Rodents

Enemy Profile

A plethora of problems might be brought on by rodents! Through chewing, nest-building, and excrement, they can seriously harm the structural integrity of homes, apartments, offices, and pretty much any other kind of construction. Let’s learn more about rats in order to better understand a common foe

Sight

• Rodents are nearly blind and use their sense of touch for guidance.
• Rodents use their limited eyesight to seek darker areas.

Taste

• Rodents can taste up to 250 parts per billion
• Food preference: Newborns taste their mother’s diet through her milk and prefer the foods she ate when they grew up.
• Taste Aversions: Rodents react negatively to foods that made them feel ill-and it only needs to happen once for them to remember.
• Dietary needs: If deprived of a certain nutrient, rodents learn which foods fill that need and prefer those until that need is met.

Smell

• Approximately 1% of rat’s genes are involved in their sense of smell.
• They produce & release pheromones to communicate information with other rodents.
• Rodents use their sense of smell to find food.

Touch

• Rodent’s long whiskers, or vibrissae, are located all over the body but are most prominent on the face. These hairs are used for guidance as they move along walls and other objects. Because of this, rodents rarely travel in open spaces, so place bait and/or traps accordingly.
• Rodents have sensory pads on their feet so metal bait stations should be avoided as they could become too hot or cold.

Sound

• Sonic and ultrasonic range:
  • Rodents can hear sounds that we cannot: they can hear ultrasonic frequencies well above the range of human perception.
  • Rats produce ultrasound too and communicate with each other in squeaks, clicks, and whines that we cannot hear.
• Rodents are not great at pinpointing the location based on sound.

Kinesthetic Sense: Detects bodily position, weight or movement of the muscles, tendons, and joints

• Rodents exhibit memorized muscle movement in which they effectively memorize their environment.
• They create a memory of the environment and how to move through it without looking.
• Develops when the rodent gets very comfortable and used to its environment.

Rodents are nocturnal

• Mode of self-defence for rodents as most of their enemies are inactive during night hours.
• Rodents typically feed at night; daytime activity is a sign of a large infestation.

Feeding habits

• Commensal rodents are omnivorous and opportunistic foragers; they eat a variety of food items (grain, meats, fish, fruits, et.) and take advantage of the food items they encounter.
• Rats hoard enough food to last them weeks.
• Rodents will cache bait in an area where they are comfortable feeding. Pregnant females particularly will build up large food supplies in their nests.

Travel behaviour

• Corners are used for grooming, eating & nesting.
• Runways are used for following lines & pheromone trails

Hierarchy

• Rodents establish an order with more dominant rodents getting to feed first and getting the prime nesting sites. If ample food and harbourage are available, less dominant rodents can also survive but are more likely to be seen feeding during the day.

Capabilities of rats

• From a standstill, rats can vertically jump nearly 60 cm. When running, they can jump horizontally 100 cm on average.
• Rats can fall 5 stories without causing themselves any harm.
• Rats are excellent swimmers – Norway rats can swim in a 48 km/h current without drowning.
• Rats can easily climb in small spaces between two surfaces, such as between a drainage pipe and the outside of a building.
• Rats can chew through almost anything – their teeth are extremely hard and can bite six times per second.

Do not let this foe get the better of you! To learn about our broad variety of rodent control products and to choose which one best meets your needs, please contact us at info@pesafrica.net, or visit our website at https://pesafrica.net.