A recent Klang Valley survey shows a growing population of rodents, largely found at dirty eateries and recreational areas, which can lead to leptospirosis outbreaks

Rats in Malaysia

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Different Types of Rat/Mice

House Mouse


The house mouse is a small, slender rodent that has a slightly pointed nose; small, black, somewhat protruding eyes; large, sparsely haired ears; and a nearly hairless tail with obvious scale rings.

Habitat

House mice live in and around homes, farms, commercial establishments, and in open fields and agricultural land.

Food Habits

House mice eat many types of food but prefer seeds and grain. They are not hesitant to eat new foods and are considered “nibblers,” sampling many kinds of items that may exist in their environment.
House mice can survive with little or no free.They obtain their water from the food they eat. water.

Reproduction

Litters of 5 or 6 young are born 19 to 21 days after mating.

Damage Identification

They may feed on various stored food items or pet foods.A single mouse eats only about 3 grams of food per day,but destroys considerably more food than it consumes because of its habit of nibbling on many foods and discarding partially eaten items.
House mice cause structural damage to buildings by their gnawing and nest-building activities.
House mice often make homes in large electrical appliances, and here they may chew up wiring as well as insulation, resulting in short circuits which create fire hazards or other malfunctions that are expensive to repair.

Diseases

The diseases mice or their parasites may transmit to humans are salmonellosis (food poisoning), rickettsialpox, and lymphocytic choriomeningitis. Mice may also carry leptospirosis, ratbite fever, tapeworms, and organisms that can cause ringworm (a ungal skin disease) in humans. They have also been found to act as reservoirs or transmitters of diseases of veterinary importance, such as swine dysentery, a serious bacterial disease of swine often called “bloody scours.”

Norway Rat also known as Brown rat,Sewer rat,Street rat



Their fur is coarse and usually brownish or reddish gray above and whitish gray on the belly. Blackish individuals occur in some locations.

Habitat

They live in and around residences, in cellars, warehouses, stores, slaughterhouses, docks, and in sewers.They may burrow to make nests under buildings and other structures, beneath concrete slabs, along stream banks, around ponds, in garbage dumps, and at other locations where suitable food, water, and shelter are present. Although they can climb, Norway rats tend to inhabit the lower floors.

Food Habits

Street rats will eat nearly any type of food. They select a nutritionally balanced diet, choosing fresh, wholesome items over stale or contaminated foods. Food items in household garbage offer a fairly balanced diet and also satisfy their moisture needs.

Behavior , Reproduction

Norway Rats or Street rats usually become active about dusk. Some individuals may be active during daylight hours when rat populations are high.
They quickly detect and tend to avoid new objects placed into a familiar environment. Thus, objects such as traps and bait stations often are avoided for several days or more following their initial placement

Damage Identification

Rats cause structural damage to buildings by burrowing and gnawing. They undermine building foundations and slabs, cause settling in roads and railroad track beds, and damage the banks of irrigation canals and levees.
Rats also may gnaw on electrical wires or water pipes, either in structures or below ground. They damage structures further by gnawing openings through doors, window sills, walls, ceilings, and floors.
Considerable damage to insulated structures can occur as a result of rat burrowing and nesting in walls and attics.

Diseases

Among the diseases rats may transmit to humans or livestock are murine typhus, leptospirosis, trichinosis, salmonellosis (food poisoning), and ratbite fever. Plague is a disease that can be carried by a variety of rodents, but it is more commonly associated with roof rats (Rattus rattus) than with Norway rats.

Roof Rat



Three subspecies have been named, and these are generally identified by their fur color:
(1) the black rat (R. rattus rattus Linnaeus) is black with a gray belly;
(2) the Alexandrine rat (R. rattus alexandrinus Geoffroy) has an agouti (brownish streaked with gray) back and gray belly; and
(3) the fruit rat (R. rattus frugivorus Rafinesque), has an agouti back and white belly.

Habitat

Roof rats are more aerial than Norway rats in their habitat selection and often live in trees.
Roof rats frequently enter buildings from the roof or from accesses near overhead utility lines, which they use to travel from area to area. They are often found living on the second floor of a warehouse in which Norway rats occupy the first or basement floor. Once established, they readily breed and thrive within buildings, just as Street rats do.

Food Habits

Roof Rat will feed on almost anything. In food-processing and storage facilities, they will feed on nearly all food items.
They do very well on feed provided for domestic animals such as swine, dairy cows, and chickens, as well as on dog and cat food. There is often a correlation between rat problems and the keeping of dogs, especially where dogs are fed outdoors.
Roof rats usually require water daily, though their local diet may provide an adequate amount if it is high in water content.

Behavior , Reproduction

The 5 to 8 young in the litter are born.
Rats usually begin searching for food shortly after sunset.
If the food is in an exposed area and too large to be eaten quickly, but not too large to be moved, they will usually carry it to a hiding place before eating it.

Damage Identification

In food-processing and food-storage facilities, roof rats do about the same type of damage as Norway rats, and damage is visually hard to differentiate.
Rats also may gnaw on electrical wires or water pipes, either in structures or below ground. They damage structures further by gnawing openings through doors, window sills, walls, ceilings, and floors.
If living under a refrigerator or freezer, they may disable the unit by gnawing the electrical wires.

Diseases

Like the Norway rat, the roof rat is implicated in the transmission of a number of diseases to humans, including murine typhus, leptospirosis, salmonellosis (food poisoning), rat-bite fever, and plague. It is also capable of transmitting a number of diseases to domestic animals and is suspected in the transference of ectoparasites from one place to another.