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(214) 561-2744
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(214) 561-2744
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(214) 561-2744
Home » Blog » One Rat Can Have Up To 204 Babies a Year!

One Rat Can Have Up To 204 Babies a Year!

One Rat Can Have Up To 204 Babies a Year!

Yup, that's right! In theory one female rat can have up to 204  baby rats a year. A fertile female rat could have a litter averaging 10-12 babies every 3 weeks. She could have up to 17 litters in a year, so she could have 170-204 babies rats a year. Now to make things a little more interesting, a baby rat is fertile after 30 days. So assuming that the first rat has 204 babies and half are female. In just one year with all 102 rats reproducing and half of their offspring reproducing and so on, there can be up to 120,000-150,000 rat descendants per year. Now that is just a little brain teaser for you and that's if all the stars aligned. However, you get the point!

Baby Rats
Baby rats.

The Dangers of Rat Infestation

Rats in your attic or living area of your home can create a dangerous environment for both the inhabitants and the home its self. When people think about rats, we think of them living and scavenging at a ground level. However, rats are extremely acrobatic and are great climbers. Rats can easily find their way into your home through roofs, siding, and vents. When rats make their way into your home they do not come alone. Rats bring emotional stress, diseases, destruction, and other unwanted pest.

Rats alike most rodents are nocturnal, which means they begin to search for food, chew, nest, and burrow as you are getting ready to go to sleep. Rats skittering, thumping, and chewing can be very noisy and keep you up at night, wondering what damages are accumulating in your home. Just hearing rats is enough to cause some emotional stress for people as they toss and turn at night.

Health Risks Associated with Rat Infestations in Your Home

In our experience, rats are one of the greatest disease carriers in the animal kingdom, and were directly responsible for millions of deaths during the Bubonic plague. Although the plague has died out, rats still have the potential to make people and pets very sick through three methods:

Home contamination caused by a rat infestation.
Rat dropping and chewish wire are common signs of their presence in the attic.

Contamination- If rats have nested in your home consequently, they will find a way into any food source by their nest. Which will likely be your kitchen or food pantry. As rats tear into you bread, coffee, tea, pasta, cereal, etc. they will leave droppings, urine, and saliva behind.

Rats leave a little drop of urine every 3-5 steps which makes their underbellies greasy. As they go over something several times it can create a grease mark.  Consuming liquid or food that has been contaminated can be potentially very dangerous for humans. Diseases transmitted via contamination are Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome, Leptospirosis, Salmonellosis, Rat Fever (Epidemic Arthritic Erythema) amongst others.

Bites & Scratches- Wild rats are not friendly. Although they likely will not attack a person, if cornered they will bite and scratch. If you are bit or scratched by a rat you must see a doctor immediately to ensure you do not contract Tetanus or Rat Fever (Epidemic Arthritic Erythema).

Fleas, Rat Mites, Ticks- When we provide our rat removal service, we have found that rats also bring other pest like fleas, rat mites, and ticks. Rat Mites being the worst of the three are also the most difficult to rid from your home. Rat Mites can live off of any blood source and warm body, so they will stick around well after your rodent issue has been solved. Most complaints due to rat mites involve clients waking up with very itchy bites primarily on their torso. Rat Mites are heat seeker are typically picked up prior to going to bed. During the night rat mite will bite repeatedly and since they inject an anticoagulant saliva, the bites will not itch for hours.

Defend Your Home Against Rat Infestations

Rats teeth are constantly growing. In order to keep rat’s teeth short and trimmed to prevent them from growing to big they must chew wood in the wild. Unfortunately, when rats make their way into your attic, they tend to chew electrical wires, insulation, piping, and ducting. One of the biggest safety concerns when having rats in the attic is electrical fires. In the last 10 years rodents have been responsible for 8% of all fires in the U.S due to chewed wires. Sadly, most homeowner insurance policies do not cover fires caused by rodents.

Structural damage caused to a Dallas area home caused by rats nesting in the house.
Rats can make their way into your home through small holes in the roof, wall, or attic. 

