Rats are an intelligent animal and have learned to not only live with humans but also to thrive in populated human areas. Unlike many creatures that suffer from habitat destruction and cannot live in built up areas, rats are different in that they relish being near to humans – not for company, but for the things that humans produce and provide for them.
Being unfussy eaters and prolific breeders, rats will find all sorts of tasty treats to snack on near a human home and they also will often like to live near to places where there is a supply of water, so drains also provide an attractive dwelling for rats looking for somewhere to live.
Unfortunately, having rats around the house can cause all sorts of problems, so if you think that you have rats in your home or in your garden, you need to take action as they can multiply quickly – a female rat can actually give birth to as many as six litters of young in a year, and each litter can be up to 20 babies, so you can see how a place can quickly become overrun with them.
In addition to this, young rats do not take young to mature, so by the age of just nine weeks, they are able to produce babies themselves!
Rats can cause significant damage to a house and the area around it – their strong sharp teeth can go through a range of materials so they can cause structural problems to the home when they are building their nests in walls or in the roof, as well as causing damage to drains if they have decided that they will live there!
If you have had rat problems in the past, it is worth getting your home checked out to see if there is any damage, as well as getting a professional like this drain lining company https://www.drainpower.co.uk/drainage-services/drain-lining/ to come and check that your drains are not damaged.
Another problem with a rat infestation is the spread of disease – famously, rats were blamed for spreading the black death in the Middle Ages, a time when the rat population grew a lot as many cats were culled due to being linked to witchcraft.
Some of the nasty illnesses that modern day rats can spread include Hantavirus, Leptospirosis and Salmonella.