Water rats in a summer cottage: how to detect the enemy and win the war against him

The water rat - as people often call this furry animal - actually has a very distant relationship with rats. Biologically, it is closest to hamsters, although it has more impressive dimensions, as well as a long, bare tail (for which it is nicknamed “rat”).

The real name of this animal is water vole. Due to its habitat in coastal areas and its ability to swim and dive well, inexperienced summer residents often confuse the vole with a muskrat or nutria. Indeed, at a quick glance, there is a slight similarity between these rodents, but the vole is a completely different animal. It is much smaller than its “distant relatives” (up to 20 cm long, up to 300 g in weight), distinguished by short ears that almost do not protrude from the fur and a long, round cross-section (not flattened) tail. The length of the tail in different individuals can be up to 2/3 of the length of the body; it is not naked, but covered with sparse hair.

The water vole's fur itself is thick, gray or reddish-brown, the belly is usually lighter than the back. At one time in Russia, the vole was officially considered a commercial fur-bearing animal, whose skins were used to make clothing and accessories.

Description of the species

The water rat is not a classic rat. The water vole is known to the general public under this name. In appearance, the rodent rather resembles a small muskrat or a growing nutria.

The body of the animal reaches 20 cm in length. The weight of the body fluctuates around 300 g. The entire body is covered with fluffy fur. The color can combine different shades of brown, gray and black. The modest ears are practically invisible from under the hair. But the tail is impressively long.

For a long time in Russia, water rat fur was used to make clothing and accessories. The animal was officially a commercial animal.

The tail appendix makes up a bold 2/3 of the carcass size. Round in cross-section, it looks dense, thick and strong. Short hairs are scattered throughout the area. It was for this part of the body that the vole began to be confused with a rat and was nicknamed accordingly.

Lifestyle

The species is distributed throughout the country, except for deserts, arctic zones and high mountain ranges.
The water rat chooses coastal areas to live. In spring and summer, it can most often be found near ponds, swamps, lakes, rivers, and large streams. The animal can also be found in nearby meadows and fields.

This rodent prefers colonial life. The size of the "flock" can be completely different. At a minimum, this is a mother and cubs. There can be from 2 to 4 litters per season. Each includes 5-12 individuals.

The water vole is amazingly active. It is an excellent swimmer, able to dive deep, and copes equally well with climbing logs or leaning trees. Activities are equally successful during the day and at night at any time of the year.

Nests of one colony can be located at distances of several meters from each other. They are connected to each other by branched labyrinths underground. If the soil seems too wet to the rat or the time of flood has come, it will move into a hollow tree or make a house out of reeds on dry land.

The “huts” of such a vole can be distinguished from others by their spherical shape. During periods of decreased humidity, migration will occur in the opposite direction, closer to the water.

The main food is the green and underground parts of plants. Mainly vegetative roots, stems, flowers, bark, buds and succulent leaves are selected.

Geographical distribution

The water vole, like other voles, is widespread in a wide range covering almost all of Europe (with the exception of some areas of the Iberian Peninsula and France) up to Siberia and in the vicinity of the Pacific coast - in the south the species reaches Israel, Iran, Lake Baikal and south-west western China.

In Italy, this rodent is found throughout the entire peninsula, with the exception of the highlands, although, despite some reports, its presence in Sicily is not certain.

Why does he appear at the dacha?

In addition to periodic floods, other conditions can drive a water rat from its permanent habitat:

• excessively increased number of colonies;
• settlement of competitors;

• depletion of food supply;
• the onset of cold autumn.

Relocation from relatives occurs, as a rule, once every 6-7 years. The number of individuals in one territory becomes so large that it is already difficult to obtain enough food and disperse. The same thing happens if rats, mice, ferrets and other rodents suddenly move into the habitat. In such conditions, the water vole looks for new permanent homes to live.

During periods of cold weather, migration is temporary with rare exceptions. The animal digs holes away from cold water, buries old supplies there and replenishes them with local food. Summer cottages are ideally suited for these purposes.

