Rats are probably the worst among the invasive pests that are out there in the world. What makes them an annoying pest is because they breed very quickly, and they are primary carriers of many deadly diseases.
Once a rat couple has infested the house basement or somewhere in your garden, you are going to be in trouble. Rats reproduce at an amazing rate.
A rat couple can produce many litters a year, with each litter producing about eight young baby rats. By the end of a year, there are going to be quite a lot of them in and around the area in which you live.
It isn’t easy to control rat infestation because they are highly efficient in swimming and burrowing horizontally for meters. To make things worse, these tiny pests are excellent climbers too. Irrespective of the different species of rats, for instance, the Norway rat or the roof rat, they are all capable of climbing trees efficiently.
This makes rats capable of climbing walls, stairs, or trees with ease. It is for this same reason why it is not easy to control rat infestation in an area.
In this article, we will have an in-depth look at the rat’s ability to climb and the ways to curb it too.
Let’s get going!
Can Rats Climb Walls?
In short, yeah, rats can climb walls easily. But the question lies in whether they can climb all walls with ease? No, rats cannot climb all walls. Before we answer this question in detail, you must understand how a rat climbs.
Rats do have an anatomical advantage when it comes to climbing, and it is these advantages that make them excellent climbers. When it comes to climbing, not just the walls, be it any surface, the trick lies in generating enough friction.
It is for this reason rats have minute ridges on the pads on their limbs that help them generate enough friction to climb on to the various surface.
Then comes the claws on the fingers (also known as phalanges) on their paws, which they use to hold tight to the ridges on a surface.
When it comes to climbing walls, rats can easily climb the walls if they have a rough texture. If the walls are made out of materials into which rats cab press their sharp claws, they can climb easily. For instance, they can easily climb up the wooden fences, house siding, and so on.
That being said, rats cannot vertically climb a wall that has a smooth finish because of the lack of enough friction. This explains why rats do not climb the interior walls!
Can Rats Climb Trees?
Yes, rats can climb trees with ease due to the sheer amount of grip it gets on trees’ rough bark. It is interesting to note that irrespective of the species of rats, they are all excellent climbers.
In fact, they are so good at climbing trees that a specific species of rat known as the roof rats are most commonly found to live in yucca, palm and cypress trees, attics, and on roofs.
Apart from their ability to efficiently climb trees, rats are extremely agile too. A rat can leap almost up to around 36 inches vertically and leap around 48 inches horizontally. This means that a rat can easily climb a tree that is 4 feet from your home and leap onto walls or roofs.
The moment rats leap on to a wall, they will latch on to it tightly with their sharp claw and then find their way up to the attic or wherever they want. It is also important to note that a rat can survive a fall from heights of up to 50ft.
They can quickly get up after falling from these heights and attempt the climb again!
Quite interesting, right?
Can Rats Climb Beds?
Yeah, rats can climb up on to your bed if they want. Most cots are made out of wood, and that’s all they need to get enough grip to climb up. In fact, rats don’t even have to climb up rather; they can simply leap on to your bed because they can leap 38 inches vertically with ease!
Though rats can easily climb on to your bed, they don’t generally do it. In general, rats tend to avoid being in proximity to humans because they are dead scared of us. But in some cases, they dare to take the risk, and food tempts them to take the risk.
The best way to keep rats away from your bed is to stop eating snacks on the bed. Apart from being extremely agile, rats are known to have good olfactory abilities. If you have food lying on the bed while you are asleep, that’s the best chance for the rat to get a quick meal.
Tips for keeping rats away from your bed
- Do not eat snacks from your bed
- Close any unsealed holes on the walls, even if it is small. Rats can easily cramp themselves into tight spaces
- If you have a cat, make them sleep in your room.
- Keep your room clean of clutters
Can rats climb stairs?
Yeah, rats can climb stairs, if they choose to. In fact, they don’t even have to climb stairs; rather, they can easily jump! A rat can leap as far as 36 inches vertically and leap around 48 inches horizontally.
Do you really think climbing the stairs is going to be difficult for them? I don’t think so!
Can rats climb through windows?
Yes, rats can climb through windows irrespective of how high it is located. In fact, rats get into your homes through windows in most cases.
As said in the earlier sections, rats can easily climb trees and jump almost 4ft to a brick wall and find their way into your house through a window. It is interesting to note that rats do not need open windows to come in.
