Rodents management
In an urban setting, rodent refers to the commensally brown rat (or sewer rat, Rattus Norvegicus), the roof rat (Rattus rattus) and the house mouse (Mus musculus). Given ideal conditions, one pair of rodent can produce up to 2,000 offspring in only one year.
Their high agility enables a young mouse to enter a building through a 1 cm sq. gap with great ease. Sighting of the nocturnal creatures in the day signals heavy infestation simply because they are acting against their nature to forage for food when their enemies, especially people, are most active.
Telltale signs of invasion are their droppings (a rat produces about 50 droppings within 24 hours), odor of urine, and damage to packaging especially food, gnaw marks, smear marks and burrow tracks.
Rodents are dependent on humans for food and shelter areas. The common species are opportunistic survivors and often live near or with humans on which they are dependant for food and shelter.
One rat equals more than 25000 droppings per year, which contains allergens for some humans. They are also known to introduce other pests, such as lice and fleas, causing additional damage.
They are disease-carrying pests because they live and breed in highly unhygienic places e.g. sewers and garbage dumps and hence pose a threat to our health
Diseases like jaundice, Weil’s disease, the well-known plague and the lesser–known hanta-viral infections with influenza-type symptoms are associated with rodents.
As the teeth of rodents continue to grow over their lifespan, they need to gnaw on hard substances, such as lead and plastic pipes, insulation material and electric wirings. Rats have also been known to chew through mild steel. This habit increases the risk of short circuits and fires
Implications of problems
The diseases and ectoparasites transmitted by rodents pose a serious threat to the health of everybody who gets into contact with them.
The risk of short circuits and fires is increased in the presence of rodents. In addition to this, the costs for replacement of damaged electrical and electronic devices are noticeably increased in the presence of rodents.The presence of rodents might lead to secondary infestations of pests associated with them.
The smell of urine and dropping renders premises unpresentable and increases the costs of maintenance