Expert opinion

Mityuk Stefania Bogdanovna

Vegetable gardens within a radius of 5 km from water bodies are in a special risk zone. This is how far an animal is willing to go in search of food.

Pets in the fight against rodents

If you have a rat-catcher cat in the house, the problem with rodents can be solved very quickly. One or two cats that like to hunt will catch part of the rat population within a short period of time, and the rest will simply prefer to leave the area.

True, not all cats are able to take a rat. More often than not, dogs cope with this more successfully, especially those with well-developed hunting instincts. But, of course, you shouldn’t intentionally have an animal in your house just because rats have appeared on your summer cottage. It is better to borrow such a pet from your neighbors for a while.

Advice. If the cat is not taken out to the country, or does not leave the house when traveling outside the city, then the contents of the pet’s tray can be used to repel rats. Wood litter soaked in cat urine works especially well. It can be buried shallowly in holes around the site. The rat, digging holes in the ground, will stumble upon it. She will consider that a predator has appeared on the territory and will try to get away from there.

Damage caused

In vegetable gardens, the water rat creates real terror. In just one winter, a family can turn a cultivated area into a source of chaos. Consequences of this proximity include:

• 
  large crop losses

  . Each individual eats more than 10 kg of food per season. Not only plants in the garden are used, but also stocks of root crops and grain from the cellars;
• garden damage . Flower bulbs, apple bark, and trunks of berry bushes are destroyed. Trees begin to get sick easily from wounds;
• destruction of turf . Along with the roots, the top layer of soil, which is very important for plant protection, is damaged;
• damage to the aesthetic appearance . Holes and piles of discarded earth appear on the territory. Visually, the presence of a rat can be confused with moles;
• increased weed growth . Volatile spores of thistle, gillweed and other “bad” grasses instantly settle on damaged turf. It becomes very difficult to get them out. Without proper treatment, the damaged area will remain so the next year;
• disappearance of beneficial insects and amphibians . In especially hungry times, the rodent does not hesitate to eat small bugs, midges, and frogs.

In addition, the water rat can cause serious harm directly to people. Dangerous infectious diseases (hemorrhagic fever, tularemia, leptospirosis) are transmitted to humans through damaged food and bites. Therefore, it is extremely important to weed out damaged root crops and promptly identify the pest that has taken up residence.

Population

There are quite a lot of aquatic rodents. They adapt well to a wide range of aquatic environments and can coexist with humans. The high reproductive capacity of the species is the main reason for their abundance. Historically, extensive trapping has not had a negative impact on populations of these rodents. In contrast, trapping voles helped limit crop damage and also kept the animal population healthy.

An overpopulation of water rats can have detrimental effects on both the animal and humans. Too many of the species' populations are stressed due to lack of food. Therefore, they often become ill with common diseases, including hepatitis, tularemia and rabies. These diseases can devastate aquatic rat populations and the animals suffer long-term suffering.

Some of these diseases can be transmitted to people through direct contact or through water. These rats can also damage and flood roads and cause damage to cropland. Managed trapping helps control the numbers of the species and is a practical and humane method of population control. This management tool removes excess animals, which improves the overall health of the water rat population.

Signs of presence

It’s not at all difficult to guess that it was a water rat that visited the site. If they can be confused with moles based on the piles of discarded earth, then the remaining signs are very individual:

• trampled beds with stumps of gnawed plants . People call them “feed tables”;
• holes of different sizes and at different distances . Moles have approximately the same characteristics;
• eaten root vegetables. Water rats not only drag beets, potatoes, and carrots into holes, but also gnaw on the spot everything that they cannot carry away;
• nests at the roots of garden trees . They become especially noticeable in winter, when the labyrinths emerge from under the snow;
• there are many individuals of the species in the area . If there are pests in the fields, in other areas, near water bodies nearby, they are unlikely to miss a specific area.

Of course, the most striking indicator would be to spot a water rat in person at the crime scene. Many of them have the audacity to openly dominate foreign territories.

