Amazing mosquito facts
You're more likely to be a target for mosquitoes if you consume bananas. Biting activity increase by 500 times when there is a full moon. A mosquito's wings beat 500 times a second.
The animal responsible for the most human deaths world-wide is the mosquito.
Mosquitoes dislike citronella because it irritates their feet.
Mosquitoes prefer children to adults, and blondes to brunettes.
A mosquito can detect a moving target at 18 ft away
The average life span of a female mosquito is 3 to 100 days. the male lives 10 to 20 days.
Mosquitoes: lay up to 300 eggs at a time, fly across 150 miles in their lifetime, range from sea level to altitudes as high as 10,800 feet (3,600 meters), develop from egg to adulthood in 4 to 7 days
Only female mosquitoes bite; using proteins from a blood meal to produce eggs. Most species can produce several batches of eggs during their lifetime.
The mosquito's visual picture, produced by various parts of its body, is an infrared view produced by its prey's body temperature.
The average life span of the female mosquito is 3 to 100 days; the male's is 10 to 20 days.
Depending on species, female mosquitoes may lay 100 to 300 eggs at a time and may average 1,000 to 3,000 during their lifespan.
Adults can live for several weeks, feeding on carbohydrate sources such as nectar and fruit juices.
Worldwide, mosquito-borne diseases kill more people than any other single factor. In the United States, mosquitoes vector (spread) several types of encephalitis, dog heartworm, and malaria.
The larval and pupil stages can be found in a variety of aquatic habitats including: discarded containers, tires, temporary woodland pools, tree and crab holes, salt marshes, and irrigation ditches.
Most mosquitoes remain within 1 mile of their breeding site. A few species may range up to 20 miles or more.
There are over 170 described species of mosquitoes from North America. Several species have been accidentally introduced from other parts of the world.
Depending on temperature, mosquitoes can develop from egg to adult in as little as 4-7 days.
Presently, the cues used by mosquitoes to find their hosts are poorly understood. Carbon dioxide (Co2), heat, octenol and light have been shown to be attractants. Other compounds tested such as lactic acid also have proved to attract certain species of biting insects.
The larvae are filter feeders of organic particulates.
Mosquitoes
Mosquitoes can be annoying, may bite and are capable of spreading harmful diseases such as malaria, encephalitis and West Nile virus. Mosquitoes have long slender bodies with narrow wings and long legs. Female mosquitoes are well adapted to piercing your skin and sucking blood.
A thorough survey of the site is necessary to determine the potential for mosquitoes to breed or to locate resting sites. Three questions must be considered when surveys are conducted. Are there structural problems that are conducive to water retention? What items are present which have the ability to retain water? Does the environment provide potential breeding sites or shaded resting areas for adult mosquitoes?
Look for structural elements such as flat roofs, blocked or poorly drained rain gutters and downspouts, drainage lines from air conditioning units, low decks, open crawl spaces, unscreened vents or detached storage sheds that have a potential to provide breeding or resting sites for mosquitoes. While inspecting, make note of any container that is holding, or has a potential to hold water. Remember, it could be as small as a bottle cap or as large as a boat or swimming pool Also note any areas in the environment such as ditches or depressions, tree holes, heavy weeds or shrubs, plants, ponds or wooded areas that provide potential for standing water or shaded resting sites for mosquitoes.
Mosquitoes take about seven days to complete their life cycle. The first three stages in this cycle are aquatic. Therefore, the best way to prevent mosquito breeding is to remove stagnant water. This can be accomplished in a number of ways.
One method is to physically remove the item that has potential to hold stagnant water. Dispose of containers such as bottles, jars, pails, etc., in a covered receptacle. Get rid of old tires. Empty water from items such as garbage cans, pails, garden implements, etc. and cover these items with lids or invert them to drain. Change water in birdbaths, pet dishes, flowerpots and urns, etc. on a weekly basis (remember the seven day mosquito life cycle). Small wading pools, toys, etc. should be emptied and stored after each use to prevent water from collecting or becoming stagnant.
A second method is the mechanical alteration of (potential) water-containing items to prevent them from retaining water. This might be as simple as opening a drain plug in the bottom of a boat, drilling a small drain hole in the bottom of a tire swing or a barbeque grill, or some other physical method to prevent water from standing in a container.
When it is not possible to drain or otherwise remove a standing water source, the placement of a larvacide into the water or into an area where water collects and stands after a rain may control some mosquitoes before they emerge.
Cultural methods may be utilized to reduce the potential sources of mosquito breeding or to eliminate potential resting sites that will attract adult mosquitoes. Cultural methods include proper mowing, drainage and mechanical alteration of these potential sites.
