Environmental manipulation in roof rat control programs

• Main Author: Zdunowski, Gene
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: eScholarship, University of California 1980
• Subjects: rodent control; habitat manipulation; suburban environment; integrated pest management (IPM); roof rat; Rattus rattus; California; environmental management; sanitation; exclusion; rodent; rodenticide use; demonstration project
• Online Access: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6037r0kx

The control of roof rat Rattus rattus involves not just chemical and physical suppression, exclusion, and sanitation in an integrated environmental manipulation approach, but in order for the environmental manipulative technique to work, the environmental-behavioral habits of the individuals living in these roof rat infested areas must be modified. Once a target area of known rodent infestation has been initially impacted and environmentally improved upon, the task by the homeowner to continue to practice environmental manipulation must be ongoing. Continued maintenance of the environmentally improved area by staff knowledgeable in environmental manipulation and behavioral modification is the only way to insure that the area will continue to have such reduced carrying capacity so as not to allow roof rat reinfestation. Without continued maintenance, roof rat populations will return to an environmentally improved (manipulated) area in four years' time.