Prevention of occurrence

Now you know many ways to combat voles, but it would be best if they did not appear in your garden at all, wouldn’t it? There are a number of specific preventive measures that should be taken for this:

• Harvest. It should be carried out promptly and carefully: there should be no remains of vegetables and root crops, spoiled fruits and tops on the beds. All this needs to be either thrown away or buried in compost.
• Plant processing. To prevent damage to the trunks of garden trees, coat them with a solution of lime and copper sulfate. You can also build a protective “belt” for them from roofing felt, plastic or branches of thorny plants.
• Digging. In the fall, when you close the dacha season, be sure to dig the beds deeply. This will help the earth rest, destroy rodent burrows, and destroy some insect pests.
• Cleanliness and tidiness. Take care of your garden plot. Make sure that weeds, fallen leaves, carrion and other organic waste do not accumulate in the beds and under the trees. Put it all in compost, for which be sure to set aside a fenced area somewhere in the far corner. In addition, the remains of grass and tops should not lie in the boundaries, and water should not be allowed to stagnate.
• Cats. Even if your cat is a lazy fat cat who doesn't care about mice, his scent can repel voles. Let your pet run around the garden. If you don’t have a cat, you can imitate its presence by scattering cat litter around the area. This product is saturated with a subtle odor, which rodents will also perceive as an alarm signal.

How to fight

The best fight is prevention. It will be much more difficult to remove rats than to reduce the attractiveness of the site for their settlement.

The main safety measure is to maintain the dacha in a well-maintained condition. If there is a lot of garbage in the garden, thickets of bushes, unharvested crops, carpets of rotten grass, favorable conditions are created for the pest. In such an environment, it is very easy for a rodent to hide its home and get easy food

Regular cleaning of the garden, digging up the soil, and clearing the shoreline of nearby bodies of water greatly reduce the likelihood of a vole appearing. It helps a lot to lay a fine mesh netting in the planting holes.

When the flock has already started, you need to act decisively. We will have to resort to extermination measures, possibly a whole complex.

Traditional methods

Experienced gardeners say that you can deal with water rats without much expense. The working “old-fashioned” methods include:

Burnt wool

The smell of burnt hair is unbearable for rodents. In a humane version, a set fire to a piece of any skin or fur from an old fur coat/boot/hat is thrown into the hole. Inhumane - they burn the dead carcass of a rat or mouse.

Ash

Ash is a caustic alkali. It easily sticks to the paws, is eaten with food and causes acute poisoning in the animal. If you scatter ash over an area, you can get a beneficial side effect in the form of fertilizing the soil.

Black elderberry

It is beneficial to plant a couple of such trees on the site. Elderberry roots saturate the soil with odorous cyanide. The rats won't stay with her scent.

Cats and dogs

Natural enemies of rodents chase and strangle their prey. Few litters will want to remain under the gun of a hunter.

Conifer needles

Spruce or juniper branches are generously sprinkled on the ground and tree roots for the winter. They act in the same way if raids on surrounding territories begin. The needles injure the sensitive paws of rodents, which repels them.

Expert opinion

Mityuk Stefania Bogdanovna

All these measures can have both long-lasting and weak effects.

Repellent

If traditional methods are ineffective or undesirable, they switch to sound scaring and traps:

• Classic mousetraps, rat traps, nooses, buckets, boxes with bait (old root vegetables) are installed at the entrances to burrows, hidden in bushes, under grass near tree roots and in reeds near ponds. The industry produces suffocating traps on springs, with electric discharges (Victor), and adhesive ones.

• Audio exposure is provided using special ultrasonic devices. This option is preferable in areas with few trees so as not to block the waves. The Tornado 400 device is most effective.

You cannot use toxic substances and traps in dachas where pets and children roam. They may unwittingly become victims.

Such measures are suitable for moderate numbers of uninvited guests. Dangerous conditions and the first victims will force the colony to migrate further away.

Chemical bullying

Are there water rats on your property?

It happened, it didn't happen

The most radical way to exterminate water rats. Other animals, insects, and, if used carelessly, people themselves may suffer from the drugs. Therefore, it is recommended to resort to extreme measures only in case of strong stubbornness of rodents or their high numbers.

