How Much Damage Can A Rat Do In A Day?

How Much Damage Can A Rat Do In A Day?

Rats are well known for chewing and destroying upholstery, wires, pipes and tubing, damaging them beyond repair.  In domestic situations they can cause problems by making holes in food storage containers. They also contaminating them with urine, droppings and saliva.  Rats are known vectors for up to 35 different diseases.

Because the common rat's teeth grow at a rate of between four and a half and five and a half inches per year they need to constantly be working to wear them down.  This is what leads them to cause so much damage to property.  A single rat rat could cause tens of thousands of pounds worth of damage to an expensive piece of military hardware. This can put it out of action for as long as it takes to get spares and repair it.  This could cost lives.

On a more mundane level, Hammer Technologies have performed some consumer research. It demonstrates the average cost of rat damage to a car to be in the region of £400.  The upper end of the costs were in the region of £7500.  If the damage requires a whole-car rewire of an expensive car like a Porsche or Mercedes this could easily be six to eight thousand pounds.  It is well worth investing in a decent rat repellent device to maximise the uptime of your kit.