Proper mowing and trimming techniques reduce the resource areas required by mosquitoes for resting sites. Therefore, less treatment will be required to control the adult mosquitoes. Ditches can be drained or culverts installed to move water away from the site to be protected. Low spots can be filled in to prevent standing water. Water holding plants, such as bromeliads, should be planted in pots that can be turned upside down to drain water from the plants as needed.
Fine mesh screens can be installed to prevent mosquito entry into crawl spaces, under decks or around covered patios or other areas where they may rest. Rain gutters can be cleaned and repaired so that all water flows freely into and out of the downspouts without collecting in the gutters. Mechanical alterations can prevent water from standing in areas such as tarps (boat covers, pool covers, etc.) by simply increasing the slope above such items to allow for water runoff. Standing water in small ponds or pools can be helped by using pumps and filters to prevent stagnation. Other repairs that stop water from standing in one spot are beneficial to mosquito reduction.
A proper treatment regimen is important for the control of mosquitoes after source reduction efforts and cultural control practices are utilized. Treatment methods include the use of larvacides to prevent adult mosquitoes from emerging and the use of adulticides to knock down adult populations and establish barriers for ongoing mosquito reduction.
During the larval and pupal stages, the developing mosquitoes are confined to their watery site until they emerge as adults. The application of a larvacide product to the water site during this period of development may result in large numbers of larvae being controlled before the adult mosquito is free to fly off.
Potential treatment areas for mosquito larvacides include birdbaths, urns, tree holes, old tires, rain barrels, water gardens, flower pots, roof gutters, pool covers, ornamental fountains, abandoned swimming pools or other water holding receptacles. When used as directed, larvacides will not adversely affect humans, animals, fish or vegetation. Mosquito larvacides are also used to treat larger areas such as ponds, lakes and ditches that contain large volumes of water.
Adult mosquitoes can fly freely to any non-protected place. Ultra Low Volume (ULV) treatments can be rendered to quickly reduce adult populations of mosquitoes in limited areas for short periods of time. Barrier treatments with residual products provide longer lasting controls to areas where mosquitoes hide and rest.
ULV treatments are helpful in circumstances warranting quick knock down for short time periods, such as before parties, weddings, picnics and other special occasions. Timing of the applications is critical to the success of the program (night flyers vs. day flyers).
ULV treatments place an extremely fine aerosol in the air, which floats with the breeze to contact and knock down adult mosquitoes. "Fogging" in this manner is an excellent way to clear a large area of adult mosquitoes because the aerosol floats into almost every nook and cranny. However, once the aerosol has floated through the area, there is no longer any control left. How long this control lasts - a few hours to a few days - depends on several factors, including knowledge of how, when, where and why to apply the product, climatic conditions and other parameters which may not be able to be directly controlled by the applicator.
Barrier control is one of the more effective and longer lasting methods of mosquito reduction. It readily lends itself to large areas or to small back yards. Years ago it was discovered that by applying a perimeter strip of barrier protection, mosquitoes (while capable of flying over the barrier strip) resisted the treated area within the barrier. This proved extremely effective in areas like home yards.
Barrier controls are applied as a light mist with a sprayer - preferably one with a high-volume air blast to push the product into the foliage and other difficult to reach spots. The light mist is applied to grass, shrubbery, foliage, under shaded areas such as storage sheds and decks, around animal shelters, etc.
Mosquito treatments can reduce the potential exposure to mosquito bites and help prevent the spread of mosquito-borne illnesses.
Q: How many species of mosquitoes are there?
A: About 2,700.
Q: What does a mosquito weigh?
A: About 2 to 2.5 milligrams (for an Aedes aegypti).
Q: How much blood does a female mosquito drink per, er, serving?
A: About 5-millionths of a liter (for an Aedes aegypti).
Q: How do mosquitoes find new hosts?
A: By sight (they observe movement); by detecting infra-red radiation emitted by warm bodies; and by chemical signals (mosquitoes are attracted to carbon dioxide and lactic acid, among other chemicals).
Q: How fast can a mosquito fly?
A: An estimated 1 to 1.5 miles per hour.
Q: How far do certain mosquitoes fly
A: Salt marsh mosquitoes migrate 75 to 100 miles.
Q: How far away can a mosquito smell you, or a cow or another host?
A: 20 to 35 meters.
Q: Why does a film of oil on water kill mosquito larvae?
A: Because the oil clogs up the snorkel that the larvae use to breathe.