The poison is poured into holes, water, and placed with food as bait. After eating, the chemical begins to decompose the nervous system, blood, affects the digestive tract, and paralyzes breathing. The result is a painful death of the animal. The corpses must be collected a few days after the “attack” and burned.

Expert opinion

Mityuk Stefania Bogdanovna

Modern drugs mummify the victim, so the carcass will not decompose, smell, and it is easy to miss the moment of destruction. It is necessary to monitor the area after treatment so that the cat or dog does not eat the carrion. Poisoning can be fatal.

Proper use of chemicals involves repeated baiting after the first time. The second approach excludes the appearance of adaptation of the rat body to small doses of poison.

Experienced summer residents found the following drugs to be the most effective:

Each site owner determines the advisability of using a particular method in his own personal opinion. If there is an excessively large influx of water rats or there is no desire to fight it on your own, you can always call a professional service for treatment.

Nutrition

River rats are omnivores. Near reservoirs they like to feast on reeds, sedges and reeds, and do not disdain other plants that grow near the water. They can eat grains, vegetables, fruits, gnaw the bark and roots of trees, and grass.

Rodents can also prey on small mice, insects, earthworms and even frogs. Rats feed in one place, which can be found by teeth marks on plants and dug up earth.

These animals are pests that can easily destroy crops in a garden or farm. A significant increase in the population to catastrophic proportions is observed approximately once every 8 years.

Then rodents, in search of food, begin to visit agricultural farms and destroy crops. Most of all, water voles like to feast on potatoes, beets and carrots.

In the fall, river rats begin to stock up, and therefore they drag everything edible into their burrow. At the same time, they choose only whole fruits and vegetables, as well as grains. All rot is left on the beds.

Physical difference between mouse and rat

Each of us has an idea of ​​what representatives of the rat family, which includes both types of house rodents, look like from pictures and photographs. But with such information it is not always possible to really imagine the main difference between a mouse and a rat. There are several reliable signs by which every person can determine which rodent is in front of him.

• You can distinguish a mouse from an adult rat by the length of its body. In a mouse, the length of the entire body rarely exceeds 10 centimeters, while a rat can reach 30 cm in length. Naturally, there are also individual specimens of rodents whose sizes exceed the statistical average quite noticeably. The body of rats is denser and more muscular.
• Skull shape. In rats, the muzzle is always extended forward, due to which the elongated nose catches the eye. The mouse has a triangular, slightly flattened muzzle.
• You can also tell two rodents apart by their tail. Although its length is impressive in both large and small rodents, the general appearance has some differences. So the rat’s tail is quite powerful, thickened at the very base and almost bare. The mouse is endowed with a thin tail, most often it matches the color and presence of hair with the vegetation on the body.
• A significant difference is also observed in the weight of these two species of rodents. A small mouse has an average body weight of 40-50 grams. A rat can weigh up to 900 grams, especially females.
• You can distinguish rodents by their eyes and ears. A rat's eyes are small, while a mouse's are quite large and always look impressive on a small face. The mouse's ears are wide at the base, round and protruding to the sides. The rat is endowed with ears pressed to the muzzle, their base is small.

The adult rat differs from its younger relative in the structure of its fur. If you touch rodents, you will notice that the hair of a small mouse is soft and pleasant to the touch, while that of pasyuks is hard. Rats, thanks to their powerful paws and muscular body, can jump up to 80 cm in height, and in case of immediate danger, their jump can reach two meters. Mice cannot perform such acrobatic feats.

White rat

You can distinguish a large rodent from a small one even if you do not see it, but only assume the presence of a pest in the house

You can pay attention to the traces left; in a rat they are distinct and rare. Mice leave a chain of almost adjacent small tracks. You can also notice the difference between these two rodents by the fact that the house has been damaged more

Rats prefer to chew on wooden furniture or floors; mice most often damage packages; traces of their teeth can be seen on newspapers and books

You can also notice the difference between these two rodents by the fact that more damage has been done in the house. Rats prefer to chew on wooden furniture or floors; mice most often spoil packages; traces of their teeth can be seen on newspapers and books.

