Rattus Rattus and Friends
Bright rodents, awesome pets
It sure is hot outside. It’s hard to believe that we recently celebrated the arrival of a highly anticipated annual event at our house: turning on the heat! Alas, only cool air blew from the vents. A quick $100 visit from a repairman determined that rats had built a nest directly over the heater’s pilot light.
“Empty, though, right?” I asked, concerned for the rats. We’d discovered evidence of their presence this summer and gone to great lengths to trap and release the unwelcome rodents far away where they’d likely be eaten by a bird of prey, as the circle of life intended.
Despite the fact that rats cause roughly $20 billion to US homes, businesses, and agriculture annually, I am quite fond of them. I am not alone. Their keen intelligence, cleanliness, and bright eyed, twitchy-nosed cuteness have made rats increasingly popular as pets and they are making headway in other areas as well. From sniffing out landmines to providing insights on empathy, rats are highly valued for their fine-tuned skills and senses.
There are 56 species of rats. The ones that invade our homes and build inconvenient nests are the Norway rat (Rattus norvegicus), commonly known as the brown rat, and the roof rat (Rattus rattus), or black rat. Roof rats, as their name implies, enjoy nesting in roofs and…
