Remove rats

If rats establish themselves in or around your business, they will soon multiply and will cause problems as they search for food or nesting materials.

In addition to causing property damage in your business, rats can also damage your image. Think of customers seeing the rats walking in or around your business, gnawed products and droppings or urine.

Just as the black rat was known as a transmitter of plague in the Middle Ages. The brown rat is also a disease carrier. Some examples of diseases this rat can carry (and transmit) are, Weil’s disease, hantavirus, tularemia, rat-bite fever, as well as plague. Although plague no longer occurs in Europe. Is still sometimes the case in some parts of Africa and Southeast Asia.

The difference between the brown and black rat are the smaller eyes, the shorter and thicker state, as well as the smaller ears with more hair. The brown rat often has a somewhat lighter underside, while the black rat usually has one color all over the body. What makes it even more confusing is that the black rat is basically black, but can sometimes be brown and the brown rat is sometimes black!

In the Netherlands, the brown rat has adapted very well to the climate and habitat, causing the rat population to expand considerably.

Generally omnivores, the brown rat likes to feed on grain, seeds, snails, insects, eggs and sometimes even young mammals. If enough food can be found in the environment, the brown rat sometimes even builds food stores.

The brown rat is an incredibly intelligent and social animal with great adaptability. The animal has even passed on certain traditions and techniques to the next generation, and these also vary by area. Brown rats are mammals that can live together peacefully in large groups, but chase off strangers aggressively.

Brown rats do not have a specific mating season, if sufficient food and good living conditions are available, the rat can reproduce just fine. The gestation period of the young is 21 – 23 days and a female can have up to 10 young per litter. In addition, the young are sexually mature after 6 weeks and will then be mated immediately, allowing the rat population to grow explosively.

The life expectancy of a brown rat in the wild is about 1 to a maximum of 3 years and, like humans, is determined by genes and hereditary factors. A natural enemy of the brown rat is the owl, domestic cat and martens.

All rats are nocturnal animals, so they will not be easy for people to find during the day. The characteristics of a rat problem are hearing scratching sounds through walls or under floorboards. You will also most likely find droppings that are about 10 – 20 mm in size.

The brown rats also leave behind a certain odor in which you may recognize ammonia and which appears when you open closed spaces, such as a crawlspace or hatch. As with other rodents, there will also be gnawing damage to wood, plastic and electrical wiring, the latter is very risky as this can cause short circuits/fires in your home or outbuildings.

When brown rats have found food supplies they will gnaw through the packaging to get to it. This food is then contaminated and should be thrown away. Given the dangerous diseases that the rats can carry with them, Protect Pest Control advises not to take any risk with this.

More concrete indications are the finding of multiple burrows in the ground, nests or young rats, so you can be sure that you have an infestation on hand that you yourself find difficult to counteract. In order to prevent as much damage as possible, we advise you to always contact Protect Pest Control in this case.

Unlike the black rat, the brown rat prefers to settle in moist environments with moderate temperatures. The brown rat does not shy away from humans and is therefore commonly found in basements, crawl spaces, sheds or stables. You can also often find brown rats near container yards, wood storage areas or near ditches and puddles. It does not matter to a brown rat if the water is polluted, like sewage, they can survive in it just fine.

Brown rats do not exclusively choose inhabited areas to reside, but can survive anywhere there are food and water sources if necessary. The brown rat is good at digging burrows and corridors. An excellent swimmer, the brown can easily cross ditches or a lake. In addition, like the black rat, the brown rat is a good jumper. The brown rat can jump as high as 50 cm and more than a meter far.

Do it yourself or outsource?

If you are suffering from brown rats in your business, storage or lead’s Protect Pest Control advises you not to wait long to contact them.

Protect Pest Contol can help you with your rat problem. We work according to the latest IPM 2023 guidelines, everything is recorded in our digital logbook so you can check everything about the status in your company and you are guaranteed in the field of rodent control at all times.

Brown rats can be very aggressive and are notorious disease carriers and spreaders. In addition, they cause a lot of gnawing damage and reproduce at lightning speed. DIY products are useless in the case of the brown (and black) rat. You absolutely need professional pest control. Protect Pest Control has over fifteen years of experience controlling brown rats in your business premises or around them.