Rats can be very expensive guests!
The problems associated with rats are not just limited to public health. They also have a knack for causing structural damage.
Rats have to gnaw in order to keep their teeth in shape, and they’re not shy about what they gnaw on.
Common ‘gnaw-spots’ include:
lead flashing on your roof, the cause of many leaking roofs.
Sheathing around electrical cables, which present a significant fire risk
Pipes, which is likely to result in leaks, both water and gas.
Roof timbers, which can result in structural damage.
Brick, wood, glass, metal, bone - rats’ teeth will take on pretty much any challenge, which is why they can cause untold damage to both homes, businesses and the occasional finger.
Not to mention the things you may have forgotten about that could be worth thousands of pounds in the loft.
Disease
Pathogens and disease
Rats communicate and mark their territory by urinating everywhere they go, representing a significant public health risk.
They can carry many nasty diseases, which can spread to humans, normally through rats’ urine or body coming into contact with food preparation areas.
These include:
Leptospirosis (often referred to as Weil's disease)
Salmonella
Listeria
Toxoplasma gondii
Hantavirus.
The Gold Medal
When it comes to breeding rats get a gold medal. If environmental conditions are preferable, a female rat can reproduce every six weeks with litters consisting of 6-8 offspring.
Each part of the cycle takes 21 days on average.
When a female rat is impregnated, the gestation period lasts for around 21 days.
Rats are mammals and so they give birth to live young called pups. It then takes 21 days to wean those pups.
During this time the female rat will also go through what is known as postpartum estrus, which occurs 10 to 24 hours following the birth.
This means that a rat can become pregnant very quickly after giving birth, which is one of the reasons that a rat infestation can grow quickly out of control.
Newborns can become sexually mature after only 5 weeks, at which point they can spawn their own broods. This means that a pair of brown rats could potentially produce as many as 200 babies and 2,000 descendants in just one year, maybe more.
Due to predation and other challenges, wild rats live for around a year on average.
In contrast, pet rats have a longer lifespan.
There is not one magic bullet for all rat problems.
I am afraid that quite often a couple of issues have to be addressed in order to sort the problem.
If you have a rat problem anywhere in your home.
This is a must read.
Drain Surveys
Call Barming Pest
Control to deal with the infestation before the population size grows