Chewing Damage Caused By Rats And Mice

Rats and mice can cause considerable damage when they infest our homes and businesses. This article looks at how the teeth and skull of these rodents are perfectly adapted to exploit their environment, which can result in substantial and expensive damage to property.

Rats and mice belong to the order of mammals called rodents and the word rodent is derived from the Latin word rodere, which means to gnaw. This ability to gnaw is due to the well developed incisor teeth of all rodents and they have 3 characteristics that enable them to cause significant damage.

1. The incisor teeth of rats and mice grow continuously throughout their lifetime.
2. They are self sharpening due to the teeth having a softer inner dentine and a harder outer enamel. The gnawing action causes the teeth to form an effective chisel-edge.
3. They are curved which enables them to apply considerable pressure to their bites. This enables them to chew some quite hard materials such as soft metals and concrete.

The molar teeth of rats and mice allow them to grind their food into easily digestible pieces but unlike the incisors these teeth do wear down with age. Rats and mice have a space between the incisors and the molars called the diastema and this space is filled by the cheeks when they are gnawing to prevent non-edible material entering their mouth. This is why repellent coatings on susceptible materials are useless.

The ability to impart strength to the bite is provided by the well-developed masseter muscles that have various attachment points on the skull. These muscles attach further forward than in other mammals allowing incredible bite strength (up to 7000 psi in rats) and can bite up to six times per second.  As long as rats and mice can gain purchase on a material they can chew some incredibly hard substances.

The following photos are the typical type of damage that we see on a daily basis.

This photo shows rat damage caused to electrical cables. This was an office that had to have a partial rewire due the extent of the chewing that introduced a fire risk.

This photo shows mouse chewing damage to pipe insulation. We have been in house loft spaces where so much insulation had been stripped away that during winter the pipes froze.

This photo shows a destroyed connector valve for a dishwasher that was chewed through by rats. This resulted in expensive water damage to the kitchen.

This photo shows the results of a long-standing rat infestation in a grain store. The wooden steps were nearly chewed through.

Kestrel Pest Management provide an expert rat control and mouse control services that will will rapidly eradicate any infestation.