Mosquitoes don't see very well, but they zoom in like a heat-seeking missile. In the spherical arrangement of their compound eyes, blind spots separate each eye from the next one. As a result, they can't see you until they are 30 feet (10 meters) away. Even then, they have trouble distinguishing you from any object of similar size and shape: tree stump, 55-gallon drum, etc. When they are 10 feet (3 meters) away they use extremely sensitive thermal receptors on the tip of their antennae to locate blood near the surface of the skin. The range of these receptors increases threefold when the humidity is high.
Why don't mosquitoes transmit HIV virus?
Studies with HIV clearly show that the virus responsible for the AIDS infection is regarded as food to the mosquito and is digested along with the blood meal.
Mosquitoes Do Not Ingest Enough HIV Particles to Transmit AIDS by Contamination
An AIDS-free individual would have to be bitten by 10 million mosquitoes that had begun feeding on an AIDS carrier to receive a single unit of HIV from contaminated mosquito mouthparts.Most people have heard that mosquitoes regurgitate saliva before they feed, but are unaware that the food canal and salivary canal are separate passageways in the mosquito. The mosquito's feeding apparatus is an extremely complicated structure that is totally unlike the crude single-bore syringe. Unlike a syringe, the mosquito delivers salivary fluid through one passage and draws blood up another. As a result, the food canal is not flushed out like a used needle, and blood flow is always unidirectional. The mechanics involved in mosquito feeding are totally unlike the mechanisms employed by the drug user's needles. In short, mosquitoes are not flying hypodermic needles and a mosquito that disgorges saliva into your body is not flushing out the remnants of its last blood meal.
There are over 2500 different species of mosquitoes throughout the world, of which 150 species occur in the United States.
A single female can lay over 200 eggs at a time. Mosquito eggs can survive for more than five years.
All mosquitoes need water to complete their life cycle.
Not all species bite humans; some prefer birds, others prefer horses, and some will even bite frogs and turtles.
Only females take blood; males feed only on plant nectar.
Mosquitoes can fly considerable distances; some species remain close to their larval habitats while others can fly 20 miles or more.
Mosquitoes do not develop in grass or shrubbery, although adults fequently rest in these areas during daylight hours.
Mosquitoes are responsible for more human death than any other living creature.
COCKROACH
Cockroaches have been present on the earth for more than 400 million years. Approximately 4000-7500 species of cockroaches exist, but only a fraction of these species are considered pests (i.e., American, German, Oriental, brown-banded, smokybrown, and Asian).
The Madagascar hissing cockroach is a large, wingless cockroach from Madagascar. The aggressive encounters between males are quite impressive. Males ram into each other with their horns and/or they push each other with their abdomens. Larger males usually win. Hissing plays an important role during male-male inter- actions. Winners of encounters hiss more than losers. The hisses of males also contain information about the size of the male hissing and may be used to assess the opponent's size. Males can also discriminate among the hisses of familiar males and strangers. These hisses are audible and can be heard by observers. Although this species is primarily nocturnal, you can see males fighting during the day.
Males also hiss during courtship interactions with females. Again, their behavior is unusual for insects in that strength and sound are used. Mating occurs in an end-to-end position. To achieve this, the male pushes his abdomen under and along the female's body until he engages the end of her abdomen.
Although hissing plays an important role in colony hierachy and courtship interactions, it is the disturbance hisses that most people are familiar with. Adult males, adult females, and older nymphs hiss when disturbed or handled. This hiss is very loud and easily heard. This is the only type of hiss produced by females and nymphs.
While many insects use sound, the Madagascar hissing cockroach has a unique way of producing its hisses. In this insect, sound is produced by forcibly expelling air through a pair of modified abdominal spiracles. Spiracles are breathing pores which are part of the respiratory system of insects. Because the spiracles are involved in respiration, this method of sound production is more typical of the respiratory sound made by the vertebrates. In contrast, most other insects produce sound by rubbing body parts (e.g. crickets) or vibrating a membrane (e.g. cicadas).
You've probably heard the story about cockroaches surviving a nuclear war: we die but they live! This is supposed to make you feel better when you have trouble getting rid of these critters.
So, the real truth: radiologists have found that humans can safely withstand a one-time exposure of 5 rems (A "rem" is the dosage of radiation that will cause a specific, measured amount of injury to human tissue). A lethal dose is 800 rems or more (people are exposed to about 16 rems during their lifetime).
