Rats can get in your home through an opening about the size of a quarter. Rats damage structures, chew wiring and can cause electrical fires. Rats eat and urinate on human and animal food and carry many diseases. Thousands of rat bites are reported each year in the U.S. alone and many are suspected to go unreported. Accidental poisonings occur among humans and pets from poorly planned efforts to poison rats.
Rats rely predominately on smell, taste, touch, and hearing as opposed to vision.
They move around mainly in the dark using their long sensitive whiskers and the guard hairs on their body to guide them. Rats are cautious,and if their food is in an exposed area where it cannot be consumed quickly, they usually carry or drag it to a hiding place. Rats have an excellent sense of taste, enabling them to detect certain compounds including rat poisons, at extremely low concentrations very quickly. Rats are omnivorous, eating nearly any type of food, including dead and dying members of their own species. The Norway Rat is the most common rat in the United States and is the carrier of many serious diseases.