Rodents

Providing Effective Rodent Removal Services in New York City

Let us help prevent rats and mice from spreading disease and damaging your business and home. Protect your family, employees, and facility by calling us for rodent removal services in New York City and New Jersey.

House Mouse

The type of mouse that everyone thinks of when they hear the word “mouse” is the house mouse. House mice are one of the most famous small mammals known to humans because they usually live closely with us. Domestic mice are similar in size and greyish-brown above and below. Their tails are scaly like the Norway rat and not covered with fur like the deer mouse.

House mice can be found in fields and buildings. They eat almost anything and breed all year round, having as many as a dozen litters a year of three to eight young each.

In just 3 months, a family of six mice can multiply into a family of 60. A pup can breed at the age of 6 weeks and can live approximately 1 year. Because mice choose to live near humans, they are considered pests and are trapped or poisoned.

Norway Rats

This type of rat lives both with man and in the open, where vegetation is tall. Norway rats usually shelter in basements or burrows under sidewalks or outbuildings. They are commonly seen around garbage dumps, feed stores, and chicken houses.

Behavior of Norway Rats

Norway rats are more at home on the ground but can also be seen crossing from one building to another through a telephone wire, which shows that they are excellent climbers. Around poultry houses, Norway rats feed extensively on eggs and young chickens. They have even been known to kill young pigs and lambs.

Norway rats are a food source for barn owls, spotted skunks, and house cats. However, because they are such prolific breeders, their predators often can’t keep their population in check.

Harmful Effects of a Norway Rats Infestation

Norway rats are a reservoir of dreadful diseases, including the bubonic plague, endemic typhus fever, and rat bite fever. Therefore, it is best to have buildings and garbage cans rat-proofed.

Roof Rats (Latin Name: Rattus rattus)

Roof rats appear black or brown and can be 13 to 18 inches long. They have long tails, large ears, and eyes, and pointed noses. These rats can weigh 5-9 ounces. Their bodies are smaller and sleeker than Norway rats and have smooth fur.

Reproduction of Roof Rats

These rats become sexually mature between 2 and 5 months, producing four to six litters yearly that comprise six to eight young each. They can live up to 1 year.

Where Do Roof Rats Usually Nest?

Roof rats nest outside in trees, debris, woodpiles, and dense vegetations. Indoors, roof rats prefer nesting in the upper levels of buildings, such as attics and ceilings.

Roof rats enter homes, sheds, garages, and other structures through openings larger than a nickel, looking for places safe from predators and good for nesting. They follow pipes down from the attic and gnaw through drywall to access structures. They may chew through wood, plastic, aluminum siding, Sheetrock, and soft metals to gain access to interiors. Attics provide a safe nesting place for their young and routes into the home below.

Harmful Effects of a Roof Rats Infestation

Rats can spread diseases. Sometimes, they transmit illnesses directly by contaminating food with feces or urine or biting people. Indirectly, they transmit diseases by infecting us through the fleas that bite disease-infected rats; the flea can spread the infection by biting a person or other animals.