RAT CONTROL & TREATMENT
FROM THE SEWER TO THE SUBURBS
Rats can be found everywhere and everywhere they are, health risks are present. From diseases to food contamination, contact with a wild rat is dangerous at best so if you find them near or in your home, call us immediately so we can assess and control the situation. To know if you might have a rat problem in your home look for:
- Nests: Rats often build nests under appliances and refrigerators for warmth.
- Rub Marks: Rats travel established routes so look for dark smudges and wear along baseboards.
- Rat Waste: Rats can produce a lot of waste, close to 40, dark, brown, rice-shaped pieces per night.
- Noise: Listen for scratching noises in the walls and rafters. Rats are excellent climbers so it's not unusual to find them in attics and ceilings. They also sometimes make a grinding noise with their teeth.
- Burrows: Rats are also excellent diggers, in fact their excavating skills can destabilize walls. Look for in garages, under decks, compost heaps and sheds.
They also climb into windowsills to get inside structures that provide warmth and shelter. Once they've entered an area where your food source is stored, they will reside in that place and cause further damage to your house. Mice eat almost anything - seeds, grains, nuts, and cereals. If left untreated, rats tend to chew on wires, leading to electrical fires.
Brown Rat
Brown Rat – Rattus norvegicus
A widespread pest, highly adaptable, a great opportunist and will live anywhere, wherever food and shelter are available. If you live in a town, you are probably never more than 15 metres from a rat. Twenty percent of the world’s food supply is either destroyed or eaten by rats.
Brown rats arrived in the UK 1730 from the Baltic, having originated in China and soon displaced the Black Rat by eating their young. They multiply at an alarming rate and live in large colonies. If left unchecked these colonies could number hundreds, despite a very high mortality rate.
Brown rats are mainly nocturnal and are good swimmers. They will run away from danger, but may attack in groups if cornered. Packs of rats have been known to attack rabbits, large birds or even fish. Rats identify each other by smell and will also fight off rival packs or their members. Their main predators are cats, owls and weasels and of course man.
Origin:Introduced.
Size:Usually 21 cm plus 18 cm tail, but vary between 32 and 58 cm including tail.
Description:Fine, soft fur and scaly, fleshy tail. Has a repulsive smell.Habitat:Inhabits open countryside and towns, barns, warehouses, canal banks and sewers, anywhere there is a plentiful food source, typically alongside man.
Young:Litters of 1 – 20 every 6 weeks, all the year. Females breed at 3 months. Gestation is 21 days.
Nest:In chambers within their burrows lined with dry grass or other available materials.
Diet:Omnivorous. Can survive on almost any food, but prefers a cereal diet with some animal matter. Food is not stored but is taken to a safe place to be eaten.
Population:Estimated to be about 10 million.
Black Rat
The black rat, Rattus rattus, is one of the most serious household rodent pests.
It is also known as roof rat. It has a black or dark brown body with a pale, sometimes white underside. The black rats are omnivorous with a preference for fruit and vegetables.
The black rat can be a threat to human health. This species has been identified as a potential carrier of diseases that can affect humans.
Biology
- The black rat’s body is about 8cm in length. The upper body colouring is brown, black or charcoal grey, with a cream or white underbelly. The tail is scaly and long relative to its body size. A mature female rat can give birth to about 20 young in a year (4-6 at a time). Young are born in nests made from paper, rubbish, plastics, grass or other material. They become completely independent and able to reproduce after three months.
- Black rats are very good swimmers and climbers, meaning they can access most areas to feed, shelter and breed. Usually they move about 50m from their nest site. They will climb trees to steal eggs out of birds’ nests or to eat fruit. They are known to cause trouble by gnawing at pipes and electrical cords. Rats have very poor vision, relying on their keen sense of smell, acute hearing and their whiskers and sense of touch. They spend time around water bodies and beaches and are the most commonly seen rodent in public parks and beaches.
- Nature of Damage
Black rats gnaw, eat stored food, and transmit disease by droppings and urine, bites, and the fleas and mites in their fur. Black rats eat almost anything, but they prefer fruit, vegetables and cereal products. They often get their water from their food. They eat a lot at one time, and will return to their food source often. Black rats are omnivorous.
The black rat can be a threat to human health. This species has been identified as a potential carrier of diseases that can affect humans, such as Hantaan virus (Haemorrhagic fever), Murine typhus (Rickettsia typhus), Leptospirosis, Rat bite fever (Spirillium minor) and the Plague (Yersinia pestis).