Insect researchers have found that cockroaches can tolerate a much higher dose -- really higher! The lethal dose for the American cockroach is 67,500 rems and for the German cockroach it is between 90,000 and 105,000 rems (yikes!). In truth the amount of radiation that cockroaches can withstand is equivalent to that of a thermonuclear explosion. So, show a little respect the next time your chasing one through the kitchen with a spray can in your hand!
a cockroach could live a long time, perhaps a month, without its head.
The world's largest roach (which lives in South America) is six inches long with a one-foot wingspan.
Roaches By the Numbers
6 -- Number of legs on a cockroach
18 -- Number of knees on most cockroaches (at least!)
40-- Number of minutes cockroaches can hold their breath
75 -- Percentage of time that cockroaches spend just resting (how lazy can you get?)
Bad News
Some female cockroaches mate once and are pregnant for the rest of their lives (bummer).
Better Check Those Cracks in the Wall
Young cockroaches need only a crack as thin as a dime (about .5mm wide) to crawl into. Adult males can squeeze into a space of 1.6mm or the thickness of a quarter.
Wanna Race?
Cockroaches can run up to three miles in an hour. (Hey, it's no marathon, but it's not bad.)
http://yucky.kids.discovery.com/noflash/roaches/pg000097.html
Yuck!
Male cockroaches transfer sperm to females in a "gift-wrapped" package called a spermatophore. Some males cover the package in a protein-rich wrapping that the female can eat to obtain nutrients to raise her young. Delicious!
Cockroaches (Periplaneta americana) can really move. They can run at speeds of nearly 3km/hr (0.8 m/s). They can make up to 25 body turns in a second - the highest known rate in the animal kingdom. And, being nocturnal, they do most of this in the dark. So why don't they crash into things?
The answer is: their antennae. In a series of cockroach-assault course experiments J Camhi and E Johnson of The Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel have found that these much-loathed insects boast highly flexible and seriously sensitive antennae one and a third times the length of their bodies and segmented into between 150 and 170 jointed sections.
Camhi and Johnson set cockroaches (whose antenna and other sensory organs they disabled in various ways) the task of negotiating their way around a circular arena with either straight or pleated sides. As the duo report in The Journal of Experimental Biology, their slightly macabre manipulations revealed that the insects navigated the space by staying close to the wall at a strikingly fixed distance and dragging their antenna along it as they went.
At walking speed intact cockroaches simply tapped their antennae on the arena wall, but the faster an insect moved the more time the two stayed in contact. When the researches experimented with simple antenna amputations, they found that the shorter an insect's antenna, the closer it walked to the wall at all running speeds, apparently using sensory input from other body parts, such as its legs, to glean information about its position relative to possible obstacles. And experiments with the pleat-sided arena showed that cockroaches can respond remarkably quickly - after around 29 milliseconds - to the sensory cues that their antennae deliver.
Furthermore the researchers found that blinded and deafened cockroaches were able to navigate completely normally, even if their average speeds were lower than their sighted and air-current-sensitive counterparts.
Female cockroaches prefer males at the bottom of the social pecking order, and dominant males try and stop them from having their way. But when females do get the low-ranking man of their dreams, they produce fewer sons, apparently in an effort to avoid passing on his wimpishness
the laboratory cockroach, Nauphoeta cinerea. These animals usually reproduce sexually. But in times of crisis when males are scarce, females can reproduce by a process known as 'parthenogenesis'. They can produce offspring-all female-with no help from males.
"Cockroaches are considered one of the most successful groups of animals," says Steven Jacobs, senior extension associate in entomology in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences. "Because they are so adaptable, cockroaches have adjusted to living with humans much more readily than humans have adjusted to living with them."
Cockroaches thrive in nearly every corner of the globe, despite our best attempts to eliminate them.
Penn State Agricultural information services
Why is it almost impossible to squish a cockroach before it shoots out of sight behind the refrigerator while it is often quite easy to zap it with the nozzle of a vacuum cleaner?
The answer, Dr Hananel Davidowitz of the NEC Research Institute in Princeton, N.J., says, is that the jet-propelled bug thinks with its behind.
The cockroach, he says, is able to sense minute changes in the air flowing round its body using tiny hairs on two posterior appendages called “cerci”—and that includes your foot coming down. Signals from those hairs feed into a group of 14 vital nerve cells which process the information. The result—now you see it, now you don’t.
Confused by Vacuum
The vacuum cleaner, however, has even smart roaches fooled.
“If a vacuum cleaner approaches from behind a cockroach, the wind goes from its head to the nozzle. It thinks the attack is from the front and it turns round and runs straight into the nozzle,” the scientist says.
Cockroaches have also developed interesting ways of ensuring that their young make it to adulthood. Most species give birth to live young — highly unusual for insects — but a sure way to prevent other critters from feeding on their eggs.
