Australia has had nasty rat infestations for a while now, and there was a recent surge in the number of rats invading a small coastal town in Australia.
Before we dive into the invasion, let’s learn about how rats live. Rats will usually nest in old, dark, trashy places or mostly anywhere they can hide from predators. Once rats find a comfortable place to nest, they’ll quickly start reproducing over 5 to 12 mice in one delivery. This is why rats are often in big numbers and very hard to eliminate.
Not only are rats gross, but they can also carry many diseases. Rats are widely known to cause pandemics and they were one of the main causes for the black death or bubonic plague from the 1300s. Other than the bubonic plague, they are also known to carry monkeypox, hantavirus, leptospirosis, and much more.
In Australia, a biological researcher Emma Gray, was on her way to study mammals but discovered the impending rat plague in small coastal Australian towns. While Gray was doing her fieldwork, she stumbled upon more than 1,000 long-haired rats. “You could just see tunnels everywhere in the grass,” said Gray.
But why are these rats deciding to invade the small Australian towns? According to The Telegraph, rats are most likely invading due to the recent heavy rainfall and litter in the areas.
When I asked neighbors who have previously had rat infestations this is what they said, “The best way to get rid of rats in my opinion is to clean up. I had them in my garage for a bit, and all I had to do was set up some traps and clean up the area because I had lots of garbage lying around. After a couple of days, they were gone.” -anonymous neighbors.
According to the CDC and my neighbors, the best and easiest way to prevent rodent infestations is to remove food sources, such as scrapped food that has been thrown away, by making sure there’s no access to them. Removing access to water, and items that could provide shelter for rats such as cardboard boxes. The way to prevent rats is to keep things clean and throw away trash.
Australian towns are considering these repellants and working on extinguishing rats from Australia.
In conclusion, rats are a very common nuisance, and there are many ways to prevent them.
