Ron Dotson, who leads the Rodent and Vector Control Office for the city of Austin, has tracked and trapped rats here for 23 years. He is undaunted. They carry more than 30 diseases harmful to humans, such as typhus, the plague, rat-bite fever, Weil's disease, Chagas' disease, rickettsial pox, tuleremia, Lassa fever, lymphocytic choriomeningitis, and rabies. No other mammal surpasses the rat except man himself in the level of death, destruction, and economic devastation that he causes, Hendrickson writes. Part of what makes rats so awful and yet amazing is their tremendous survival instincts and physical abilities.
Rats can climb brick walls, trees, and telephone poles, and walk across telephone lines.
Rats can fall from a height of 50 feet without getting hurt. Rats can jump three feet in the air from a flat surface and leap four feet horizontally. Rats can detect poison mixed with food in as little as two parts per million. Mama rats can have as many as 60 offspring in one year, and each of those baby rats hits puberty at three months of age. For the most part, rats will continue to multiply as long as there is enough food and water and shelter for them all.