The Rat Roof

Fur and colour.

The rat 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. Both roof rats and norway rats a stockier variety of rat can infest homes. Roof rats are a health hazard being one of the oldest transmitters of diseases. 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.

Roof rats are known by a variety of other names including palm rats fruit rats ship rats and alexandrian rats. It likely originated in the indian subcontinent but is now found worldwide. How to get rid of rats on the roof as you can see i sometimes trap rats on the roof. Get rid of roof rats in four basic steps.

The roof rat is the smaller of the two commensal rats as the norway rat is larger in size. 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. They can run along tree branches vines dense shrubbery and utility lines. 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.

These bites or scratches can cause what is known as rat bite fever or even tetanus. Roof rats are also referred to as black rats or ship rats. Roof rats get ferocious and tend to bite or scratch when threatened or cornered. Roof rats are rodents with large eyes and ears a pointed nose and a scaly long tail.

From rat bites and scratches to saliva and urine rats can cause many diseases. Their thin body has smooth and soft fur that is usually black or dark brown with intermixed spots of black. Roof rats are superb agile climbers and prefer to both travel and forage for food above ground. But don t be fooled into thinking that these are the only ways they can use to access a house they re also known to travel on the ground in areas where there s dense cover.

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 droppings are spindle shaped and reach about 1 2 inch in size a little smaller than those of the brown rat. The black rat is black to light brown in colour with a lighter underside. In fact the most common name for the species rattus rattus is the roof rat.

For effective pest control you need to determine what type of rat is scurrying around your attic.