We love our superheroes, be it Superman, batman, spiderman or even the great HULK!!! But they are all superhumans. When it comes to super animals such as super rats, we nurture a mixture of feelings, ranging from fear and helplessness to pure and simple hate.
There are a number of reasons why the feelings towards super rats are not of the adoration given to superhumans. It’s very simple, the superhumans save people from destruction and super rats create destruction. Super rats can quite easily be the villainous character in one of the superhuman novels or movies.
Super Rats can be a problem in urban, suburban and rural areas. They infest old buildings and crowded, unsanitary areas that exist in an urban environment. However, they can also be a problem even where newer homes and sanitary conditions exist. Since these rodents eat practically anything humans eat, they get plenty of food from home gardens, fruit or nut trees and even parts of some ornamental shrubs and flowers. Garbage disposals also attract rats into household and street sewer lines. Rats and mice have long been a problem on farms where food is plentiful and convenient nesting sites are both numerous and hard to eliminate.
Here are just a few of the abilities these rodents have developed to survive people’s constant attempts to eliminate them: They can burrow long distances from a nest to food sources, reducing their exposure to predators. The tunnels may extend 4 vertical feet into the earth. They can scale walls and walk across telephone wires with ease. They are excellent swimmers–capable of navigating a half mile through open water. They are amazingly resilient, easily surviving falls up to 50 feet.
An article titled “A NEW breed of “super rats” immune to poison and too smart to get caught in traps has invaded Sydney. Dirtier than cockroaches, more voracious than mice and more annoying than the Queensland State of Origin side, rats are set to become the state’s most-hated pest this winter.”, was published in The Daily Telegraph on May 30, 2012. It stated the following:
And it gets worse – they are also canny enough to steal food from traditional snap traps without getting caught.
Australian Museum naturalist Martin Robinson said: “A lot of suburban rats have been baited for as long as Sydney has been settled; so many populations have become immune to those baits. One of the interesting things is that when they become immune to the bait, they can actually become addicted to it.”
So, how to defeat a legion of super-smart rodents buzzing on an overdose of Ratsak? Bacon and fuse-wire.
Mr. Robinson said bacon rind and other strong-smelling food sources like anchovies were perfect to lure a rat to a trap while tying the bait down with fuse-wire ensured the rodents did not get away without springing the catch.
Two species of rat inhabit homes – ground-dwelling sewer rat and the roof rat, which as the name suggests is a much better climber and tends to nest in roof cavities. Pest controller Steve Cope said roof rats, also known as black rats despite the fact they are often brown, frequently entered homes via overhanging tree branches. Once in residence, they breed, feed, defecate, fight and chew to their hearts’ content while their human hosts live below.
Mr. Robinson said that, with their fast rate of breeding, populations could spring up almost anywhere in Sydney but established colonies had thrived for years in Hyde Park and near the No.4 platform at Town Hall train station.
Increases in rat infestations have been reported in Cronulla, Brighton Le Sands, Rose Bay, Bellevue Hill, Surry Hills and Paddington. Mr. Robinson said suburban rats often took refuge in homes as the weather cooled due to a lack of shelter and food elsewhere.
“They’re small animals and warm-blooded, so when the weather gets cold they tend to get desperate and they need to eat a bit more to keep warm,” he said. “They’re basically going to be following their noses, so they’ll be getting into bins and hanging around cafes and places like that where the food odors are wafting around.
“But if they can’t maintain the food/heat-loss balance they’ll die, so a warm nesting spot is almost as good as a food supply. If they get both they’re home and hosed.”
These super rats are one of a kind and do not get affected by the rodenticides used for the normal rat species. They get used to these chemicals and also lead to poisoning of products that they come in contact with. They need more poisonous chemicals to kill them or affect them and this cannot be a viable alternative as these chemicals are a huge risk for the ecosystem as a whole.
Similarly, an article was published in Mail online in December 2012, stating that a plague of ‘super rats’ in the Home Counties can be wiped out only with considerably stronger poisons.
Council experts say the number of mutant rats, which are resistant to conventional poisons, is rising drastically after flooding drove them into homes and created ideal breeding conditions.
West Berkshire Council is asking the Health and Safety Executive to change the rules on how poison is used.
Homes in Berkshire, Oxford, and Hampshire have reported increased numbers of the ‘super-rodent’ which is resistant to normal poisons and can transmit life-threatening diseases to humans and farm animals.
However, wildlife experts fear that if stronger poisons are allowed to be used against the rat-threat it may harm innocent local wildlife.
The ‘super-rats’ population is due to increase further as the recent flooding across many parts of Britain has created ideal breeding conditions.
West Berkshire Council is lobbying the Health and Safety Executive for permission to use powerful rodenticides, brodifacoum and flocoumafen, which are currently limited to indoor use.
Graham Chappell, from Rapid Pest Control in Newbury, who is contracted by West Berkshire Council, said: ‘It’s becoming more of an issue now simply because of the number of rats that are being seen.
‘They’ve also mutated genetically and are bred to be immune to standard poisons.
‘We have to start using different methods such as trapping and gassing, which can be less effective and more costly.’
A study by University of Reading’s Rodenticide Resistance Action Group involving testing the tails of hundreds of rats killed in Berkshire and Oxfordshire, found that many of the rodents were resistant to common forms of poison used by local authorities and professional pest controllers, farmers and gamekeepers.
There were also similar incidents reported in different parts and counties of Britain.
There needs to be an alternate solution for this as super rats are a worldwide phenomenon. They cause of path of destruction wherever they go and it needs to be stopped effectively and immediately keeping the ecology in mind.
C Tech Corporation has come up with such a unique and ideal alternative: Combirepel™
Combirepel™is an extremely low toxicity and extremely low hazard anti-rodent additive for masterbatches specially developed for a range of polymeric and coating applications. It is also effective in case the target species is birds and other animals. This product works on the mechanism of repellency. It does not kill the target species, and also does not affect the application it is used in. It is available in masterbatches, liquid or lacquer form.
It does not affect the humans coming in contact with the application they are incorporated in.
And moreover, last but not the least, it does not kill the animal but only repels them. Thus it is eco-friendly.
Contact us at technical.marketing@ctechcorporation.com if you’re facing problems with rodents and get best remedies to combat the pest menace.
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