All About Rats
Article by Corilou Nester Estole
All About Rats – Other
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Are you hearing some little footsteps in your kitchen at night? Are you seeing scattered food all over your dining room early in the morning? Are there small holes in your ceiling? If you said yes to either one question or all, then you have an unfriendly boarder in your home. They are called rats.
Rats are some of the most troublesome and damaging rodent all over the world. They are mammals and can grow in different climatic conditions. Usually, they exist in buildings located near waterways, creeks and canals or other places with water supply readily available.
Rats are various medium in size and long-tailed rodents of the family Muroidea. Rats can be easily recognized from mice due to their size. Rats are large muroid rodents and mice are small. Their names are not taxonomically specific but it is just commonly used by human in identifying them. Generally, when someone sees a large muroid it will automatically be called rat.
Rats are considered as wise animal. They have an excellent sense of taste and a good memory. A rat can identify certain substances, including rat poisons, after just a tiny taste of it. The average lifespan of any given rat depends on which species is being discussed, but many only live about a year due to predation. Rats have strong teeth that allow them to chew through wood, glass, cinderblock, wire, aluminum and lead.
In domestic and commercial premises, there are two pest species of rats commonly found – the brown rat and the black rat.
The Brown Rat (Rattus norvegicus) is also known as common rat, sewer rat, Norway rat or wharf rat. This kind of rat is usually active at night and is a good swimmer. Brown Rats tend to be larger and more aggressive to animals and even human. They usually invade buildings and stay in the basement. They can also be found in the fields, farms and woodpiles. They are omnivore and eat variety of foods but they mostly prefer cereal grains, nuts and fruits. These rats are known for urinating on food, eating stored food and chewing materials especially wires.
The Black Rat (Rattus rattus) or Roof rat is nocturnal and omnivorous too. Unlike brown rats, they are poor swimmers but excellent climbers. If brown rats reside on the ground floor, black rats usually live high off the ground. You can easily find them on the roof of a building, attics and ceilings. They have poor vision and are color blind but they have extremely powerful senses of smell, hearing, touch and taste. They are generalist and are not specific in their food preferences. Their diet is high in water content. They became popular in the Middle Ages or 14th century due to the spread of the highly contagious bubonic plague.
These two common species of rats are opportunistic survivors and they love living with human. Rats’ being with us is not good idea at all since they carry many different zoonotic diseases. Not to mention that they will feed on our food and contaminate it. They are also good carriers of bacteria and will transmit disease to human. Some of the most commonly spread disease through rats are leptospirosis, rabies, murine typhus, salmonella, spirochental jaundice and rat bite fever. Aside from diseases, rats are creating problem not only in fields, farms, warehouses, factories etc but also in residential areas. Rats are known for gnawing clothes and even electric wires which can possibly cause fire.
You have to take rats seriously because they can be a DISASTER.
About the Author
The author was an Associate Editor-in-Chief of her Highschool English school newspaper (The Reservoir) when she was fifteen. Last 2004 – 2006, she was the advertising manager of Memorabilia, the official yearbook publication of Polytechnic University of the Philippines. She worked for the Philippines’ number 1 TV network (ABS-CBN) as brainstormer and writer for the Entertainment Department (2005 – 2006). She was part of the Creative Development Group and was assigned to do research then conceptualize innovative and unique programs/ shows for the network. She was a sales agent for XM Satellite Radio (2006) and was promoted after 8 months as a Quality Analyst (2006 – 2008). Currently, she’s a Team Lead or Coach of 18-20 agents supporting Cricket Wireless. Aside from working in a BPO Industry, she is also a freelance writer and researcher. She also started working as mobile application developer for Extreme Products LLC, Totallytrim and Sun Products LLC.
Use and distribution of this article is subject to our Publisher Guidelines
whereby the original author’s information and copyright must be included.
Corilou Nester Estole
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The author was an Associate Editor-in-Chief of her Highschool English school newspaper (The Reservoir) when she was fifteen. Last 2004 – 2006, she was the advertising manager of Memorabilia, the official yearbook publication of Polytechnic University of the Philippines. She worked for the Philippines’ number 1 TV network (ABS-CBN) as brainstormer and writer for the Entertainment Department (2005 – 2006). She was part of the Creative Development Group and was assigned to do research then conceptualize innovative and unique programs/ shows for the network. She was a sales agent for XM Satellite Radio (2006) and was promoted after 8 months as a Quality Analyst (2006 – 2008). Currently, she’s a Team Lead or Coach of 18-20 agents supporting Cricket Wireless. Aside from working in a BPO Industry, she is also a freelance writer and researcher. She also started working as mobile application developer for Extreme Products LLC, Totallytrim and Sun Products LLC.
Use and distribution of this article is subject to our Publisher Guidelines
whereby the original author’s information and copyright must be included.
