The Rat Roof

Fur and colour.

The rat roof.

Roof rats are also referred to as black rats or ship rats. Roof rats are a health hazard being one of the oldest transmitters of diseases. The roof rat droppings are spindle shaped and reach about 1 2 inch in size a little smaller than those of the brown rat. Roof rats are superb agile climbers and prefer to both travel and forage for food above ground.

Both roof rats and norway rats a stockier variety of rat can infest homes. Get rid of roof rats in four basic steps. In fact the most common name for the species rattus rattus is the roof 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.

The roof rat is the smaller of the two commensal rats as the norway rat is larger in size. 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. From rat bites and scratches to saliva and urine rats can cause many diseases.

Roof rats get ferocious and tend to bite or scratch when threatened or cornered. The roof rat gets its name from its tendency to find shelter in the upper parts of buildings. 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. Getting rid of the animals can be quite a challenge particularly if the roof and the attic space inside is difficult or awkward to get to but it is something that needs to be dealt with.

It likely originated in the indian subcontinent but is now found worldwide. Roof rats are known by a variety of other names including palm rats fruit rats ship rats and alexandrian rats. Rats on the roof is never a good sign and while they may not be as noisy or as easy to spot as raccoons or larger animals spotting a rat on the roof is definitely a sign to be concerned about. Roof rats are rodents with large eyes and ears a pointed nose and a scaly long tail.

How to get rid of rats on the roof as you can see i sometimes trap rats on the roof. They can run along tree branches vines dense shrubbery and utility lines. For effective pest control you need to determine what type of rat is scurrying around your attic. 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.