Commensal Rodents and their Control

There are more than 1,500 species of rodents, making them the largest group of non-flying mammals in the animal kingdom. But by definition, only the Norway rat, the roof rat, and the house mouse are considered commensal rodents, literally meaning that they "eat at the same table" as we do. Of these three, the roof rat is of little importance in New Jersey; leaving only the Norway rat (shown at the right) and the house mouse as significant rodent pests in our neck of the woods.

Commensal rodents tend to live in close association with humans, unlike other rodents (rabbits, beavers, woodchucks, chipmunks, and so forth) who tend to live out in nature somewhere and who go out of their way to avoid us. This close association between commensal rodents and humans brings with it many problems.

 

Commensal Rodent Identification and Biology

Control of commensal rodents requires proper identification of the specie and a detailed understanding of their habits. For an illustrated discussion of the physical differences between the three species of commensal rodents, please click here or on the picture on the right.

In terms of their senses, neither mice nor rats have very good vision. They appear to be color blind and to have accurate visual acuity for only a few feet (although they can detect shapes, shadows, and movement from a greater distance). They tend to navigate by scent and by scurrying along next to vertical surfaces, using their whiskers and special hairs on their bodies to feel their way along.

Both mice and rats have excellent senses of hearing, taste, and smell, however:

• A rodent's normal hearing range extends up to 50 MHz, twice that of humans.

• Rodents can taste many chemicals in concentrations measured in the parts-per-million range (making rodent bait rejection a real challenge for pest control operators).

• A rodent's sense of smell is many times more sensitive than that of humans. Rodents use their sense of smell to mark objects and pathways with urine or glandular secretions, to recognize the odors of the pathways to and from food sources, to identify members of the opposite sex who are ready to mate, to differentiate between members of their own colonies and strangers, and to tell if a stranger rodent is a strong or weak individual.

Both rats and mice prefer grain-based foods; but rats, especially, will eat almost anything in necessity dictates.

Rodents have remarkable reproductive capacities. Under ideal conditions, a single pregnant mouse, for example, could theoretically become the matriarch of an extended family of several hundred mice in a year, were all of her progeny to survive and breed normally.

 

Health and Economic Significance of Commensal Rodents

The health significance of commensal rodents cannot be overstated:

• In the 14th Century A.D., plague spread by fleas carried by rats killed an estimated one-fourth of the Western world's then-known population.
• Rodents and their parasites are also known to be involved in the transmission of Lyme disease, salmonella, typhus, food poisoning, and hantavirus.
• Rodents contaminate millions of pounds of stored food and feed each year with their urine, droppings, saliva, shed fur, and other by-products.

In addition to their public health significance, rodents annually cause an untold number of fires and millions of dollars worth of damage to homes, businesses, and communications networks due to their gnawing on electrical and communications cables.

 

Control of Commensal Rodents

A successful rodent control program may involve any or all of the following steps:

• Identification of the rodent specie, its location, and its habits and travel routes. This is always essential.
• Sanitation and environmental modifications to remove sources of food and harborage and stress the rodent population.
• Trapping, using glue traps, snap traps, or mechanical traps, to rapidly reduce rodent populations.
• Poisoning, using rodenticide baits or tracking powders to kill rats and mice who have evaded being trapped.
• Exclusion to keep rodents out of buildings and sensitive areas.
• Ongoing monitoring to continually assess the effectiveness of the rodent control program and rapidly deal with any new rodent issues that may arise.

Clearly, rodent control is no job for amateurs. Don't waste time and money trying to do it yourself. For the finest quality residential or commercial rodent extermination services in Central New Jersey, contact your neighborhood experts at Eliminex.

 

Click here for our limited-time Rodent Control Special Offer!

 

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