- 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.
Pacific Pests, Pathogens and Weeds - Online edition
Pacific Pests, Pathogens, Weeds & Pesticides
Rats (035)
Click/tap on images to enlarge
Summary
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
Information from CABI (2019) Rattus (rats) Invasive Species Compendium. (https://www.cabi.org/isc/datasheet/46827); and Rat - Wikipedia. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat); and Rattus exulans (Pacific rat) (2019) Invasive Species Compendium. (https://www.cabi.org/isc/datasheet/46834); and Rattus rattus (black rat) (2019) Invasive Species Compendium. (https://www.cabi.org/isc/datasheet/46831); and from Rattus norvegicus (brown rat) (2019) Invasive Species Compendium. (https://www.cabi.org/isc/datasheet/46829). Photos 2&4 Gerald McCormack, Cook Islands Biodiversity & Natural Heritage (http://cookislands.bishopmuseum.org/). Photo 3 Black rat. Wikipedia. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_rat). Diagram Vergleich_Hausratte_Wanderratte_DE.svg, based on the work by Karim-Pierre Maale. (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Comparison_Black_Rat_Brown_Rat_EN.svg). 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.
