BS: Rats.....sort of terrorists !

Subject: BS: Rats.....sort of terrorists !
From: GUEST,Alan Whittle
Date: 23 Jan 11 - 04:31 AM

Well I'm frightened of them....

Subject: RE: BS: Rats.....sort of terrorists !
From: Richie Black (misused acct, bad email)
Date: 23 Jan 11 - 05:06 AM

Me too.

Subject: RE: BS: Rats.....sort of terrorists !
From: Wolfhound person
Date: 23 Jan 11 - 05:15 AM

I was sitting quietly in my office one evening a few weeks ago. Its an old house, half-restored, and we always get rodents in the winter.
Out of the bathroom came a rat (teenage, I would think), ran across the floor within inches of my stockinged feet, and disappeared into the stone wall at the end of the room.

The dogs were "off-duty", asleep on our bed I guess, or there would have been a riot.

We've blocked those holes now, but the wretched things will *not* take the bait we put out for them. And they're still around - I hear them playing football in the loft when I'm trying to get to sleep.

So does the dog.

Paws

Subject: RE: BS: Rats.....sort of terrorists !
From: Richie Black (misused acct, bad email)
Date: 23 Jan 11 - 05:54 AM

When you are blocking in a rat hole, always fill the hole with broken glass before you close it up, they can't eat through it.

Subject: RE: BS: Rats.....sort of terrorists !
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 23 Jan 11 - 07:11 AM

And check which side of the hole the rats are before you block it?

Subject: RE: BS: Rats.....sort of terrorists !
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 23 Jan 11 - 07:19 AM

I like them except when they find a way into the house. We've got problems with them at the moment.

The rats seem to have eaten some poison the pest control man put up in the roof space maybe a couple of years back and I think are all dead now.

But not only the roof space stinks, my parent's bedroom stinks of dead rat.

Not only that, before they died, they managed to bite though wires for the burglar alarm. I was woken up at about 4am by my parents who were panicking over the thing going off. I've fixed most of the problem (replaced cables from the control panel to 2 sensors) but the cable to the panic alarm in my parents bedroom also needs replacing (I've just bridged the terminals in the control panel for now). I keep putting that off - I really don't feel up to crawling through the access hole to that part of the roof to face corpses, the stink and doubtless rat poison spilled from the dish and spread out on the roof insulation.

Subject: RE: BS: Rats.....sort of terrorists !
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 23 Jan 11 - 07:53 AM

When I lived in Glasgow, they had 'middens', small brick sheds with wooden roofs where the dustbins lived. They were infested with gigantic rats. Kids often used to set fire to these middens. One day the midden was on fire and I rushed out with a pail of water. As I stood there I realised that several poor rats were stranded on the tiled roof, unable to get down because of the flames. Suddenly one actually jumped onto my head and slithered down to the ground, and as I was frozen with horror, the others followed suit. I'd become a fire escape for the rats! Luckily, my pity for them overcame my revulsion, but even after forty years, I can still feel the weight of their bodies dropping on to my head and shoulders. It's spiders I really can't endure though, especially great big hairy ones.

Subject: RE: BS: Rats.....sort of terrorists !
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 23 Jan 11 - 08:10 AM

block holes with steel wool

Subject: RE: BS: Rats.....sort of terrorists !
From: Richie Black (misused acct, bad email)
Date: 23 Jan 11 - 08:16 AM

Rat meat is a food that while taboo or even forbidden in some cultures, is a dietary staple in others.

In some cultures, rats are an acceptable form of food. In the Mishmi culture of India, rats are essential to the traditional diet, as Mishmi women may eat no meat except fish, pork, wild birds and rats.

I have a roast on here at the minute !

Subject: RE: BS: Rats.....sort of terrorists !
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 23 Jan 11 - 08:52 AM

rats need to keep their fast-growing teeth at a proper length so gnaw on stuff including concrete & computer cables! They also destroy a lot of stuff so maybe they could be called terrorists.

I live in the inner city where introduced rats have taken over the habitat over the past 200 years - the local Bush Rats which don't have such objectionable behaviour have retreated due to habitat loss, but are being introduced in one area to see if they can drive out the intruders.

I've seen rats scurrying around the rail lines in our underground. I've also seen a very large rat (kitten? size) walk out of a drain hole?/air hole? in the long pedestrian tunnel leading into one station. It sat there & watched me approaching for a few seconds before slowly turning around & walking back into the hole. I was glad it didn't stay out to watch me get closer.

