Roof Rats Over Phoenix

The Animal Uprising™ is busy ramping up for its themed celebration next year of the Year of the Rat. Word has come from Phoenix, Arizona that a plague of roof rats (rattus rattus) has descended on the area.

An infamous creature has made its return to Valley homes, shacking up to get away from the cold weather.

Roof rats are back, hitting homes in parts of east Phoenix and south Scottsdale.

The little rodents love to chew, meaning their sharp teeth could munch through electrical wiring, possibly sparking a fire.

Now there is a handy guide to identifying rats available online to inform you how to tell a roof rat from a norway rat. We quote:

When distinguishing the Norway rat from the Roof rat, pull the tail back over the body. The tail of the Roof rat will reach the nose. The tail of the Norway rat will not reach beyond the ears.

We don't know about our readers, but we here at Blue Crab Boulevard have no intention of ever pulling a rat's tail up over it's head to see what species it is. For any reason. And you can't make us, either. We don't care if it is a roof rat, a norway rat or the giant rat of Sumatra. It's a freaking rat. We have some handy instructions for the person who wrote that handy guide…….

Sorry, just an attack. At any rate, rattus rattus is the rattus that is credited with the spread of the Black Plague that wiped out a good deal of Europe's population a while back. And rats do cause fires, as California found out recently. So Phoenix, you better get on the stick and repel the invasion of pestilential pyromaniacs!