Corbett Pest Identification
FAQ's  | Quality Control  |  Licenses & Certifications  |  Pesticide Information  |  Pest Identification

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RATS & MICE

• Can eat any kind of food people eat
   
• Contaminate 10X as much food as they eat with urine, droppings and hair.
   
• Carry at least 10 diseases including plague, typhus, jaundice, leptospirosis, rabies, ratbite fever, and bacterial food poisoning.
   
• Norway rat, Roof rat, and House mouse are the most common.
   
• Norway Rats
  • Can survive on 1oz per day of garbage along with 1oz of water.
  • Are burrowers and dig in rubbish and under buildings or concrete slabs.
  • Live about 1 year and reach sexual maturity in 3-5 months, have 8-12 young per little and up to 7 litters per year.
   
• Roof Rats
  • Thrive in attics, roof spaces, trees and shrubbery. Prefer to nest off the ground.
  • Prefer vegetables, fruits and grain.
  • Live about 1 year and reach sexual maturity in 3-5 months, have 6-8 young per litter and up to 6 litters per year.
   
• House Mice
  • Live outdoor in fields, in houses behind walls and in cabinets and furniture.
  • Prefer grain, but nibble on a wide variety of foods. Requiring only 1/10oz of food and 1/20oz of water daily.
  • Live about 1 year and reach sexual maturity in 6 weeks, have 5-6 young per litter and up to 8 litters per year.
   
• Rats will use any method to get food, water or harborage. Can run on pipes, ledges, wires, and walls.
   
• Rats are excellent swimmers, often live in sewers and enter homes through toilets.
   
• Are afraid of strange objects or strange food and may avoid both, like to use regular paths to get as close to food as possible.
   
• Norway and Roof rats are very aggressive, the Norways usually more so driving Roofs from their territory. Both species are seldom found in the same building.
   
• Rats and mice are most active at night, will be active during daytime hours if food is scarce, when there is an overpopulation of rats, or when poison has been used and the population is sick.
   
• Signs of activity
  • Droppings and Urine
  • Gnawed objects
  • Runways
  • Rubmarks
  • Tracks
  • Burrows
  • Live rats and dead rats
  • Sound
   
• Rodentproofing :
  • Rats can squeeze through cracks ½ inch wide, mice ¼ inch wide.
  • Rats can climb the inside of vertical pipes 1.5-4in. in diameter.
  • Rats can climb the outside of vertical pipes up to 3in. in diameter, and any size if 3in. from wall.
  • Rats can jump vertically 36in., horizontally 48in., and reach 15in. horizontally or vertically.
  • Rats can jump 8 feet from a tree to a house if branch is 15ft above roof.
   
• Sanitation
  – Clean up garbage and store it properly.
  – Store pet food and bird seed in rat proof containers.
  – Remove harborages
  – Dry up sources of water
   
• Predators
  – Because pets are well fed, they are too lazy to hunt. Rats eat pet food that is often left out.
  – Although cats and dogs may be able to keep an area rat free, they cannot remove an existing population.
   
• Trapping
  – Can be used to eliminate rats where poison baits would be dangerous, to avoid dead rat odors and to eliminate bait-shy rats.
  – Since mice travel only 10-30ft but rats travel 100-150 feet from harborages, more traps are needed to trap mice than rats.
   
• Bait
  – Whole nuts for rats and mice.
  – Raisins or grapes for roof rats.
  – Sardines packed in oil for Norway rats.
  – Peanuts or peanut butter (soak whole peanuts in water overnight).
  – Dry rolled oatmeal for mice.
  – Bacon squares.
  – Small wads of cotton.
  – Gumdrops for mice.
  – Baited traps should be set at right angles to rat runs.
   
• Rodenticide
  – Acute toxins
  – Calcium releasers
  – Anticoagulants