Some Untraditional Methods For Roof Rat Control

Commensal rodents are among the most successful and abundant mammals on earth today. The most important commensal rodents are the roof rat, Rattus rattus, the Norway rat, Rattus norvegicus, and the house mouse, Mus musculus. All of them have a cosmopolitan distribution since they have taken advantage of human transport and trade routes to spread from their original homeland in Asia to all continents of the world (Brooks and Rowe, 1987). The success of these rodent species could be attributed to their ability to adapt to the ever changing environmental conditions (Miller, 2002).More attention has been given to the control of commensal rodents when the role of rats in the spread of plague was clearly shown at the end of the 19th century. National rodent control campaigns were consequently conducted in many countries of the world and enormous numbers of rats were killed, however, little real progress was made towards their eradication (Brooks and Rowe, 1987). Rats still cause major economic and public health problems worldwide, and still widen their geographical distribution. The roof rat, Rattus rattus, for example, is widely distributed in Egypt.