Rats

Rattus norvegicus 1

 

  • Wild Norway Rat Behavior
  • Oh Rats! - Speaker: Richard Schmidt of Sensitive Solutions To Pest Control Defending your turf. This informational meeting is being sponsored by the Los Altos Hills Open Space Committee to provide residents with ways to humanely deal with our common pest "rattus." You will learn how to control rats without resorting to poisons, which besides endangering companion animals and children, can destroy rat predators and thereby exacerbate the problem.

  • Oh Rats! Speaker Bob Kaufman, Field Operations Supervisor for Santa Clara County Vector Control.

  • Oh Rats! Speaker David Johnston, Ecologist with H.T. Harvey & Associates

  • Rats Will Help Their Pals Get Free Research: Rats are wired to show compassion for each other and will help out their fellow rat rather than get a treat

  • MTA Sets New Tactic In Rat War: Rodent Birth-Control Effort Planned; Key Is Pleasing the Targets' Palates, Ted Mann, Wall Street Journal (March 1, 2013)
    [...]
    "Working with SenesTech Inc., the [New York] Metropolitan Transportation Authority is launching the first urban trial of a pest-control bait that induces permanent infertility in rats. The product has succeeded in rural environments, lowering rodent populations without harming other animals, crops or humans."
    [...]
    "Dead rats don't necessarily mean fewer rats in the long run, said Thomas Lamb, chief of innovation and technology for New York City Transit. By lowering the competition for food, successful poisons tend to make the survivors more healthy and fertile, leading to a rapid rebound in the pest population."

    "Rats eventually outsmart even the best poisons. 'It doesn't take them long to figure out, 'Hey, Uncle Charlie croaked after eating that,'" Mr. Lamb said."

    "'We basically bait, trap and kill,' he said of the status quo. 'If we just continue to do that, every year we'll have the same expense and the same result.'"

    "Dr. Mayer's invention, by contrast, induces an early-onset menopause, eliminating future generations of pests.

    "'It's a very natural thing,' she said. 'We're just accelerating it in these animals.'"

    "The product metabolizes into inactive compounds within hours of being ingested, she said, a feature crucial to its development for use in rice fields in Asia, where farmers needed something that wouldn't sicken other animals and children. The chemical won't leach into water or climb back up the food chain to affect other species."

    Common Rodent Entry and Harborage Locations

  • Additional information