Rats are some of the most common rodents you’ll find in your home. With their small size, they can slip through tiny openings you never knew were there. When you only find one or two, you may not think they can cause a lot of damage. However, you’d be surprised to learn just how much rats can do with their little mouths.
Jaw Power
When necessary, a full-grown rat can exert up to 12 tons per square inch. That’s a lot of jaw strength, especially when compared to that of a great white shark, whose max power is 2 tons per square inch. The sharks mouth is much larger, but proportionally, it means a rat’s jaw is stronger and can do a lot of damage. Why do they have such a powerful bite? Their diet consists of a lot of hard materials such as nuts and seeds, but they are also opportunistic eaters, meaning they need to chew through whatever is available to them at any given time. Additionally, rats have incredibly strong teeth that never stop growing- roughly 13 cm in a year- so they must continually wear them down.
Tooth strength
In addition to their jaw power rats have hard teeth that can power through materials you wouldn’t think. The Mohs hardness scale was created in 1812 to test the resistance of different minerals from being scratched. The scale ranges from one to ten, with a rat’s tooth ranking at 5.5. This puts it harder than materials such as copper, aluminum, and steel!
The combination of these two strength factors means that a rat can chew through the building materials that make up your walls. Wood, brick, uncured concrete, electrical wiring, plastic, aluminum, and more, are all susceptible to a rat’s bite. If you think a rat may be making its way through your walls, don’t wait until you can see their heads poking through! Give us a call today for your free inspection at 561-274-0224. We’ll create a plan to get the rats out and make sure your walls are repaired and safe from future damage.