When we think of rats, we immediately think of filth and disease. And this is for a good reason, because rats are well known carriers of numerous dangerous diseases. In this article, we’re going to take a look at what makes the Norway rat such a nasty pest and why it’s important to remove it from the home as quickly as possible.
Dangers to the home
Rodents need to constantly chew in order to grind their teeth down, which grow indefinitely. Without this grinding down, the teeth would become so big and unwieldy that the rat would likely die. So it’s quite literally a matter of life and death for the rat. This means that it will chew through anything in its environment – sheets, furnishings, clothes, floors, pipes, drywall, and even electrical wires. At first, most of the damage is esthetic, but if they damage the insulation on the wiring in the home, this can lead to a fire and that is a lot of property damage.
Dangers to your health
Rats are well-known carriers of disease. Not only are they filthy and travel through sewage and garbage, where they pick up a lot of diseases, they also carry diseases on them and on the parasites that they are infested with. So you have a large number of diseases from the cowpox virus, to salmonellosis, rat-bite fever, trichinosis and jaundice that are just floating around your home whenever rats are around. These diseases can be spread through the feces and the urine of the rats, or they can spread through rats contaminating food and water sources.
Staying safe from Norway rats
Preventing a Norway rat infestation involves removing any incentives that rats have for entering your property. Of course, some of the incentives cannot be removed, such as warm temperatures during winter. But there are others which are within your control. If you can reduce the number of food sources, water sources, and entry points into the home, you will be able to make it harder for a rat to survive in the home.
If the infestation has already taken root, you will need to start going into control measures such as traps and poisons. However, for larger infestations, you will need a more targeted approach which can be provided by a pest control professional. Contact us today if you need help in dealing with a rat infestation.