Pacific Pests, Pathogens & Weeds - Mini Fact Sheet EditionRats (035)
Pacific Pests, Pathogens & Weeds - Mini Fact Sheet EditionRats (035)
Summary
- Three types. Pacific rat (Asia and Pacific islands, small, nests on the ground); black rat (worldwide, often nests in trees) and brown rat (worldwide, mostly in human settlements; nests underground). Important pests.
- Attack cassava, cocoa, coconut, oil palm, peanut, maize, rice, sweetpotato, and others in storage; also, carry fleas with bacteria causing scrub typhus.
- Cultural control: do not leave food for rats to eat; aluminium bands around coconuts; snap-traps; cats.
- Chemical control: Gliricidia leaves (or Barringonia, flesh of fish poison tree) mixed daily with e.g., cooked rice or root crops; alternatively, warfarin or brodifacoum in baits with coconut, wheat or maize (place in e.g., bamboo sections. Put out in evening and collected in mornings.
Common Name
Polynesian rot, black rat (also called ship rat), brown rat
Scientific Name
Rattus exulans (Pacific rat); Rattus rattus (black rat); Rattus norvegicus (brown rat).
AUTHORS Helen Tsatsia & Grahame Jackson
Photos 2&4 Gerald McCormack, Cook Islands Biodiversity & Natural Heritage (http://cookislands.bishopmuseum.org/). Photo 3 Wikipedia. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_rat). Diagram Wikipedia Black rat. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_rat). Photo 5 Snap trap. (http://www.easypestsupplies.com.au/rat-snap-trap-x-5.html?gclid=CNL6t4OV9L4CFdd6vQod2k8Ayg).
Produced with support from the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research under project PC/2010/090: Strengthening integrated crop management research in the Pacific Islands in support of sustainable intensification of high-value crop production, implemented by the University of Queensland and the Secretariat of the Pacific Community.
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