Roof rats are superb agile climbers and prefer to both travel and forage for food above ground.
The rat roof.
Roof rats are a health hazard being one of the oldest transmitters of diseases.
But don t be fooled into thinking that these are the only ways they can use to access a house they re also known to travel on the ground in areas where there s dense cover.
Get rid of roof rats in four basic steps.
The roof rat rattus rattus linnaeus is smaller in size than the norway rat.
The common lifespan of these rodents is about one year.
Roof rats are known by a variety of other names including palm rats fruit rats ship rats and alexandrian rats.
The roof rat gets its name from its tendency to find shelter in the upper parts of buildings.
The black rat rattus rattus also known as ship rat roof rat or house rat is a common long tailed rodent of the stereotypical rat genus rattus in the subfamily murinae.
The roof rat droppings are spindle shaped and reach about 1 2 inch in size a little smaller than those of the brown rat.
It is a generalist omnivore and a serious pest to farmers because it.
Another difference is that the roof rat is more slender with a longer tail than the norway rat.
The black rat is black to light brown in colour with a lighter underside.
Their thin body has smooth and soft fur that is usually black or dark brown with intermixed spots of black.
Step 1 in order to assess the severity of the rat problem and to get a better idea of where to bait and trap you will first need to perform a thorough inspection of the premises.
They are named this because they spend 90 of their lives up off the ground in trees on power lines and more often than not because rats live in urban environments with people they are on the roof.
Both roof rats and norway rats a stockier variety of rat can infest homes.
Fur and colour.
Roof rats are rodents with large eyes and ears a pointed nose and a scaly long tail.
Roof rats become sexually mature between two and five months producing four to six litters per year that consist of six to eight young each.
They can run along tree branches vines dense shrubbery and utility lines.
These bites or scratches can cause what is known as rat bite fever or even tetanus.
Roof rats are also referred to as black rats or ship rats.
What you ll want to look for are any signs that the rats are present including droppings tracks gnaw marks burrows runways and rodent sounds.
Roof rats get ferocious and tend to bite or scratch when threatened or cornered.
It likely originated in the indian subcontinent but is now found worldwide.
The roof rat also called gray bellied rat white bellied rat alexandrine rat black rat and ship rat.
How to get rid of rats on the roof as you can see i sometimes trap rats on the roof.
In dense populations these rodents will establish a social hierarchy wherein dominant males mate more than subordinate males.
In fact the most common name for the species rattus rattus is the roof rat.