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Nutrition

Dumbo rats, like all other rat breeds, are omnivores, which means they will eat anything and everything. It is best to start with grain mixtures. If your rat is a picky eater and likes to eat selectively, then look for grain mixtures where all the good stuff is mixed together. Follow the instructions on the package when deciding how much food to give your rat. It is also not recommended to use food made for other rodents. The food will not contain the nutrients your pet needs.

In addition to formula, you can supplement your rat's diet with fruits, vegetables, and plenty of protein. Rats need a high protein diet, and boiled eggs or boiled chicken are two treats they love. Carrots and apples are also favorite foods. Try not to give your rat too much fruit, as the sugar can be detrimental to their health in the long run.

Rats are not fed the following foods:

• chocolate;
• raw potatoes;
• bean curd;
• legumes;
• blue cheese;
• sausages;
• green banana;
• spinach.

With caution, rats are fed the following foods:

• beet;
• almond;
• turnip;
• pumpkin and sunflower seeds (no more than 15 pieces, as they contain fats that can lead to the development of diseases);
• radish;
• cucumber;
• cheese (no more than twice a week);
• sour cream (this is a fatty product, so the rat can be given no more than once a week);
• eggs (this is a delicacy for rats, which can be treated no more than once a week).

Rats also need plenty of water, so make sure their water bottles are kept topped up and the water inside is clean.

Bait recipes

• Recipe No. 1: dilute 20-25 g of gypsum with 30-40 g of flour and a small amount of vegetable oil. The animal dies from the plaster, which begins to harden when it enters the stomach.
• Recipe No. 2: One part each of gypsum and fried bran and two parts lard. The resulting mixture must be divided into balls and placed in places where rats live.
• Recipe No. 3: combine 20 g of rosin with 20 g of powdered sugar and 15 g of borax.
• Recipe No. 4: Poisoned grain, bait made from it is most effective in the autumn.
• Recipe No. 5: Sugar and malt are mixed in equal proportions into a container with quicklime, and a bowl of water is placed nearby. The rat, having satisfied its hunger, will immediately want to drink. This action will be the final one in her life.

Water voles do not tolerate the smell of garlic, milkweed, blackroot and hazel grouse. A large number of such plants planted on the site will cause a mass exodus of rodents. To ensure the accuracy of the method, it is recommended to place nut leaves, fish heads, and cloves of garlic in the holes.

Folk remedies

Traditional methods are also used to combat water rats. But these methods are more aimed at scaring away rodents, rather than physically exterminating them. Help get rid of these pests:

To prevent water rats, keep the area clean

• singed wool;
• black elderberry;
• spruce spruce branches and juniper branches;
• wood ash.

Rats cannot stand the smell of some plants, but black elderberry is especially effective on them. Its roots release cyanide into the soil, so all rodents tend to leave this place quickly. Spruce and juniper branches act differently, not due to their smell. Rats have bare feet and try not to step on needles or anything sharp. Therefore, it is good to cover fruit trees on the site with coniferous branches for the winter to protect their bark from damage by rodents.

Ash, which is a caustic alkali, also works well on them. It sticks to the rats' paws, and when they lick them, the ash enters the body, which does not have the best effect on the rodent's digestion.

Rats also cannot stand the smell of burning wool, and some gardeners use this old method of dealing with them. They set the rat carcass on fire and stuff it into the rodent's hole. As a result of such actions, other relatives of this rat begin to leave their favorite area. Instead of a rat carcass, you can use any trimmings, for example, rabbit skin or pieces of any natural fur.

When a scourge such as water rats appears on a site, it is advisable to act immediately, without waiting for these rodents to destroy the crop. It’s even better to prevent their settlement by keeping your area clean and using various repellent methods.

