Roof Rat Citrus Damage Pictures

Roof rats have soft and smooth fur that is typically brown with intermixed spots of black.

Roof rat citrus damage pictures.

From rat bites and scratches to saliva and urine rats can cause many diseases. Too much citrus draws in roof rats. Roof rats can be cautious. In livestock feed yards and barns roof rats often burrow.

Roof rats are frequent visitors to yards and homes across the country. Install rat guard around the trunks of the citrus trees. Fruit rats or roof rats as they re commonly called thrive in warm fruit bearing areas. Roof rats are food hoarders stashing supplies of food such as seeds and nuts.

Spp or cotton rat sigmodon arizonae. Roof rats get ferocious and tend to bite or scratch when threatened or cornered. Their bodies are seven or eight inches in length though their bald scaly tails add up to ten more inches. Their undersides are often white gray or black.

The roof rat can appear similar to the norway rat native arizona pack rat neotoma. Adult roof rats measure 6 8 16 20 cm when combining their head and body length. Roof rats are a health hazard being one of the oldest transmitters of diseases. According to the university of california statewide integrated pest management program roof rats are especially fond of avocados and citrus and often eat fruit that is still on the tree.

The rat zapper should be placed close to a roof rat nest or in their runways said ernie henson president and owner of stormin norman termite and pest control. By teri carnicelli the overabundance of citrus this winter and spring may seem like a happy circumstance for those who enjoy spending hours squeezing oranges and grapefruits or making tasty desserts with lemons and limes. Use a sheet metal or aluminum flashing that is at least 18 inches tall and wrap it around the base of the tree overlapping it by 2 or 3. These rodents prefer to consume fruits sometimes referred to as the fruit rat or citrus rat and nuts although roof rats are omnivorous and will feed on almost anything available to them.

Table 1 provides a brief description of the physical similarities and differences among these rodents. While casual observations of roof rats or native rats can. The roof rat sometimes called the black rat is a common vertebrate pest in citrus and nut orchards in citrus it builds leaf and twig nests in trees or it can nest in debris piles thick mulch on the ground or in shallow burrows under the tree especially in hot weather. Other identifying traits include their pointed noses hairless ears and dark fur with light colored underbellies.

In nut orchards roof rats often nest around the base of trees.