And if food is scarce, adolescent cockroaches can live on a very reliable resource — their parents’ feces.
The Madagascar cockroach can reach the ripe old age of seven and produces less than 20 eggs during that long life span.
In the natural world, dodging disaster is vital if you are not going to be pounced on by predators. Now, the world champion dodger has been crowned - the cockroach
BBC
Other scientists in Europe and America have also connected neurons to microchip circuitry and a team in Japan has been able to stimulate the muscles in a cockroach leg with electrical signals so that its movements can be controlled.
There could be big advantages for the military. Rats could be used to check damage at bombed enemy factory sites, where their presence would be unlikely to raise suspicion. Dogs could be used to search for casualties on battlefields and cockroaches could be used to place surveillance devices in military installations
The London Times
Cockroach allergy and exposure have been reported in asthmatic children, allergic conjunctivitis and slum people in Bangkok with parennial nasal symptom and wheezing which the prevalence is increasing . This study was aimed to investigate the infestation of indoor cockroach species in some urban and rural dwellings of Thailand. Cockroaches were caught by placing commercial sticky traps for three days. They were from 33 living rooms and 38 bedrooms of 36 houses and 33 office units in Bangkok. The dominant species of urban indoor cockroaches were Periplaneta americana and Supella longipalpa which the nymphal stage was the highest. In Bangkok, houses were infested with P. americana 81.7% and S. longipalpa 18.3% where P. americana were significantly higher in living rooms than bedrooms. In contrast, offices were infested with P. americana 52.3% and S. longipalpa 47% where S. longipalpa were significantly higher than those on houses. The average cockroaches per trap from office(14.5) were higher than home (3) The monthly variation were studied in single cockroach species of the infested areas. By this trapping, the density S. longipalpa was peaked on the second month and markly declined later to reach the zero within ten months but no variation for american cockroaches. From rural dwellings of 12 provinces, five species of cockroaches were found which were P. americana, Periplaneta australasiae, Blattella germanica, Neostylopyga rhombifolia, and S. longipalpa. The most common is P. Americana and the highest density was found in kitchen.
Abstract: Cockroach surveys using sticky traps were conducted in urban areas of 14 Thailand provinces. At least
30 houses in each province were randomly sampled for cockroaches. Each house was trapped in three areas:
kitchen, bedroom and outside. A total of 2,648 cockroaches was caught by 550 out of 1,542 traps (35.7%), from
337 of the 514 houses (65.6%). Overall, relative density ranged from 2.6 to 9.1 with an average of 5.2 cockroaches/house. On the average, 47.7% of the cockroaches were caught in the kitchen, 24.4% and 27.9% were caught in the bedroom and outside of dwellings, respectively. There were 10 species of cockroaches caught from the 14 provinces:
Periplaneta americana (60.9%), Periplaneta brunnea (15.4%), Neostylopyga rhombiofolia (9.6%), Periplaneta
australasiae (9.2%), Pycnoscelis surinamensis (3.3%), Blatella germanica (0.6%), Periplaneta fuliginosa (0.5%),
Supella longipalpa (0.3%), Blatella lituricollis (0.15%) and Nauphoeta cinerea (0.05%), belonging to six genera.
According to the surveys in this study, Periplaneta americana and Periplaneta brunnea were the most abundant
cockroach species in urban Thailand, whereas the kitchen was the major habitat.
RATS/MICE
Rats and Mice
Rats and mice are important pests entering man's homes and warehouses for food and harborage. These rodents eat any kind of food that people eat. They also contaminate much more food than they eat, with urine, droppings and hair. They can transmit diseases such as bubonic plague, murine typhus and bacterial food poisoning. Many times rats bite people. They can also cause damage and fires to our structures by gnawing.
The most common rodent pests are the commensal rodents. These are the rats and mice that have adapted to living with man and sharing his food and shelter. They include the Norway rat, the roof rat and the house mouse.
The rat originated in Central and Southeast Asia, but has spread from there to every corner of the Earth. They live everywhere people do. It is estimated that rats destroy one-fifth of the food produced every year. They spread disease, and, because of their constant gnawing, they cause damage to homes and businesses. They are often responsible for electrical fires. Rats have a territory of anywhere from 100 to 300 feet, which they expore daily. They tend to follow the same paths, or runs, over and over again.
The two main types of rats that cause problems are the Roof rat (Rattus rattus) and the Norway rat (Rattus norvegicus), also called the sewer, wharf, or brown rat. In Kansas City, the Norway Rat is the main problem. Norway rats weigh about 10-17 ounces, have a body between 7-10 inches long and a tail between 6-8.5 inches.
