Norway Rat

Controlling Norway-rat

Rats can become real pests. The Norway rat, more commonly called as the brown rat is a very common pest that infests any environment pretty quick. They reproduce in large numbers and once a place is infested, it is pretty tough to get rid of them.

Residences, warehouses, garages, cellars, sewers, ponds, barns, garbage dumps- nothing is an unlikely place to find a brown rat.

At Mega Pest Control, we strive to provide you with pest free home and surroundings. We are experts in dealing with the menace that the Norway rat creates.

How do you know if your place is infested by the Norway rat?

When you are in doubt if you have a Norway rat infestation, below are the pointers based on which you can confirm your suspicion:

• Rat tracks: These pests can be identified easily by the tracks they leave. Their hind legs leave tracks of almost 1 inch long. This is owing to their bigger size as compared to other kinds in rat or mouse population.

If it is your garage you are inspecting, you may be able to spot some grease marks along the walls beside your runway.

• Gnaw marks on surfaces: If you find that any wooden artifacts or fences have gnawed marks, or your food packaging is damaged you may want to inspect your surroundings thoroughly. These rats have a behavior of gnawing and they do not even leave electrical wiring alone.

It is important to look for damage to your electrical wiring as well because damage to insulation may cause electrical hazards for you.

• Urine stains: The stains of dried urine of these rats appear in fluorescence. You may see streaks of water marks or scattered drops under ultra violet lighting.
• Droppings: The droppings are capsule shaped with blunt edges and are usually a quarter or a half of an inch. These being big in size, are easily identifiable. They are generally black or a dark shade of green in color.
• Sightings: These beings are generally nocturnal, thereby not usually found in day time. In case you happen to spot them during the day as well, your surroundings may be infested in huge numbers.
• Sounds: These are not by any means considered silent in nature. When they gnaw at things or dig and scratch at surfaces, the sounds can be heard distinctively.

Harm caused by Norwegian rats:

These rats carry a lot of pathogens, thereby transmitting several diseases to humans. They are the cause of Rat bite fever, Q fever, Viral hemorrhagic fever, Weil’s disease, Trichinosis, Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, Toxoplasmosis, etc. to name a few.

Some of the above mentioned diseases and the food poisoning they cause could be lethal

How to get rid of these rats:

Common methods to prevent infestation of these rodents and to control them are:

• Trapping: Using mechanical devices in your surroundings and trapping the rodent. Once the rodent is caught in the trap, it dies and you have to dispose it of safely. Safe disposal is needed to ensure that you do not spread infections.
• Baiting: This is a method when you attract the rodents with food items consisting of rodenticides and poisons. They are attracted to the smell of the food item and once they consume it, they die. There might be conditions to meet such as keeping water supplies shut off so that the effect of poison does not wear off if they happen to drink any water.

However, for any individual, it is a tough job to inspect, put methods to kill rodents in place and dispose the dead creatures.

In case you find any of the signs indicating the presence of these rodents inside your house or in the surrounding areas, it is advisable to call our pest control services.

Our skilled people at Vancouver and Abbotsford would do a thorough inspection and eliminate these pests from your home in a safe manner.