Do rats dig holes?

Rats are a hardy breed able to survive in a wide range of environments, and more so capable of adapting any hospitable environment into a home-ground zone that provides the perfect conditions for their survival. Hats are in the habit of creating new nests and homes wherever they go, and they will try all means to customize the available environment to suit their need, including digging holes for their abode. And as the powers of rats remain almost mythical, they can even pass through small holes equal to their noses, and so provided rats can get their heads through some space the whole body will surely make it through.



When it comes to digging holes, rats seem to have perfect their skill and art over the years they have lived near to man. The Norway rat is one of those rat varieties that have been observed to love digging holes for their homes – primarily because they love living at ground level or underground, and will tend to dig holes to conceal their exact whereabouts to potential hunters. Roof rats on the other hand love to live high in the roofs, often creating their nests in this part of the house, however, whenever they cannot find a habitable place in the roof, or have their ways to the roof blocked by all means, they will resort to an alternative room I the ground, using their fore limbs to sink several inches of a hole in the ground for their accommodation.

Rats are accustomed to digging holes closer to water sources where they can easily quench their thirst whenever the need arises. However, rat holes are not strictly restricted to water sources, you will also find them in a wide variety of places including under logs of trees and tree roots – either close to food sources or n places where they can easily go unnoticed. They will love to use specific paths when visiting or exiting their holes and over time you will notice well trodden paths leading to these holes. They are so accustomed to their regular paths than if you they have to go round an obstacle and you remove it they will still navigate around it. So putting an injunction on their path will most likely raise their attention to suspicious activities around their places of abode. Most of these holes will be with a diameter of two to four inches, a depth not exceeding eighteen inches and they can be as long as thirty six inches horizontally.

Careful not to be trapped inside during emergency occasions, rats will have a single main entry to their holes, but will dig several other holes around for emergency exists just in case, so you know how creatively and strategically these creatures think. But rats are not just in the bait of digging holes underground, they can chew through unused gas pipes and use them as passages into the chimneys too! Read more: Rat Control, Get Rats Out of the Attic, Rat Trapping, Rats in the Ceiling, Rat Feces.