Meet the field mice

Most owners of summer cottages and private houses have had to deal with field mice on their property. These are small rodents whose body length does not exceed 12 cm and weight – 31 grams. The rather long tail is covered with sparse hairs and scales. The vole's fur on its body is soft and velvety, on its back it is reddish-brown, and on its belly it is whitish. A dark stripe runs along the back. The vole differs from the ordinary gray mouse in its smaller size, color and shorter tail. These rodents are distributed almost everywhere, except for the coldest northern regions. The animal moves quickly and silently. When danger is detected, it quickly runs away and hides; it is not easy to see the mouse. Moreover, during the daytime they usually rest in their burrows, and are active at night. They are smart, cautious and resourceful creatures. The appearance of rodents is usually detected by burrows and traces of their presence (damaged plants and household food supplies). A vole's teeth grow throughout its life, and the animal has to constantly grind them down. These mice eat roots, tubers and bulbs of plants, and seeds of various crops. In winter, they do not hibernate, but continue to actively feed, so they can gnaw the bark at the bottom of bushes and trees.

Voles reproduce quickly. They reach sexual maturity at two months of age. During the year, the female brings offspring 3-4 times, each of which contains from 4 to 8 pups. After two weeks, young mice are already able to live independently.

Voles can live up to 5-7 years, but they have a lot of natural enemies, so the average life expectancy is approximately 1.5 years. In summer they usually live outdoors. If there are human habitations or outbuildings nearby, then with the onset of cold weather these rodents tend to enter rooms where it is not only warm, but usually also has something to eat. It should be noted that mice show considerable intelligence and ingenuity to achieve these goals.

The most humane way to solve the “mouse” problem is to force the rodents to leave their burrows

Genus of water voles = Arvicola

• Read: Arvicola terrestris = Water vole
• Water vole or water rat
• Water vole - accounting methods
• Population cycle of the water vole Arvicola terrestris

There is only one species in the genus: the water vole - A. terrestris Linnaeus, 1758.

The sizes are average. Body length is 14-25 cm. The length of the tail is approximately half the length of the body. There are adaptations for both digging the earth and an amphibious lifestyle. The outer ears are small in size. The eyes are small. The internal outgrowths of the upper lips behind the incisors are of considerable size, densely covered with hair, but do not grow together and do not completely isolate the incisors from the oral cavity. The tail is covered with sparse, coarse and short hair. The tail is rounded in cross section. The first fingers on both limbs are not shortened. The third toe on the fore and hind limbs is longer than the fourth. Claws of moderate length. The soles of the paws are hairless, but have a ridge-like edge of hard and thick hair along the edges. The hairline is quite high, thick and soft with a sharp division into guard and down hairs. The color of the dorsal side of the body is one-color dark brown, sometimes almost black, the ventral side is dark yellow to gray. Seasonal color dimorphism is weakly expressed. Both males and females have specific lateral cutaneous glands. 4 pairs of nipples.

The zygomatic arches are widely spaced in the skull. The frontoparietal ridges are highly developed. The incisal openings are short. Bone auditory tympani are small in size, thin-walled, with poorly developed spongy bone tissue. The angular process of the lower jaw is small.

The cheek teeth have no roots and grow throughout the animal's life.

There are 36 chromosomes in the diploid set.

Distributed over a wide range: from the Atlantic coast of Europe east through the European part of the USSR and Siberia to Lake Baikal and the right bank of the Lena, south to the northern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, Asia Minor and Western Asia, the northern and southeastern parts of Kazakhstan, Northwestern China, Altai -Sayan mountainous country and the northern part of the Mongolian People's Republic, north to the bush tundra.

It lives in floodplains of rivers, in wetlands of various zones from the forest-tundra and southern parts of the tundra to the steppes inclusive. It rises into the mountains to subalpine meadows to an altitude of up to 2800 m above sea level. It also inhabits cultural landscapes - fields and vegetable gardens; They even settle in buildings. The seasonal change of habitats is sharply expressed, especially in the forest zone, where water voles migrate in winter from the banks of reservoirs to floodplain meadows or thickets of bushes. The shelter is provided by burrows that water voles dig, which are shallow and of simple structure. The nesting chamber is usually located at a depth of up to 1 m, and feeding passages are laid at a depth of 10-15 cm. The autumn and winter periods of life are characterized by active digging activity. In the warm season and during floods, underground or above-ground nests are made from grass and other plant materials. The breeding season is long. In mild winters it begins already in February and continues throughout the warm period of the year. During this time, the female brings 4-6 litters, each of which contains on average 6-8 cubs. The duration of pregnancy is about 40 days.

