Essay On Pest Rats

INTRODUCTION

Mammals are defined as warm blooded, having the possession of fur or hair, three middle ear bones, and mammary glands. One of the orders in mammals is Rodentia which include rodents, mice and etc. There are about 4237 species of mammals, and 1729 are rodents (Stoddart, 1979). Rodents also identified as rats as their common trait is the presence of an upper and lower pair of chisel-edged, curved incisors with orange, brown or yellow outer enamel. And this characteristic that distinguished them from the mole, gymnures and shrews.

Rats have been considered as small mammals as their weight ranges from less than 2 grams to about 5 kilograms for adult and embraces the most successful and the most highly evolved in the world wide. Most rats are considered as pest and some as pet. They are very dependent on human basic needs such as food, shelter,

They are also refers as commensal rats as they are the main pest for human. They cannot be handled lightly as they can cause serious physical damage besides carries and transmit diseases which can cause

Of all the mammals, the best suited to all situations and very fast in adapting to wide ranges of habitats are the rats and mice (Hirshhorn, 1974). Despite their great species diversity, all rodents share the common features which is the single pair of incisor in each jaw and the incisors grow continually throughout life (Myers, 2000). Rodents gnaw their incisors in order to retain their chisel shape as the incisors are worn down. This ‘self-sharpening’ system is very effective and one of the keys to the enormous success of rodents (Myers, 2000). Most rodents are herbivorous but some are omnivorous and others prey on insects (Myers,