CORVALLIS – Seeing rats in the backyard or, worse yet, in the house, can send people into panic mode, and for good reason.
“There are definite social norms that say if you have rodents living near you it’s associated with dirtiness, garbage and waste products,” said Dana Sanchez, wildlife specialist for Oregon State University Extension Service. “There’s a reticence to admitting to seeing rats or talking about them because there’s a fear of public shaming. That works to the rats’ advantage because people aren’t finding cooperative solutions to a collective problem.”
Disease is an even greater incentive for the repugnance people feel toward rats. They can spread the bacteria that causes the bubonic plague, which killed millions during the 14th century but is very rarely found today. Other less serious diseases are also attributed to rats, all of which lead to a healthy fear.
Rats — non-native black (Rattus rattus) and brown (Rattus norvegicus) — are drawn …