ticks (Ixodes) are much more associated with white footed mice, deer mice, and other Peromyscus than with the House Mouse. But, the House Mouse is "capable" of acquiring Ixodes ticks when active outdoors and therefore "capable" of bringing them indoors, and thus we could not in clear conscience tell this tenant that it is impossible for her to be exposed to these ticks. It is possible, just unlikely. I agree with you that the Brown Dog Tick is one of the few kinds of ticks that can complete its life cycle on humans, so without furry animal hosts available the infestation would not continue even if some of the ticks were now within this apartment. If the question then gets to "well, what about mice in the walls", again we could not make unrealistic guarantees. If there were mice there and if they had ticks on them then those ticks or their offspring could make their way out through wall outlets, etc.
It may be important in all of this to recognize that baby ticks (larvae) do not emerge from their eggs infected with the Lyme Disease bacteria. They must acquire it by feeding on some infected animal, so this further reduces any chance that this client could be exposed to ticks that are infected with the disease. Even if those few mice dropped a gravid female tick and she deposited her mass of eggs in the apartment, the emerging first instar ticks would not be infected.
It is not unusual nor improper to treat an area around a wild animal nest for probable parasites from that animal, such as indoor bird or rodent nests. We know very well that these nests may harbor high numbers of arthropod parasites that could move from there to bite people. So, with your local regulatory agency's approval, doing a one-time treatment with a product labeled for this indoor use might be appropriate. We don't always see the fleas in a home but can recognize that the presence of infested pets and complaints of bites tells us there is a high likelihood that fleas are present. I would suggest you balk at any demand to continue to treat this apartment on every visit, but a single treatment to eliminate any wandering parasites that could be dropped by the mice could be appropriate. But, DO consider maintaining a lot of insect glue traps in the apartment, and inspect them every visit. Hopefully after a few months of no ticks on the traps the tenant will be more comfortable that any threat is eliminated.
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