Mouse Facts
Mice are capable of being transported for long periods of time in closed containers, such as boxes, barrels or crates.
Many fires of "unknown cause" may have been caused by mice chewing through electrical wiring.
In six months one pair of mice can eat about four pounds of food and produce some 18,000 fecal droppings.
Mice are not blind but have bad vision and cannot see clearly beyond about six inches.
They are excellent climbers and can run up almost any roughened wall without breaking stride.
They can swim but prefer not to. More than once, a live mouse has been flushed down a toilet and has resurfaced a minute later.
They can jump a vertical distance of 12 inches from the floor onto an elevated flat surface.
They can jump a height of eight feet to the floor without injury.
They can run horizontally along pipes, wires and ropes
Rat Facts
Rats memorize specific pathways and use the same routes habitually.
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
Special Facts about Rats
The movement of rats and mice is usually related to food, water and harborage. Because rats are excellent swimmers, they often live in sewers and occasionally enter homes through toilets. Rats and mice frequently gnaw on their surroundings. Their teeth grow 4 ½" - 5 ½" per year and only gnawing keeps them short and sharp.
Rats and mice are active mostly at night. Rats show greatest activity the first half of the night, if food is abundant. Mice are usually active both right after dark and between midnight and dawn. Both rats and mice will be active during daytime hours when food is scarce, when there is an overpopulation of rats, or when a poison has been used and the population is sick.
It is estimated there is one rat for each person in the United States. Rats can fall 20 feet without being injured. Rats can jump 3' straight up and 4' out from a standing position. Rats are capable of swimming ½ mile in open water. They can climb up insides of pipes with diameters between 1 ½" - 4". A rat's teeth are so strong it can bite through aluminum, lead and other metals.
Wild rats live off man and give nothing beneficial in return. Rats spread disease, damage structures and contaminate food and feed. Rats damage one-fifth of the world's food crop each year. The real damage is in contamination. One pair of rats shed more than one million body hairs each year and a single rat leaves 25,000 droppings in a year.
Rats transmit Murine typhus fever, rat bite fever, salmonellosis or bacterial food poisoning, Weils disease or leptospirosis and trichinosis, melioidosid, brucellosis, tuberculosis, pasteurellosis, rickettsial diseases, and viral diseases such as foot-and-mouth disease. Norway rats can also carry the rabies virus.
The Norway rat and the roof rat are not native North American species. They traveled to the new world with the first explorers. The two species quickly invaded the continent because of their adaptability and fertility. Norway rats are found throughout the United States while roof rats primarily inhabit southeastern, Gulf Coast and southwestern states.
Rats memorize their environment by body and muscle movement alone. They become so engrained by body movements that when objects are removed from their territory, rats will continue to move around them as if the objects where still there.
Successful control depends on proper identification of the different species. Norway and roof rats differ in size, habits, food preferences and regions. Techniques that eliminate one species may not eliminate the other.
Many times roof rats live in the upper stories of buildings, while Norway rats occupy the basement and first floor of the same building.
Rats visit fewer food sites than mice. However, rats eat much more at each site than mice.
Rat Trivia
- The phrase: "Rats are the first to desert a sinking ship" has some basis in fact. In the days of wooden sailing vessels, rats lived in the holds of the ships and would be the first to know if a leak had developed. Ironically, their incessant gnawing in the wood often caused the leaks.
- In some cities, the sewer rat population outnumbers the people population. In Australia, one farmer recorded 28,000 dead mice on his porch after one night's effort to poison them and 70,000 in a wheat field in one afternoon.
- Each year, rodents cause more than one billion dollars in damage in the United States alone.
- Water doesn't stop Norway rats. They can swim as far as 1/2 mile in open water, dive through water plumbing traps and travel in sewer lines, even against strong water currents.
- Unlike the teeth of other mammals, the front incisors of rodents never stop growing, In fact, continuously growing front teeth is a trait shared by all rodents from the tiniest mouse to the largest capybara. By observing captive mice and rats who have nothing to gnaw upon, its been found that these incisors can grow up to five inches per year. Rats constantly gnaw anything softer than their teeth, including lead sheeting, improperly cured concrete, sun dried adobe brick, cinder block, wood and aluminum sheeting.
- The battle to rid dwellings of rodent infestations can certainly seem to be an uphill battle and time seems to favor the rodents. After all, rat and mice bones have been found in the caves where cavemen lived.
