Rodents — Rats and Mice That Damage Property and Spread Disease

Rodents — primarily the common house mouse, the black rat, and the brown rat — are major pests in both residential and commercial properties across Delhi NCR. They gnaw through electrical wiring (a leading cause of unexplained house fires), food packaging, insulation, and structural material. Rodents contaminate far more food than they consume through their droppings, urine, and fur. They reproduce rapidly, with a single pair of mice capable of producing up to 60 offspring per year under ideal conditions. They carry diseases including leptospirosis, salmonellosis, and hantavirus. Rodents typically enter buildings through gaps as small as 6mm for mice and 20mm for rats — around pipes, in roof soffits, through air vents, and along drainage channels. Population control requires both killing existing rodents and preventing new entry.