| French name | Norway Rat |
| English name | Brown rat, Norwegian rat |
| Latin name | Rattus norvegicus |
The Norwegian rat, also known as the grey rat or the sewer rat, measures an average of 45 cm, from the snout to the tip of its tail. Its body is massive and robust. Its tail is hair-free and covered with scales. It’s shorter than the rest of the body. His hair is brown grey. His two little ears are half concealed on his head. She has small eyes and a slightly square snout.
Its feces allow its identification, in comparison to the mouse, whose defecations are much smaller. They are sharp-cut cylindrical and measure on average 19 mm in length and 6 mm in width.
Lifecycle:
The average lifespan is 12 months. Sexual maturity is very rapid, a young female can reproduce as early as 3 months of age and the grey rat gestation period is only 22 to 24 days. During her lifetime, a female may have 3 to 5 litters of 12 pups.
Rat’s die:
The rat is a tireless rodent that causes significant damage to structures and equipment.
It infects food with its feces and transmits several diseases to humans.
He feeds on waste, but he has a special affection for meat, grains, cereal products. It begins its activity at dusk and persists until the middle of the night.
It can also be active during the day.
He often uses the same tracks between his shelters, his food sources and his water points. He marks them from the glands of his tail and his urine
These tracks run along the bottom of the walls, often marked by a dark mark. It also circulates in the walls along the pipes to hide easily.
He’s a good jumper, climber and swimmer. Its jumps can reach up to 1 m.
It builds its nest outdoors in holes or burrows.
He lives in colonies whose social organization is highly hierarchical.
Infestation mode:
He climbs with agility on pipes, wires and rugged walls. It penetrates very easily into homes and buildings damaged by faulty sewers, open or unprotected drains, unseathted doors and windows, and even in all building architecture openings. It uses drainage pipes on floors and sewers to move around homes. It manages to stay underwater for about two minutes.
Repression:
The appearance of rats in our building should not be overlooked or taken lightly. We must react on the spot, do not wait, because these intruders (rodents) are just trashing anything that hinders them in their path. A rat can pierce a hull in seconds. For this reason, it is better to prevent an invasion and act from the first appearances.
The advice of your exterminator in Montreal
Inspect any possible or questionable places that may have infiltration. The building must be waterproof:
- Closing all the openings at the structure level,
- Supervise and restore the sewer system to avoid breakage;
- Close all visible floor holes with a hard mesh, such as drains.
Avoid any accumulation of objects and debris near the building and leave them at a minimum distance of one metre from the building. Ditto with the waste.
Rats always settle near a water source. Eliminate water leaks from pipes and faucets that they could drink from. We have to stop their supply.
