Saint-Ours, a small town in the Montérégie region established on the Richelieu River between Saint-Denis and Sorel-Tracy, has accredited home childcare services, distributed in private residences throughout its inhabited areas. It was in one of these accredited daycares, which welcomed up to six children a day, that the manager discovered worrying traces of mice in the food reserve and in the storage room for educational materials. The presence of rodents in an environment frequented by young children represents an absolute health emergency: risk of accidental contact with contaminating feces, risk of contamination of food prepared for children, and risk of injury from contact with improperly positioned devices. The daycare manager contacted our exterminator in Saint-Ours as soon as the traces were discovered, and our technicians scheduled a complete inspection for the same evening, after the children left.
Secure inspection outside of on-call hours
The inspection was carried out without any presence of children. Technicians systematically inspected the kitchen and pantry, the play areas on the ground floor and upstairs, the basement, the storage areas for educational materials, the laundry room and the entire outdoor perimeter. Fresh droppings found under the kitchen sink and behind the refrigerator, visible gnawing on bags of snacks in the pantry, and traces of urine detected with ultraviolet lamps on basement shelves have confirmed recent house mouse activity. The rodent infestation inspection identified the main entrance in a settlement crack at the interior garage door threshold, as well as a secondary entrance via an ill-fitting dryer duct fitting that left a two-centimetre gap between the duct and the wall. These two access points explained why the mice had settled so easily at the bottom of the residence, in direct proximity to the children’s living spaces. The manager was accurately informed of the risk areas and the immediate measures to be taken pending processing, including the quarantine of potentially contaminated food. A complete photographic survey of each affected area was carried out to compile the intervention file.
Completely safe treatment for young children
In this particularly sensitive context, our plan to exterminate mice in Saint-Ours has completely excluded the use of rodenticides inside the residence. Mechanical traps with fully enclosed and lockable housings were placed exclusively in areas physically inaccessible to children: the inside of the cabinets under the sink secured by a safety latch, the space behind and under the large appliances, the basement with latched door out of reach of children, and the technical closet. Outside the residence, secure bait stations that meet the highest safety standards have been anchored to the ground along the foundation, in areas entirely outside the playground. A protocol for daily verification of the indoor traps by the manager of the daycare, with written records in a dedicated register, has been put in place to ensure the complete traceability of the treatment. This register is an official document that is useful in the event of an inspection by the home childcare coordinating office.
Caulking, preventive hygiene and official documentation
Caulking of all entry points included completely replacing the interior garage door sill with a solid aluminum rodent repellent model equipped with a dense broom, installing a rigid adapter on the dryer duct to eliminate residual space, and sealing two additional small cracks discovered around the backyard side foundation. All work was carried out with non-toxic and wear-resistant materials to guarantee long-lasting protection. Concrete and detailed recommendations were sent to the daycare manager: hermetic sealing of all food containers in rigid plastic or metal boxes, complete daily cleaning of meal preparation and serving surfaces, monthly verification of the exterior perimeter and door seals. For another similar intervention in a collective residential setting, see our Souris No. 6 project. The intervention was documented in a comprehensive report including the technical data sheets of all the products used. Nova Extermination understands that environments frequented by children require absolute rigor and perfectly safe methods, without any compromise on the effectiveness of the treatment.