Northcoast Exterminators

Information may not be reliable

e have two main rat species in the United States: Norway rats, which occur nationwide, and roof rats, which infest the West and Southeast.
It's hard to imagine life without these rats, but neither one is a native here. In fact, it wasn't until 1927 that rats were recorded in every state. These rats originated in Asia (as did the common house mouse), and spread slowly across Europe. Roof rats, and the biting fleas they carried, were responsible for spreading the plague known as the Black Death, in which 25 million people were killed.

Today rats are a major hazard in this country. They not only eat and contaminate huge quantities of stored food---they also, gnaw through pipes and electric wires, causing fires. But even this destructiveness is minor compared to the hundreds of diseases they transmit, including plague, murine typhus fever, trichinosis, food poisoning, rat bite fever (from rat bites), and many more.
Rats are also a severe environmental problem because they eat bird eggs and chicks, and many other native and endangered creatures.

Roof rats were the first rats to invade the United States, arriving as stowaways on the very first ships that sailed here from European ports. Norway rats came on ships much later, apparently around 1775. Because Norway rats are larger, more highly-developed, and more aggressive than roof rats, they drove out roof rats wherever they became established, except in warmer areas of the country.