According to pest control sites, the introduced rats found in Sydney are up to 255cm in body length. Dunno what size that one was.

Years ago friends had a pet white rat, but I preferred their dog. The rat looked like a rat & I can't warm to rats.

sandra

Subject: RE: BS: Rats.....sort of terrorists !
From: mayomick
Date: 23 Jan 11 - 09:16 AM

If the rat was a teenager it must have been a very grave old plodder -it certainly wouldn't have been able run very fast . A rat's life span is only two to three years on average.

Subject: RE: BS: Rats.....sort of terrorists !
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 23 Jan 11 - 09:46 AM

We live in a rural area so we don't have the nasty Norway rats that plague cities, but we have lots of other species, including pack rats. A few weeks back I came across a pack rat nest while cleaning up my toolshed. If you think stories about pack rats "stealing" weird stuff are myths, I'm here to tell you there's no myth to it. Here's a partial list of what I found in the nest: a couple screwdrivers, a camping compass, a pair of vice grips, a coil of heavy copper wire, several door hinges, a can of WD-40, a funnel, a hacksaw. Most of the stuff was not what one would assume an animal would use to build a comfortable nest. If I were building a nest I'd go for fabric and paper that can be shredded to make a nice bed, not C-clamps and old door knobs.

Subject: RE: BS: Rats.....sort of terrorists !
From: Janie
Date: 23 Jan 11 - 10:20 AM

Used to live in a travel trailer, out in the country. used to scatter large quanties of bird seed on the ground outside the trailer, next to the well-house. One day, we saw a rat at the bird seed. It scurried into a hole at the base of the well-house. We opened the lid on the well-house and saw extensive tunnelling as well as a litter of new-born rats. Hubby put the garden hose down one of the holes and flooded the burrow, More rats than we could count started fleeing up into the well house. We blungeoned as many as we could as they poured up out of the burrow. We killed more than 30 baby and young juvenile rats.

It was awful.

A number of the larger rats managed to escape out of gaps they had dug at the base of the well-house and found their way into the sub-floor and underbed exterior storage compartments of the Airstream. We could feel them bump up against the plywood bed platform at night. Took us months to get them all trapped out.

Subject: RE: BS: Rats.....sort of terrorists !
From: Janie
Date: 23 Jan 11 - 10:42 AM

BWL,

What are the small rats that inhabit the Florida Keys. Rice rats?

We used to paddle out to the Content Keys to camp and kayak for a few days at a time. At night these small rats would come out. We could hear them scurrying all around us, and see their glowing eyes. We'd dispose of food scraps at some distance from camp, and in the morning, every morsel had been consumed. Couldn't tie the fruit bag up in a tree or they would consume all of it. (They didn't like onions, though.)

Subject: RE: BS: Rats.....sort of terrorists !
From: Ebbie
Date: 23 Jan 11 - 12:49 PM

Bobert told of how he used to trap rats using a wire cage. Maybe he'll come onto this thread.

Subject: RE: BS: Rats.....sort of terrorists !
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 23 Jan 11 - 12:50 PM

Mayomick, your words 'grave old plodder' rang a bell in my fuzzy old brain, and I think they're from The Pied Piper of Hamelin (Robert Browning?) Am I right?

Subject: RE: BS: Rats.....sort of terrorists !
From: Charmion
Date: 23 Jan 11 - 12:52 PM

Years ago, I lived in a house with a bit of garden behind it. One day, I was hoeing the rhubarb patch when the most recently arrived cat -- a cute individual in formal wear -- came trotting up to me with a sizeable brown rat slung over his back, newly dead. He dropped the corpse at my feet and looked up smugly. The next morning, the remains of Mrs. Rat lay on the back step.

This particular cat was Number Four on the establishment, and was exerting a fair amount of energy to find him somewhere else to live. Oddly, re-housing Cecil the Hardy Hunter dropped clear off my agenda.

And I never saw another rat in my garden.

Subject: RE: BS: Rats.....sort of terrorists !
From: RangerSteve
Date: 23 Jan 11 - 01:37 PM

My landlord was putting new basement windows in my house, and apparently, a rat got in during the renovations. I could hear it moving around in my kitchen for a few weeks, but never could catch sight of it. I finally found it in a hallway, lying on the floor. He apparently was weak from not being able to find food. I thought it was dead, but when I tried to scoop it into a paper bag with a dustpan, it ran off, got trapped in the bathroom, where I was able to get it into the bag. I took it outside and not wanting to risk having it find its way inside again, I stomped on it. This may offend some people, but I couldn't risk having a rat in my house, not knowing what kind of diseases they may carry.

