05/13/2022
Rat means "gnawing animal;" and rats must gnaw. Their teeth grow 5 inches a year and they could not survive unless their teeth are constantly worn down.
Rat gnawing exerts incredible pressure: 24,000 pounds per square inch. They can cut through paper, rags, wood, bone, insulation of all kinds, asbestos, brick, cinder blocks, four-inch thick concrete, aluminum -- even a 1/2 inch thick sheet of metal (when it can use the edge).
A single pair of rats can multiply more than 15,000 descendants in 1 year; 359 million in 3 years.
Rats transmit at least 35 diseases.
There are an estimated 235 million rats in the U.S.
Rats eat 50 pounds of food a year and can eat 1/3 of their weight a day.
Favorite foods: oatmeal, potatoes, meat and cooked eggs.
Garbage-fed city rats are considerably larger than their rural cousins.
Rats can survive for 14 days without food.
Rats will eat each other if there is no food.
A rat's sense of taste is so strong, it can detect as little as two parts per million of poison in their food.
Rats can swim 1/2 mile in open sea and tread water for 3 days. They can dive 100 feet underwater.
Pack size can range from 15 to 220 individuals.
One dominant male rat lives with a harem of several female rats.
The male rat has a rough-skinned p***s surmounted by a "thorn" for penetrating power.
When females don't want to mate, they make a high-frequency squeal of 22 KHz. This acts as an ultrasonic contraceptive.
Like people, and unlike most other animals, rats display homos*xuality, even when members of the opposite s*x are readily available.
Social order is determined by fighting status, with the lower status kept the farthest from the food supply.
A U.S. Government report states that each rat damages $1 to $10 worth of food and other material per year, and contaminates 5 to 10 times more. This means (conservatively) 200 million U.S. rats cause $1 billion to $20 billion in direct economic losses.
FDA guidelines allow "an average of two rodent hairs per one hundred grams of peanut butter."
In 1971, 75% of the rats in Chicago were "Super Rats."
Rats survived atomic testing on Engebi Island in the 1940's.
5 to 25% of all unknown-cause fires are caused by rats.
In 1972, the U.S. Center for Disease Control warned "plague must be viewed not as a historical phenomenon, but as an ever-present threat, not only in the U.S., but throughout the world.
Ratbourne Bubonic plague is far from dead and a fourth pandemic could easily occur. No cases have been reported in urban U.S. since 1924, but there have been cases in rural areas. In 1980, there were 18 reported cases, 5 fatal. These numbers would become dramatic if infected rodents are driven from their homes, as they are in brush fires in California, and these rats come in contact with rats in major metropolitan areas.
