Once rats enter your home they will hide away and breed so you will soon have a major infestation. Recognising the signs early means you can eliminate the problem before it becomes severe. A rat produces up to 40 droppings each night. They are dark and shiny and about the size and shape of an olive. You’ll find them in large groupings.Rat urine also has a very sharp smell which you can’t miss.They can climb walls so you’ll hear scratching noises behind walls, particularly at night when they’re most active. Rats have incisors that never stop growing so they gnaw constantly to keep their teeth ground down. You’ll see gnaw marks on anything hard such as cables, concrete, wood, metal, walls, pipes, and furniture. Rats commonly bunch together shredded paper, cardboard, fabric and plastic to make their nests. You’ll see shreds of the materials around their burrows which they dig into the earth and nests built in drains, around rubbish bins, in compost heaps, amongst logs, under sheds and in outbuildings .Urban areas provides rats with perfect living conditions: food, water and shelter. Rats are prolific breeders and the potential for exponential growth in the rat population in a very short time is massive. They breed year-round and are able to reproduce at just 10-weeks old. A female rat can live for 2-years and produces up to 6-litters each year, which can result in a total of 120-offspring. Because of this it’s important to achieve a complete kill of all the rats in a colony. A professional pest control technician understands the behaviour of rats and knows where to place the bait throughout the site to achieve this. Rats carry many severe, sometimes fatal diseases which they can spread to humans, normally through their urine and droppings. These include hantavirus, Weil’s disease, listeria, toxoplasma gondi and salmonella. They also can cause serious structural damage to properties by chewing through electrical cables which can cause fires, water and gas pipes etc. Many instances of electrical fires and floods have been attributed to them. Because of this they need to be handled carefully and disposed of safely.