Rather all that they would need is a small opening, an opening that’s small enough to put their head in, and they will find their way through this hole.
Rats are known for their ability to fit into tight spaces that you wouldn’t expect it to fit in. Most people believe that rats are capable of doing this because they have flexible bones.
In reality, they can do it because their bodies are long, flexible, and cylindrical. This is an evolutionary advantage they have acquired over the years because of them being animals that spend their lives running down tunnels and through tight spaces.
The effective ways to prevent rats from entering through a window is to
- Keep the windows closed at all time
- Covering the windows with a mosquito net or mesh
Can Rats Climb Fences?
Yes, rats can climb fences, but they generally prefer digging their way in. If you are someone interested in gardening, it might be a very common sight to see the plants that were destroyed by the rats.
No matter how much you look around, you won’t be able to find out how the rat might have got in. And it is quite obvious to conclude that the rat might have climbed the fence and got in. But that isn’t the case.
Rats being excellent burrowers, they might have burrowed their way in, and the opening of the burrow would be so small that it would be difficult to spot.
Ways to maintain a rat-proof garden
- Look around for any rat shelters in your garden. Rats prefer making shelters in brush piles, woodpiles, and tall grass. If you find one, destroy it at the earliest.
- Rats and other rodents are generally attracted to food. The chances are that the food sources like the bird feeder in your garden might be attracting the rats. Eliminate any possible source of food.
- If there are gaps or holes in the fence (Even the smallest hole), seal them.
- Plant mint plants. Rats are not comfortable with their smell.
- Getting an outdoor cat is the most effective deterrent against rats infesting your premises.
What Can Rats Not Climb?
Rats cannot climb on surfaces that are extremely smooth and slippery. As said in the previous section, rats use their sharp claw on their limbs to grip on to the surface and then climb up. This means that if a surface is smooth and polished a rat cannot grip on to it and hence cannot climb over it. Well, this is the key to prevent rats from climbing the wall.
Surfaces that a rat cannot climb
Smooth tiles
Tiles are extremely smooth and polished which makes it virtually impossible for the rats to generate sufficient grip.
This explains why you don’t see a rat climbing up a smooth interior wall of your house. These surfaces are so smooth & polished that they can’t generate sufficient friction using their sharp claw or the ridges on the skin on their limbs.
Single sheet plastic walls
Like the surface of smooth tiles, rats cannot get sufficient grip on single sheet plastic walls and cannot climb them.
For this reason; single-sheet plastic walls are used as an effective deterrent against rat climbing walls. Certain single sheet plastic materials can be put over the existing wall to keep the rats at bay.
How far can rats climb?
Rats can climb as high as they want to if there is enough grip and friction to keep moving. Rats are extremely agile and are born climbers, which means that they aren’t afraid of heights!
This explains why some species of rats, especially the roof rats, climb to the top of tress and then find their way to your attic through the branches.
In fact, it’s not the rat’s ability to climb high that makes them troublesome rather, it is their ability to leap almost 36 inches vertically and 48 inches horizontally!
It is interesting to note that apart from being capable of climbing to heights, they can also survive a fall from heights of up to 50ft in most cases! Quite interesting, huh?
Can rats climb upside down?
Yeah, rats can climb upside down because apart from being agile, they are also acrobatic! Well, they can only climb upside down if they are climbing cylindrical objects like plumbing pipes.
It doesn’t really matter to rats on which direction they are oriented to; as long as there is adequate grip, they can climb it.
How to prevent rats from climbing trees?
We need to admit that it isn’t easy to keep rats away from trees, especially if they are fruit-bearing ones.
Because rats are extremely agile and acrobatic that they will somehow find their way to these treetops. But that being said, there are certain things which you can do to limit the rat infestation!
Pruning the fruit trees
Rats, in general, prefer to stay off the ground. In most cases, a rat would find their way to the treetops, not from the root rather from adjoining structures or overhead wires. Pruning the trees to make sure that they are out of reach from any overhead wired or structures can effectively check rats getting on to trees.
Covering the trunk with sheet metals
Sheet metals being extremely smooth, rats cannot climb on it because they can’t generate enough grip. But this will only be effective if you regularly prune the trees because rats prefer taking the overhead route instead!
Get an outdoor cat or find ways to attract owls
This method of biological prevention would be the most effective because the scent of predators can keep the rats at bay!