In addition to direct damage, rats can fit into holes just under an inch which basically makes your entire home a possible entry point. Once the rodent has found a hole in a wall allowing them to enter your home, they will make the hole a prime growling area. Over the course of time the inch sized hole will become big enough to allow bigger rodents in. This is typically how homes get squirrels, opossums, and raccoons.

Professional Rat Removal and Attic Sanitation Services with Critter Stop

Rats in your attic may seem like an easy task to handle by yourself but there is a lot to go along with rats in the attic. Critter Stop has you covered though! We offer an in-depth permanent solution to rid a home of rats, keep other rats out, and properly decontaminate and sanitize a home. Critter Stop begins by removing the rodents either by a live trap or a one-way valve. Once the rat is removed, we will seal all possible entry points to prevent re-entry of ANY RODENTS (NOT JUST RATS).

Followed by the sanitation process. Which for rats can be as simple as just fogging or as complex as removing the insulation. Our crews show up in hazmat suits and respirators. We remove all the attic insulation, droppings, and debris down to the bare decking and sheet rock. Inspect all wires, ducting, and piping for chewing. If needed, replace ducting.

Followed by fogging the entire attic, killing all micro-bacteria, biological markers, pheromones, and scent markers left behind by the rodents. Perform mild preparation work to the attic and then blow-in brand new insulation. Critter Stop also offers the most in-depth Lifetime Guarantee in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. Call us at (214) 234-2616 to schedule to put an end to your rat problem now!

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Lee Gorman
Lee Gorman
13:50 21 Nov 22
I’d give a 10 star review if I could! We had a great experience with Critter Stop. Everyone I dealt was friendly, professional, and reassuring. Phillip was very helpful and knowledgeable about the work he was doing. He walked me around the entire house to make sure I saw and understood the services he provided. He was also really nice and answered all my questions — he is exactly the type of person that should be interacting with customers.I love the fact that they will come back for up to 1 year after installation if any problems occur — this shows me they stand behind their work.The owner was great too, he personally came to my house and walked me through their offering. I recommend critter stop to anyone and everyone!
Susan Casey
Susan Casey
14:53 15 Nov 22
Critter Stop is a fantastic business! Everyone involved is extremely professional and very easy to communicate with. Chisam, the owner, did a great job of explaining the process to get the squirrels out of my attic during the initial free estimate. The exclusion crew who did all of the initial work was fabulous. The crew consisted of Phillip, Nick and Corey who arrived promptly when they said they would. They are happy, positive employees. Everyone is very polite and patient in explaining their work and answering questions. They came back several times to check the traps and finish it off with the fogging. Lester was very good about following up to schedule each trap check with me, and the office staff who took care of the billing was very efficient. Critter Stop is a well run company with honest, trustworthy employees! Thank you to all of you who worked hard to make my attic critter free and for the peace of mind that you guarantee your work. Great to know I can call them if for some reason a squirrel figures out a way to get back in!
Karen Eckholdt
Karen Eckholdt
14:54 22 Sep 22
Critter Stop has made this project easy and extremely professional from start to finish! They are very detailed and competent from start to finish and know so much about their business. They made a problem easy for us and at a reasonable cost. We would be happy to recommend this company and their owners and staff to anyone.
Aaron Echols
Aaron Echols
13:51 03 Aug 22
The guys at Critter Stop responded quickly, were very friendly, and gave us an honest estimate of what we might need. They explained why some items on other quotes were or were not necessary. They communicated well to get us scheduled, and did the work well and quickly. Great service at a fair and competitive price.
Jacob Scribner
Jacob Scribner
19:23 27 Jul 22
Brandon and his other coworker Gavin came to install insulation in my attic. I am very grateful for the hard work and professionalism. My house feels a lot better with the insulation installed. 5 star review. Cory Leach was also very nice and helpful. He came to my house to do another job and was very attentive and professional. Thank you Corey and thank you Critter Stop for helping me.The owner very polite and helpful, I’m glad I found this company to help me.
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