Pest Control Pontypridd
Pest Control Pontypridd
Everything you need to Know about Brown Rats
The brown rat is one of the most common and serious rat species in the UK. This is largely because of its agility, intelligence, lifestyle, prolific breeding and omnivorous diet.
We carry out many Rat eradication works for pest control Pontypridd, dealing with long term solutions, Drains, proofing, Camera investigations.
They prefer ground burrowing and living thus, they thrive in sewer systems. Even then, they may also climb. These characteristics have made this species the most successful among mammals.
Brown rats have a gestation period of about three weeks and take twelve weeks to attain sexual maturity making them reproduce so fast.
Physical Features of Brown Rats
Wondering how to distinguish brown rats from the black rat? Well, it is easy to distinguish between the brown rat and the black rat from their physical appearance. Some of the physical features that set the brown rats apart include:
- They have a thick and coarse fur and is either brown, grey or black in colour.
- Their tail is covered in scaled skin as opposed to fur.
- Brown rats have small ears, a blunt nose and a slightly thicker body.
Health Hazards of Brown Rats
The danger with these rats is their ability to carry dangerous diseases that include the typhus, leptospirosis, Q fever, Weils disease, salmonella and rat bite fever. Thus, they will contaminate your water and food sources with their urine, droppings and saliva. As such, they must be controlled.
Even then, unlike other mammals, rats do not spread rabies. Besides, they have extreme resistance to the rabies virus.
Do Brown Rats Cause Damage to Property?
Although small, rats can cause extensive damage to property and even the economy. This may occur through structural damage to buildings or even cause fires especially when they chew cables. They may also cause damage to bridges as well as flood defences and security fences.
Since rats feed on rye and wheat, they also destroy tons of harvest every year owing to contamination.
How to Detect Brown Rats
If you don’t know how to detect the presence of brown rats in your premises then you don’t need to worry. Here are common tale tell signs of these rodents:
- Presence of droppings – Brown rats usually have droppings that take after the size and shape of black olives. However, you may not easily notice these droppings in your premises because these rats are so protective hence will hide the droppings because they do not want to be noticed.
- Chewed items – These rats have incisors that are constantly growing hence need to chew on hard things regularly. Thus, you will also do well to look out for chewed cables, pipes and woods.
- Noises – If you suspect the presence of brown rats in your home, be sure to listen keenly for any scratching noises because they tend to make noise when climbing walls.
- Smears – Since rats do not have a good eyesight, they tend to use the same route when moving hence they will leave a trail of dark marks.
- Footprints – Although rare, you just might see footprints of rats on dusty surface.
What to do if you have brown rats, Call Pest Control Pontypridd
Generally, while it is difficult to trap these rats, you can poison them. Thus, if you have encountered brown rats in your premises, do not hesitate to call up pest control experts to help you get rid of them. You will also do well to consider enforcing proper standards of waste disposal.
We also cover all of South Wales. Including Pest Control Cardiff.
