Rats are fascinating creatures. Here are 5 amazing rat facts for you.

1) Rats can find their way through a maze having only been through it once before. They are highly intelligent and learn quickly which is why they are often used as test subjects in laboratories.

2) They can go for longer than camels without water due to their particularly salty kidneys. These are very effective at drawing the maximum amount of water out of their urine, leaving it highly concentrated. These are amazing rat facts.

3) Their teeth grow continuously throughout their lives at a rate of about 5 inches per year. They constantly need to work to wear them down which is why they do so much damage to property. If they don't work to grind them away they become unable to eat. Hammer Technologies new invention will help prevent this. It creates a rodent-free zone around the car.

4) Hindus believe them to be the earthly vessel for the god Ganesh and hold them in high esteem. The Karni Devi Temple has them by the thousand and they are fed milk and grain daily by the monks.

5) Rats spread the plague from the arid flatlands of middle Asia killing more people than any other disease in history. This reduced the population of Europe by between a third and two thirds. Thankfully the plague is now very uncommon due to modern antibiotics. At the time the mortality rate was 100% as there was no effective treatment available. People were so desperate for a cure they even tried strapping live chickens and toads to themselves. In recent times chicken's feathers were found to have a compound in them which is effective at killing Yersinia pestis. This is the bacteria which causes the Plague. It is odd as there appears to be something in this treatment although there is no way that people at the time could have known this.

Dr Toby Bateson for Hammer Technologies