Seven Rat Facts that will Make You Cringe

And why you need to get them out of your house!

There are many ways to be a bad roommate: loud music, dirty dishes, late night parties.

But surely the most unwanted roomie is the rodent. Those who share their home with these pests can all agree on one thing: it’s time to give these creatures the boot.

So, adding a little fuel to the fire can’t hurt, right? These facts about rats are sure to ramp up your pest control game plan and – reader beware – likely gross you out. 

• RAT FACT ONE: Rats carry at least 60 communicable diseases, including Hantavirus, leptospirosis, typhus and meningitis. Known to bite people when they’re sleeping, rats transfer diseases through saliva, including rat-bite fever which causes symptoms like fever, vomiting and joint pain and can be fatal if left untreated.
• RAT FACT TWO: Rats can tread water for three days and survive being flushed down a toilet. Worse, they can return to the building they were ‘flushed’ from via the same route.
• RAT FACT THREE: Rats can chew through electrical wires, cinderblocks and even lead pipes with their razor sharp teeth
• RAT FACT FOUR: A rat’s teeth grow five inches a year, only maintained by continuous grinding and gnawing to keep from outgrowing the rat’s mouth
• RAT FACT FIVE: A female rat can mate with as many as 500 partners during a six-hour period of “heat,” or sexual receptivity, which occurs about 15 times per year. That adds up to as many as 2,000 offspring in one year – unfortunate when your unwanted roommates are multiplying at a rapid fire pace
• RAT FACT SIX: Rats eat their own feces for nutritional value
• RAT FACT SEVEN: And one last particularly gross detail: Rats have belly buttons. Ew! 

If these facts don’t compel you to reach for a rat trap, we don’t know what will.

Thankfully, Victor® makes rodent control simple with time-tested products and strategies to trap and kill household invaders. Take your pick of the world’s best rat control solutions with the help of Victor®!