Roof rats have soft and smooth fur that is typically brown with intermixed spots of black.
Rats mice in roof.
Roof rats are very similar in appearance to house mice and are therefore mistaken as house mice.
These conditions also accommodate their breeding.
How to identify a rodent a mouse in the house a rat in the roof.
Rats that climb trees can scale the side of a home too.
Step 1 in order to assess the severity of the rat problem and to get a better idea of where to bait and trap you will first need to perform a thorough inspection of the premises.
The most common rat species in the u s.
Eliminating the tree will not eliminate the rat s desire to climb.
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.
Are the norway rat and the roof rat.
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.
The common lifespan of these rodents is about one year.
The norway rat ratus norvegicus the roof rat rattus rattus the house mouse mus musculus rats and mice require food and shelter like most animals particularly in late autumn and winter when they enter houses.
Adult roof rats measure 6 8 16 20 cm when combining their head and body length.
Although i wrote this site with rats in mind such as the roof rat and norway rat the same principles apply to other rodents such as the house mouse.
Mice and rats can make excellent pets.
Their undersides are often white gray or black.
Roof rats are superb agile climbers and prefer to both travel and forage for food above ground.
They can run along tree branches vines dense shrubbery and utility lines.
Roof rats become sexually mature between two and five months producing four to six litters per year that consist of six to eight young each.
When domesticated they are clean intelligent and docile.
However just as a weed is a plant in the wrong place a pest is a pet you didn t ask for.
How to identify a rodent.
One of the distinctive features of the roof rats is their greyish or whitish underside that is the reason they are often referred to as grey bellied or white bellied rats.
Compared to mice rats are much larger have coarser fur and have proportionately larger heads and feet.
The same applies to mice on the roof.
While in the roof rodents can cause damage by chewing electrical wiring pipes timber and building materials.
Like mice rats are nocturnal have very poor eyesight but have very strong senses of smell taste and hearing.
About rats mice.
In dense populations these rodents will establish a social hierarchy wherein dominant males mate more than subordinate males.
There are 3 rodent pests of houses in australia.
Inside the roof and under the floor provides a quiet warm and sheltered position ideal for rodents to hide sleep and nest.
Get rid of roof rats in four basic steps.
