Norway Rats and Their Control

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The Norway Rat (Rattus norvegicus) is also known as the brown rat, sewer rat, wharf rat, or water rat. It's the most common rat encountered by exterminators in the Greater St. Louis area. Norway rats are stocky, brownish or grayish animals who can grow to lengths of a foot and a half from their noses to the tips of their tails.

In nature, Norway rats are burrowing rodents who stay close to the ground, although they have excellent balance and can climb quite well when necessary. They also possess extraordinary senses of hearing, taste, touch, and smell. Norway rats dig burrows in the ground in fields, under sheds or buildings, at the base of trees, and under rocks. But because they've adapted to living off human garbage, they're also at home in abandoned buildings, basements, garbage dumps, sewers, utility chaseways, and other areas close to human activity.

Contrary to popular belief, Norway rats are very good swimmers. They have been known to travel great distances in storm drains and sewer pipes, and horror stories abound about rats attempting to crawl into toilets through the soil pipe.

Norway Rats and Public Health

Rats are among the most notorious pests of public health importance. They are involved in the transmission of many serious diseases, the most famous of which is plague. In the 14th Century A.D., fleas carried by rats and infected with Yersinia pestis (the bacterium that causes plague), killed about one-third of Europe's population. Far from being extinct, plague outbreaks still occur in the United States and overseas.

Rats also contaminate millions of pounds of stored food every year with their shed hair, droppings, and urine, and cause millions of dollars each year in fire damage, inconvenience, and lost productivity from their gnawing on electrical, data, and communications wiring.

Rats also are capable of causing serious injuries, especially to young children who attempt to play with them. They have razor-sharp teeth and strong jaws adapted to gnawing, and they can inflict serious injuries with a high probability of infections.

Control of Norway Rats

The effective control of Norway Rats begins with environmental modification. In terms of rat control, this means taking actions to make an area less attractive to rats and less able to sustain a rat population, such as:

• Cutting of supplies of food and water available by improving sanitation and waste management practices.
• Reducing harborage by implementing good landscaping techniques and removing refuse and debris.
• Utilizing exclusion to keep rats out of buildings. (The National Park Service has an excellent manual for rodent exclusion, which can be downloaded here. (Adobe Acrobat Reader required.)

 

Choosing the Right Exterminator

Once all practical environmental measures have been taken to make an area less attractive to rats, Buckingham Pest Control utilizes a wide variety of control measures to control the remaining rat population. Depending on the location, season, and severity of the infestation, these methods may include trapping and/or the use of EPA-registered rodenticides to quickly and efficiently control the remaining population.

If you have a problem with rats or any other pest and are in the Greater St. Louis, Missouri area, please contact Buckingham Pest Control for a prompt, individual evaluation and custom treatment plan.