Some Rat Species

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Posted by David Pollard | Posted in mosquito | Posted on 27-01-2010

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Rats are the most dominant species of rodents on earth, belonging to the Rattus genus of the family Muridae. There are several species of rats in the world. Most rodents eat plants, but some feed on animals as well. Generally speaking, there are two basic rat types. They are black or roof rats & Norway or brown rats. Both are thought to have originated in Asia and are now widely spread throughout the globe.

Ship Rats

Roof rats (known as Rattus Rattus) are also called black rats and ship rats. They are usually black, slender, 16-21 cm long & weigh about 80-300 gram. Their tail is longer than the head & body and their nose and muzzle are pointed. As the name suggest, roof rats are climbers. Their paws enable them to climb & create nestles in upper parts of dwellings, attics, rafters and crossbeams of buildings.

Norway Rat

The brown rat, which is also known as the Norway rat, house rat, gray rat, barn rat, & wharf rat, is one of the best-known and is the larger of the 2. Rattus norvegicus is their scientific name. They are mostly grayish-brown, with a lighter colored stomach. A fully-grown brown rat is 18 to 26 cm long and weighs between 400 and 600 grams. They have a tail shorter than its body and their nose & muzzle are blunt. They nest in deep burrows & prefer moist conditions.

At around 3 - 4 months of age, these rats start to breed. They breed up to 13 times each year & produce up to 22 in a litter. Black rats & brown rats eat about the same things. Their diet mainly includes fruits, cereals, meats, seeds, nuts, grains, veggies & invertebrates. They eat about one-third of their weight in food every 24 hours.

They damage structures, contaminate food & carry deadly diseases. Some of the diseases potentially fatal to man that spread through rats are plague, salmonella food poisoning, toxoplasmosis and Weil's disease.

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