United States. Dept. of Agriculture. Farmers' Bulletin No. 896

House Rats and Mice

For centuries the world has been fighting rats without organization and at the same time has been feeding them and building for them fortresses for concealment. If we are to fight them on equal terms we must deny them food and hiding places. We must organize and unite to rid communities of these pests. The time to begin is now. Losses from depredations of house rats amount to many millions of dollars yearlyto more, in fact, than those from all other injurious mammals combined. The common house mouse[1] and the brown rat[2] (fig. 1), too familiar to need description, are pests in nearly all parts of the country; while two other kinds of house rats, known as the black rat[3] and the roof rat,[4] are found within our borders. Of these four introduced speciesfor none is native to Americathe brown rat is the most destructive, and, except the mouse, the most numerous and most widely distributed. Brought to America just[Pg 4] before the Revolution, it has supplanted and nearly exterminated its less robust relative the black rat; and in spite of the constant warfare of man has extended its range and steadily increased in numbers. Its dominance is due to its great fecundity and its ability to adapt itself to all sorts of surroundings. It breeds (in the middle part of the United States) six or more times a year and produces from 6 to 20 young (average 10) in a litter. Females breed when only 3 or 4 months old. Thus a pair, breeding uninterruptedly and without deaths, could in three years (18 generations) produce a posterity of 359,709,480 individuals. Mice and the black and roof rats produce smaller litters, but the period of gestation, about 21 days, and the number of litters are the same for all. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 35542
Author: Lantz, David E. (David Ernest)
Release Date: Mar 10, 2011
Format: eBook
Language: English