Roof Rat

Roof rats arrived in North America with the Jamestown colonists in 1607. It’s also known as the black rat or ship rat.
Identification
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Roof rats are usually dark colored
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Weigh less than 1 pound
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Large ears
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Tail is longer than the head and body
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Spindle shaped droppings
Environment
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90% of their time is spent above ground, hence their name
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Roof rats form nests in trees and high points, run on power lines or the tops of fences, or live in attics
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Nocturnal, which is why you may hear them scurrying in your attic in the middle of the night
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Tend to stick to familiar territory; they are not explorers, they find an area that suits their shelter and food needs and usually don’t venture more than a few hundred feet from there
Threats
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Roof rats rarely live for more than a year in the wild
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During that year, a single adult female can produce more than 40 baby rats
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Rarely die naturally but when they do it’s often in a safe place, like your attic, which will create an unpleasant odor
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Most will be killed by predators
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Commonly small because they breed in such high numbers, which makes so many of them young
Treatment
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When trapping roof rats, it is not uncommon to get a few large ones and a number of small ones, indicating a possible family of roof rats
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Traps may need to be prebaited in order to capture shy individuals
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