- Although water is vital to human health, such is not the case with all rodents. Desert dwelling kangaroo rats, gerbils and prairie dogs never drink water. A chemical process transforms part of their solid food into water.
- A rat can drop down 50 feet without injury. What's more, rats have a 36 inch vertical jump and a 48 inch horizontal jump. Rats can also scale rough vertical surfaces and walk along thin ropes and wires. Roof rats are agile climbers and can shinny the outside of three inch diameter pipes or any size pipe within three inches of a wall. Rats are capable of climbing the inside of vertical pipes that are 1 1/2 to 4 inches in diameter
- Since rats can fit through openings that are as small as 1/2 inch in diameter, it is very difficult to rat-proof a building.
Rat facts
-They eat their feces so that they don't waste any nutrients in their food.
-There are little pouches in their mouths that they can store food in.
-They have poor vision and also can't see colors. This is why they have long whiskers to feel what's around them.
-Rats don't have canine teeth. Instead, they have giant teeth in the front of their mouths, called insysers.
- Rats can eat chocolate and other candies,.
- Rats can digest soda, unlike other rodents, because if you give it to a mouse or hamster, they would die because they can't stomach it.
- Rats can eat other small pets. Because they are omnivores, they still have some predatory instinct left, and will eat birds, fish, and other small animals.
- Rats can teach humans how to do some simple tricks!!!!!!!!!!!!
- Rats can't vomit. A rat can, however, gag on something if it eats too quickly. The plus side of this is that rats can usually eat and drink before surgery.
- It is very unlikely that you will catch rabies from a rat.
- A group of rats is called a mischief.
Trapping Tips
- Neophobia, or new-object-fear, makes rats extremely cautious about changes in its territory. It takes several days before a rat will accept a new object as part of its territory.
- Trapping has several advantages over poisons, no hazardous chemicals are used, it permits the trapper to see his successes and it eliminates rat death in inaccessible locations which can creat major odor problems.
- The best places to set traps are close to walls, behind objects, in dark corners; anywhere a rat looking for concealment might run. Set traps where rat runways, droppings and gnawings are evident.
- Traps should be set so that the rat, in following its natural course, will pass directly over the trigger. In setting a trap along a wall, the trap should extend from the wall at right angles, with the trigger end nearly touching the wall.
- Rat traps can be used unbaited by placing them directly in the path of rodents with the trigger situated to intercept rats coming from either direction. Expanded treadle-type triggers like the Big Snap-E make this an effiecent method.
- Rats may spring traps without getting caught. If ever a trap is found sprung but with no rat caughrt you can be sure you will never catch it with a trap again.
- Bait for Norway rats should be small pieces of hot dogs, bacon or other prepared meats secured tightly to the trigger. Baits must be replaced every day or so to keep them fresh. Peanut butter also works well.
- An abundance of food makes trapping more difficult. Eliminate as many of the accessible sources of food as possible.
- Human or dead rat odors on traps do not cause a reduction in the catch.
Rats have been known to carry and spread the following diseases:
Murine Typhus
Typhoid
Plague*
Rat-bite Fever
Leptospirosis (Weil's Disease)
Salmonella*
Trichinosis
Prevention
Rats need three things to survive, and will be a problem until these three things are no longer available: food, water, and shelter. If you have a rat problem, take the following steps to get rid of the rats; if your neighbor has a rat problem, taking the following steps can keep their rat problem from becoming your rat problem:
Food (anything rats might consider food):
Keep food in galvanized metal containers
Keep trash and garbage cans in tightly covered metal containers
Pick up garbage and trash in yards immediately
Remove pet food after the pet has finished eating, and pick up pet droppings
Clean spilled seed from under bird feeders
Wipe any spilled food off the clothing and faces of babies and bedridden adults
NEVER leave a bottle with a baby in the crib overnight
Water:
Repair leaking pipes
Don't let rainwater collect in containers, window wells, etc.
Repair broken sewer pipes leading from your home
Shelter:
Clean up debris like abandoned cars, used appliances, brush piles, etc.
Cut any high weeds, especially around house foundations
Store lumber at least 18 inches from the ground
Clean out basement and attics
Seal off openings in foundations, retaining walls, and basements
Replace all broken windows
Use concrete or metal when rat-proofing; while rats can burrow through concrete, it is much easier for them to gnaw through wood.
Mice - the House Mouse
The house mouse is the most commonly encountered and economically important of the commensal rodents. They are not only a nuisance, but they damage and destroy materials by gnawing, and eat and contaminate stored food. They are also of human health importance as carriers of disease. The house mouse is found worldwide and throughout the United States.
