Like norway rats roof rats eat a wide variety of foods but they prefer fruits nuts berries slugs and snails.
Roof rat citrus damage pictures.
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.
In nut orchards roof rats often nest around the base of trees.
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.
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.
These bites or scratches can cause what is known as rat bite fever or even tetanus.
In livestock feed yards and barns roof rats often burrow.
Adult roof rats measure 6 8 16 20 cm when combining their head and body length.
The roof rat can appear similar to the norway rat native arizona pack rat neotoma.
Roof rats are frequent visitors to yards and homes across the country.
Table 1 provides a brief description of the physical similarities and differences among these rodents.
Fruit rats or roof rats as they re commonly called thrive in warm fruit bearing areas.
From rat bites and scratches to saliva and urine rats can cause many diseases.
Roof rats are a health hazard being one of the oldest transmitters of diseases.
Roof rats are food hoarders stashing supplies of food such as seeds and nuts.
While casual observations of roof rats or native rats can.
Their undersides are often white gray or black.
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.
Spp or cotton rat sigmodon arizonae.
Ecology of roof rats and native rats.
Roof rats are long and thin rodents that have large eyes and ears a pointed nose and a scaly tail.
Roof rats have soft and smooth fur that is typically brown with intermixed spots of black.
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.
Too much citrus draws in roof rats.