Subject: RE: BS: Rats.....sort of terrorists !
From: Stringsinger
Date: 23 Jan 11 - 01:39 PM

As long as you don't call 'em Democ-rats like the White Ringers do.

Subject: RE: BS: Rats.....sort of terrorists !
From: gnu
Date: 23 Jan 11 - 02:42 PM

bwl... obviously they are planning something. Keep yer eyes peeled.

Subject: RE: BS: Rats.....sort of terrorists !
From: Ebbie
Date: 23 Jan 11 - 03:32 PM

"Suddenly one actually jumped onto my head and slithered down to the ground, and as I was frozen with horror, the others followed suit." Eliza

That was an admirable act, Eliza, and I hold you in awe. It is an act that I might wish I had done but quite likely have run from.

Subject: RE: BS: Rats.....sort of terrorists !
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 23 Jan 11 - 03:35 PM

It wasn't exactly my choice, Ebbie, I was so horrified that I just stood there unable to budge! Luckily none of them bit me, they just scampered away.

Subject: RE: BS: Rats.....sort of terrorists !
From: Bert
Date: 23 Jan 11 - 04:40 PM

Don't poison rats. They will crawl into an inaccessible place and die. You won't get rid of the stench for months.

Subject: RE: BS: Rats.....sort of terrorists !
From: gnu
Date: 23 Jan 11 - 06:33 PM

Bert... depends on what you use for poison doesn't it? If you use Warfarin, don't they "dry up" before they calve out?

Subject: RE: BS: Rats.....sort of terrorists !
From: Ebbie
Date: 23 Jan 11 - 07:05 PM

I don't know, Eliza. My take on it would be that the rats knew what you were, and recognized a safe route.

Subject: RE: BS: Rats.....sort of terrorists !
From: Greg F.
Date: 24 Jan 11 - 10:28 AM

If you use Warfarin, don't they "dry up" before they calve out?

Nope. Because of all the internal bleeding, stench if anything is worse as they rot.

By the way, dying slowly fom masive internal bleeding is a pretty miserable way to die.

Use snap traps.

Subject: RE: BS: Rats.....sort of terrorists !
From: Becca72
Date: 24 Jan 11 - 10:30 AM

My nephews have had rats as pets over the years. I would, too, if it weren't for the 3 cats already in residence. Lovely, smart little guys.

Subject: RE: BS: Rats.....sort of terrorists !
From: Little Hawk
Date: 24 Jan 11 - 12:08 PM

There's a lovely rat here who comes to feed at the bird feeders. Sweet little fellow. I started giving him peanuts and he has become quite friendly. I think I shall name him Desmond.

;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Rats.....sort of terrorists !
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 24 Jan 11 - 12:23 PM

Litttle Hawk, if you're being serious and not just teasing, please be careful as 'sweet little rats' carry Weil's disease and a host of others as well. But I have to say, I don't find rodents of any kind abhorrent, they're rather charming, especially when they sit up and clean their whiskers. Sadly my three Siamese cats view them as Fun To Tear To Pieces. Snakes don't bother me either, just horrid big hairy spiders. African ones can be obscenely GHASTLY.

Subject: RE: BS: Rats.....sort of terrorists !
From: Little Hawk
Date: 24 Jan 11 - 12:40 PM

The rat has cautioned me against being around human beings for much the same reason, Eliza! ;-) They carry a host of diseases. With this in mind, I am trying to curtail my visits to the local donut shop and the bank machine.

Subject: RE: BS: Rats.....sort of terrorists !
From: mayomick
Date: 24 Jan 11 - 12:44 PM

Yes Eliza , the Pied Piper would have been the man for the job.

Subject: RE: BS: Rats.....sort of terrorists !
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 24 Jan 11 - 12:45 PM

Yes, Little Hawk, and one of these disease-ridden humans gave me Swine Flu four weeks ago, which was just dreadful!

Subject: RE: BS: Rats.....sort of terrorists !
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 24 Jan 11 - 12:48 PM

Mayomick, you kept me awake all night trying to remember the words of that poem, after I'd turned off my computer and gone to bed. I'll have to look it up this evening. I wonder if the Pied Piper had a secret supply of Warfarin under his cloak!

