Talk to me about rats

We have rats living under our house. I don't think there's a lot of them, as they've been there for about two years (that I'm aware of) and their population doesn't seem to have grown. Plenty of predators around, we live in a forest with owls and such, and there's lots of feral cats as well. We don't grow food here, nor do we keep chickens at this place (our garden is located elsewhere).

People say we should get rid of them, but they really don't bother us much (except they will munch on the occasional cardboard box that gets left outside). Sometimes in winter they come out during the day to steal some of the bird feed (which I have now put out of their reach), and I have seen one trying to get into the shed where we store our walnuts and other food (but it didn't get in).

Is there any reason for me to run out and get traps? I might sound overly sentimental here, but they are so smart and social and I really don't want to kill anything just for the heck of it. Our cat has been suffering with fleas lately, and my husband thinks it might be because of the rats, but he's also just getting old (the cat, not the husband). If keeping them around would pose a public health threat, then I would do what's necessary of course, but it just seems pointless to kill them while we are coexisting so peacefully.

Am I delusional? What should I do?

While rats are blamed for the Black Plague, it was fleas that transmitted the pestilence to humans.....
I can't imagine any scenario that makes rats a plus, perhaps long term confinement, or starvation.....

While a managed pet rat may pose little threat, rats in the raw have no toilet decorum, current health threats associated with rat feces consist of hantavirus, (common)
Also  the aforementioned black plague (very rarely due to its lethality),
Rat urine is responsible for the spread of leptospirosis,
Lymphocytic choriomeningitis (LCMV), a viral infectious disease, is transmitted through the saliva and urine of rats.
Multiple secondary infections come with parasites that feed off rats.

Beyond the fleas that afflict poor Fluffy, a twice a year deworming is appropriate for any creature dining on wild rodent.

Rats will chew through drywall, pine, (or any softwood).

Rats will bite if cornered.

For rats in entertainment.....Read (or listen to) Gil Scott Heron's "Whitey on the Moon"!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goh2x_G0ct4

I'm am rather fond of domesticated  rats.
They are smart and personable.
Rats in my environment make themselves know by chewing on my food and worse, pooping everywhere.
I went years with no real rat problem, to having to keep all food in filing cabinets.
even without a food source, they still stick around for the warm dry place that is my house.
I'm still dealing with the mess they left in my basement, dragging food down there, making nests in paper, cloth and cardboard, and pissing pooping on everything.
I don't know if you have any reason to go under your house, but if you do I'm sure you will find mounds of dropping.
Hopefully they will stay out of your food and living space , but I wouldn't count on it.

Thank you both! I guess I will be getting some traps then... Just wanted to make sure their bad rap was justified.

I agree with the idea that trapping and killing is good. Mostly because I've had rats chew through insulation, wiring, drywall, the duct that connects the dryer to the outside world and other household things. In our old house, they got up in the walls and then eventually into the attic. We finally got a hold of the problem, but it did a ton of damage to our house that was not cheap to fix (ie- electrical wiring).

Plus, and grossly, one died in the wall of our kitchen and the stink that it created stays with me to this day.

I'm a fan of everyone in their place so rats on the property can stay on the property. Want to eat left over chicken feed in the run at midnight? Go for it. Want to nest under the rabbit hutch to come out when I'm not around? Knock yourself out. But come under my house to potentially part me with my hard earned money? Nope. That's a no-go.

The nice part is that between the owls, the other birds of prey and one particularly murderous cat, the outside population stays in balance, so we just make sure no entrances exist to the bottom part of the house and no trees overhang the house and no bushes rub up against the house and we haven't had a problem in 4 years. (But that was...involved. Because every little place bigger than a dime in diameter had to be sealed up. It was epic, but worth it.)

Oh my gosh, good luck to you!

Thank you Lindsey! Wow, that sounds horrendous :-/ The rats under my house seems to have been there for quite some time without doing damage (that I know of...), but then again, I do hear them in the walls sometimes so they might have been up to more mischief than I have been aware of.

I got two rat traps (like the classical mouse trap ones but bigger) and we'll see what we'll get... Just need to make sure the cat doesn't stick his nose in one!

Sanna Heijnis wrote:
I got two rat traps (like the classical mouse trap ones but bigger) and we'll see what we'll get... Just need to make sure the cat doesn't stick his nose in one!

Make sure to check the traps often. Sometimes the trap only hits part of the rat and doesn't kill it. The rat then suffers having something broken or severely hurt and is still not able to get away from the trap. The times I used the traps you mention, I learned to have a large pot or bucket filled with water and a little hard liquor in it (I used vodka) so that when the trap only damaged the rat without killing it, I was able to quickly put the rat (still with the trap attached) into the bucket that was filled to the top with the water, then covered it, so it would quickly drown and end the suffering. The added vodka made the death that much faster, I noticed. While I definitely don't like rats in our house, there's no reason for them to suffer.

A while back I taught my dog to hunt rats, for a few weeks I would let her under the house. She killed and ate quite a few, but now I do not think they even come around anymore because she is always hunting..