The adult house mouse has a head and body length of about 2 ½" - 3 ½" with its tail being an additional 2 ¾" - 4" long. It weighs from ½ - 3/4 ounce. It has a smooth fur coat that is usually dusty gray above and light gray to cream colored on the belly. Colors will vary from light brown to dark gray above.
The house mouse has a pointed muzzle, small eyes and prominent ears. Its feet are short and broad. The tail is uniformly dark and semi-naked. Droppings of the house mouse are about 1/8" - ¼" long, rod shaped and have pointed ends. They can be distinguished from cockroach droppings because they lack the ridges which are prominent in cockroach droppings.
The house mouse exhibits many signs of infestation:
gnaw marks (new marks rough - old are smooth from wear)
droppings (fresh are soft, moist - old are hard and dry)
tracks (4 toes front feet - 5 toes hind feet, both about same size)
rub marks (small, greasy marks, hard to notice)
burrows (soft materials, openings free of dust or webs)
runways (frequent same paths along walls or stacked goods)
damaged goods (prefer seeds or cereals)
The house mouse is a prolific breeder. It can reach sexual maturity in 35 days. Pregnancy lasts about 19 days. The young are blind and naked, except for vibrissae (long whiskers). They are weaned in about 3-4 weeks. Life expectancy is normally less than 1 year.
The size of an average litter is 6 young, with the potential for about 8 litters per year. A female can have a litter about every 40-50 days. More than 1 litter may be present in the nest at the same time. Each female will average 30-35 weaned per year.
Mice have excellent senses, except for sight. They are color blind and can see clearly for only about 6". They are excellent climbers and can run up walls which have rough surfaces. They are able to swim, but seldom do. They are able to jump about 12" high and can jump down about 8' without injury. They can survive in temperatures as low as 14°F. They can run horizontally along pipes, ropes and wires.
A house mouse needs about 1/10 ounce of dry food per day and about 1/20 ounce of water (which is normally taken from the food source). It will produce about 50 droppings per day. Over a six month period, a pair of mice eat about 4 pounds of food, produce about 18,000 droppings and excrete about 12 ounces of urine. The most common way they transmit disease is by contaminating food with their droppings and urine.
Mice are very social. Related males and females are compatible, but unrelated males are typically aggressive. They maintain a territory with the boundaries marked by urine. Territory size varies, but is usually very small. If food and water are plentiful, they may never venture more than 4-5 feet from their nests. Seldom will they travel more than 15 feet away. Mice are very inquisitive. They are likely to explore new things very quickly.
The house mouse is a nibbler. It eats only a small amount of food at any one time or place. They will eat many kinds of food, but prefer seeds. They feed mainly at dusk and just before dawn, but will nibble frequently in between. They sample new foods, but will return to old sources unless the new food is preferred. Required moisture is obtained from their food, but they will take free water when available, with a preference for sweetened water over plain water.
The house mouse prefers a nesting site that is dark, where there is abundant nesting material nearby and where there is little chance of disturbance. Nesting materials include paper products, cotton, packing materials, insulation, fabrics, etc. They will nest in almost any concealed space, such as walls, cabinets, furniture or stored products. They require an opening of ¼" to gain entry and are nocturnal in habit.
The Egyptians deified rats.
Depending who you believe, you're never more than 10 feet, a few feet, or just three feet from a rat. That said, rats are not evenly distributed.
Of course, some people like to have rats breeding in their homes.
Rats are like people. They enjoy eating, playing, sleeping, and having lots of sex.
The Brown Rat is the most common kind. A 2003 survey estimated there were about 60 million of them in the UK, about the same as the human population.
Rat teeth don't stop growing. Rats who lose a front tooth need dentistry from a human helper to stop the opposing teeth from growing too big for their mouths.
Michael Jackson's ballad Ben is a song about a pet rat.
"People born in the Year of the Rat (1912, 1924, 1936, 1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996) are noted for their charm and attraction for the opposite sex."
Tradition has it that cider-makers would fling a dead rat into a vat of fermenting cider - when the rat had completely dissolved, fermentation was complete. We're confident that modern cider makers use appropriate chemicals instead.
Rat teeth are strong enough to nibble through wood, bone, lead piping, brick, concrete, and metal.
Rats can't vomit (although they can regurgitate - there's a difference). They can't belch either, which can cause problems for any rat that takes a liking to fizzy drinks.
Rats have been sent into space aboard American, Chinese and Russian spacecraft.
Most rats are right-handed.
WRITE 2 ME
http://en.peperonity.com/go/sites/mview/factsb4u/15469805