Subject: RE: BS: Rats.....sort of terrorists !
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 24 Jan 11 - 12:50 PM

Aha, found it! 'Gay young friskers'!

Subject: RE: BS: Rats.....sort of terrorists !
From: mayomick
Date: 24 Jan 11 - 12:55 PM

Valerian more like it Eliza.

"The herb valerian was used by rat-catchers to attract the rats and entice them away as it has a smell that attracts rats. Valerian can also be used to attract cats, leading one to believe that the piper may have led the cats away first and then threatened to take their children. There is a possible theory that the piper gave the children valerian and that this had a relaxing effect on them much like alcohol or perhaps some were given an overdose." .........wiki

Subject: RE: BS: Rats.....sort of terrorists !
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 24 Jan 11 - 02:17 PM

Valerian is a very old and attractive herb, with flowers of a restrained pale burgundy. It grows a lot round here on walls in front of cottages. But this is a wee bit illogical. If it attracts rats AND cats, and also children, there'd be a hoo-ha outside our cottages every summer wouldn't there?

Subject: RE: BS: Rats.....sort of terrorists !
From: mayomick
Date: 24 Jan 11 - 04:01 PM

Yes , it does seem a bit odd . I think the wiki thing might have been suggesting that the rat catchers of olde used the plant as bait.

Subject: RE: BS: Rats.....sort of terrorists !
From: mayomick
Date: 24 Jan 11 - 06:39 PM

One consolation about having your house infested with rats is that you won't have mice. You never get mice and rats in the same place .

Subject: RE: BS: Rats.....sort of terrorists !
From: Janie
Date: 24 Jan 11 - 06:51 PM

One little rat under a feeder is fine - problem is, they tend to establish dynasties rather quickly.


I do like voles - in fields, not in my gardens. They really are cute!

Subject: RE: BS: Rats.....sort of terrorists !
From: Penny S.
Date: 24 Jan 11 - 07:16 PM

Saw some rats in a London park - they came out from under some brambles through runways like rabbits, and then settled down to graze on the grass, again like rabbits. We weren't sure they were rats rather than voles, until we blew up a photo and saw the tails. Lovely glossy healthy looking things they were.

Penny

Subject: RE: BS: Rats.....sort of terrorists !
From: GUEST,Alan Whittle
Date: 24 Jan 11 - 08:14 PM

Yeh it must be a great life for a cockney rat. A constitutional round regents Park. then off to Downing Street, to check out the celebs.

Subject: RE: BS: Rats.....sort of terrorists !
From: mayomick
Date: 25 Jan 11 - 04:39 AM

Rats grazing on Regents Park grass , sign of an early spring perhaps.

Subject: RE: BS: Rats.....sort of terrorists !
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 25 Jan 11 - 06:00 AM

"Rats.....sort of terrorists!"
Send 'em to Guantanamo anonymously and torture 'em!
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: BS: Rats.....sort of terrorists !
From: Greg F.
Date: 25 Jan 11 - 09:58 AM

Y'all want to go here:

http://www.aetv.com/hoarders/video/index.jsp

(sorry, no clickie)

and watch the "Glen" episode.

Subject: RE: BS: Rats.....sort of terrorists !
From: Ebbie
Date: 25 Jan 11 - 11:32 AM

Greg's Link

Subject: RE: BS: Rats.....sort of terrorists !
From: GUEST,999
Date: 25 Jan 11 - 05:20 PM

I`ve never eaten rats--other than muskrat. I`d imagine that cooked with a little onion, garlic and HP Sauce they`d be ok.

Subject: RE: BS: Rats.....sort of terrorists !
From: Lox
Date: 25 Jan 11 - 05:35 PM

Rats?

Terrorists?

Someone had better warn the Prime Minister!!!

BBC report about the Rats living at 10 Downing Street.


Sorry if you can't get the BBC, the basic synopsis of the story is that since the death of Number 10s last cat 3 yeasr ago, No 10 Downing Street has been infested with Rats.


My own view is that no cat will solve this problem ... but another election could ...

Subject: RE: BS: Rats.....sort of terrorists !
From: GUEST,Alan Whittle
Date: 25 Jan 11 - 08:57 PM

'I`ve never eaten rats--other than muskrat. I`d imagine that cooked with a little onion, garlic and HP Sauce they`d be ok.'

I'd keep a rein on that imagination, if i were you....
I shouldn't enter for Come Dine With me either.