In different years, sharp changes in numbers have been noted. These fluctuations are especially pronounced for populations living in floodplains of rivers with changing flood regimes, as well as for lakes whose levels fluctuate greatly from year to year (for example, in Kazakhstan). During high floods, the number of water voles decreases sharply.

It feeds mainly on various plant objects, mostly aquatic and coastal: reeds, cattails, arrowheads, sedges, water lilies, and various meadow grasses. It also eats animal food: shellfish, insects, small fish. In winter, it feeds mainly on underground parts of plants, as well as on the bark and shoots of willows, poplars, and bird cherry.

Animals of some populations (in the north and east of their range) can make small reserves of food: reed rhizomes, potato tubers.

The fur of water voles is used as a secondary fur raw material.

Sometimes they seriously damage forest nurseries, orchards, and vegetable gardens, especially those located in river valleys.

Carriers of tularemia infection and leptospirosis diseases.

Interesting to know!

If optimal conditions are created for the life of a mammal, the field mouse will multiply very quickly. Up to 400 pests can be counted on one hectare.

The pest rests calmly in its shelter during the daytime, and goes out hunting during the day. This is the second reason preventing the fight against the earth rat. The rodent can rarely be found within the city. The stronger representatives of the genus - gray rats - do not allow them into their abode. Yes, they don’t need to. Why leave so many attractive places to live? After all, the main source of food for rodents is in the garden plot - these are the roots of plants and flowers, and loose soil that does not impede their movement. Rats live in the ground, making holes and passages, cutting off the entire root system of plants encountered on their way. This is the third reason why it is difficult to control pests.

Treatment of premises from mice and rats

Rat breeding

As such, there is no mating season in rats: the animals are able to reproduce all year round, but the peak of sexual activity occurs in spring and summer. Gray rats have the highest reproductive potential; black rats are somewhat inferior to them.

Each mature female rat mates with several males. Rat pregnancy lasts from 22 to 24 days, lactating individuals bear offspring for 34 days. Childbirth occurs in a nest lined with soft grass, paper and scraps of fabric. The number of cubs can be from 1 to 20. Rodents living in buildings are more fertile. At high population densities, several pregnant females occupy one nest and subsequently take care of the offspring together. The male rat does not take part in the fate of the children.

A rat carries its baby

Little rats are born naked, blind and helpless. Cannibalism is very pronounced among rats: the mother devours dead and non-viable cubs, and a careless father can destroy all the offspring.

But the remaining cubs are provided with careful care and attention: the female keeps the nest clean, constantly licks the pups and feeds them milk, which in rats is very nutritious and fatty (up to 9%).

After 14-17 days, the rat cubs open their eyes, and at the age of one month they are completely ready for independent life. Sexual maturity of young individuals occurs at 3-4 months, but rats begin to reproduce when they reach the age of six months.

Each female gray rat is capable of bearing offspring 5 to 8 times a year. Black rats do not breed in the cold season, so they breed 2-3 times a season. These days, the population of gray rats is growing steadily, and, according to experts, there are 2 rats for every person on the planet.

Reproduction and lifespan

Let's look at the different stages of a rat's life. Rat experts typically divide the life cycle of rats into 4 phases: newborn, 4 weeks, 1 year, and over 1 year.

Newborn rats are tiny, blind, and dependent on their mothers. They grow quickly, begin to crawl at 5 days, and their eyes open at 2 weeks.

After just 4 weeks, the young rat will no longer need its mother. They are fully alert and can feed themselves. But they will still need their siblings to be able to develop socially.

Around 6-8 weeks is the right time to bring home a baby Dumbo rat.

Rats reach full adulthood at 1 year of age. They are active, playful and easy to train. This age is ideal for breeding.

Pet rats over a year old may be less active and may develop health problems that are common in older pets.

Most rats live between 2-4 years, and with proper care, your Dumbo rat can easily live for four years. Most rats live long, healthy lives, but you should keep an eye on their health.