Baton Rouge Rat Removal Tip: Rats Prefer Urban Areas

People often ask if rats prefer urban or rural areas. Quite surprisingly, you'll find more rats in urban areas. Statistics have shown this time and time again because they have more access to food and shelter in an urban environment.

Rats in an urban environment tend to mature more quickly and reproduce more. In fact, studies have shown that rats in urban environments reproduce as many as four to five times per year. Additionally, the number of young increases with each litter as the female continues to mature.

Types of Rats

Norway and roof rats are the most prominent type of rats in the United States. They are also the most abundant type in urban areas. These rats build nests in attics, along elevated areas of homes or apartments and around dumpsters.

They find plenty of material to build their nests in walls and under porches. The amount of space available for rats to proliferate in urban environments is enormous.

City drainage and sewers also give them plenty of access to water. Another major factor is the absence of natural predators in urban environments. In wild rural environments rat populations are controlled by reptiles and birds. In fact, they can eat up to fifty percent of the rat population. However, these predators are absent in an urban setting, allowing rat populations to explode.

Rat Survival

Rats are intelligent, albeit dirty, little creatures. They forage for food and live to reproduce, ensuring species survival rates. In fact, all their instincts are geared toward survival. It has been said that rats and cockroaches would be the only living things to survive a nuclear war and its true.

As the human race continues to transform the rural landscape, rats are moving in. They access food and shelter conveniently, living off what we store and throw away. It is only natural for the rat population to follow the convenient food source, especially with the absence of natural predators.

A female rat can have up to two-dozen or more young annually. Its easy to see why their populations can explode. Females also tend to live in groups and feed each other's young, especially in urban areas. This gives the young a stronger chance of survival and sends many out into the population at one time.

Rats are also nocturnal. They tend to do most of their scavenging at night, when much of the city is sleeping. Urban areas suit rats very well and sometimes even box them in. Rats most definitely prefer living the easy life in an urban environment.