These bites or scratches can cause what is known as rat bite fever or even tetanus.
The rat roof.
For effective pest control you need to determine what type of rat is scurrying around your attic.
It is a generalist omnivore and a serious pest to farmers because it.
The black rat is black to light brown in colour with a lighter underside.
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.
Roof rats are rodents with large eyes and ears a pointed nose and a scaly long tail.
Both roof rats and norway rats a stockier variety of rat can infest homes.
They can run along tree branches vines dense shrubbery and utility lines.
The roof rat is the smaller of the two commensal rats as the norway rat is larger in size.
It likely originated in the indian subcontinent but is now found worldwide.
Fur and colour.
In dense populations these rodents will establish a social hierarchy wherein dominant males mate more than subordinate males.
The common lifespan of these rodents is about one year.
Roof rats are superb agile climbers and prefer to both travel and forage for food above ground.
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 roof rat droppings are spindle shaped and reach about 1 2 inch in size a little smaller than those of the brown rat.
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.
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.
In fact the most common name for the species rattus rattus is the roof rat.
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.
Roof rats are a health hazard being one of the oldest transmitters of diseases.
How to get rid of rats on the roof as you can see i sometimes trap rats on the roof.
From rat bites and scratches to saliva and urine rats can cause many diseases.
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.
Another difference is that the roof rat is more slender with a longer tail than the norway rat.
The roof rat rattus rattus linnaeus is smaller in size than the norway rat.
Get rid of roof rats in four basic steps.
Their thin body has smooth and soft fur that is usually black or dark brown with intermixed spots of black.
