The metro area has two kinds of rats.
Roof rat vs sewer.
This type of rat is also called many other names including a brown rat sewer rat common rat street rat or wharf rat.
Roof rats have soft and smooth fur that is typically brown with intermixed spots of black.
The norway rat has other names such as brown rat wharf rat and sewer rat and these names should alert you to the fact that norway rats prefer to live in underground tunnels and cellars.
Sewer rat water rat wharf rat.
Their undersides are often white gray or black.
Thus they enter homes or businesses through the ground level or even the basement.
Roof rats are strong climbers.
The norway generally gray colored scurrying around your bushes and basement and sometimes even up the pipes into your toilet.
Norway rats tend to look more well fed and rounder than roof rats with small eyes close set ears and a shorter tail.
Also called the brown rat street rat common rat or sewer rat the norway rat is a brown or gray rodent that measures 7 10 inches long with a tail that s slightly shorter than the length of its body.
And the roof rat darker in.
Unlike the norway rat which is also known as a sewer or brown rat roof rats are smaller in size and their tails are longer than their bodies.
Adult roof rats measure 6 8 16 20 cm when combining their head and body length.
As one of the monikers assigned to this type of rodent suggests they can also enter into a building via sewer lines.
In houses brown rats can cause incredible destruction even going so far as to tunnel under foundations and chew through garbage cans to find food.
Roof rats are frequent visitors to yards and homes across the country.
Norway rats are ground dwelling creatures that are not adept at climbing.
The roof rat about the roof rat.
Other identifying traits include their pointed noses hairless ears and dark fur with light colored underbellies.
For the most part they are vegetarian although they will eat almost anything that is available.
Their bodies are seven or eight inches in length though their bald scaly tails add up to ten more inches.
While roof rats excel scaling your roof norway rats are powerful swimmers.
Because norway rats tend to be larger their droppings are also larger about 3 4 inch long whereas roof rat droppings are usually about half an inch.
Roof rats are identified by a number of different names including palm rats fruit rats citrus rats and black rats.
Roof rats have black fur not as coarse as the coats of norway rats.
Roof rats are long and thin rodents that have large eyes and ears a pointed nose and a scaly tail.
The roof rat is the most common type of rat found in south florida.
They grow up to 18 in in length including their tail and weigh at least 5 oz.
