Rats
 

I have just returned indoors from disposing of the fourth rat caught in the house in the past 24 hours. These were all young animals, perhaps two months old; it often happens that a family of youngsters with or without the mother will stick together for some time after weaning and so if one gets in the whole family usually follows.

This leads to an intensive trapping campaign. If one is able to catch a rat within 24 hours of it gaining ingress that is ideal; after that time-period the rat becomes accustomed to its surroundings and more wily.

Adults are much more difficult to deal with. They are smart animals, and will often go into pseudo-hibernation for as much as a week after gaining entry before manifesting their presence by knocking spice jars off the shelf or gnawing at cardboard food containers.

Some 20-odd years ago I carried out an amateur survey and determined there to be around 12 rats per acre on this island. The terrain is very rough with sharp rocks, numerous cavities and the whole covered by dense vegetation. Nevertheless Barn owls, who hunt in pairs, are able to derive a ready supply of protein from this source.

We have both Rattus rattus and Rattus norvegicus; a fully grown male Rattus norvegicus is fearsome to behold and beyond the capability of the standard spring-type rat-trap. Fortunately males are far less common than females.

I don't envy you at all -- to my knowledge only ever had two in our place -- the first one survived in the floor cavity for quite some time by consuming copious quatities of our plastic plumbing creating several leaks -- some quite impressive. Finally found it's way out. Second one managed to squeeze through a hole where the plumbing entered the premises. Took up residence under the bath and died there shortly after - either from poison, or starvation we know not -- it did however not smell too sweet for a while, and then it's maggots turned into very large flies. Electric bug zapper "tennis" raquet proved their downfall. Since then we have used very coarse steel wool compacted around all wiring and plumbing at their various entry points and that has seemed to do the trick. :egg:

Biggest rat I ever saw was in CapeTown way back in the mid 50's. We had just finished fumigating and I was sitting with the 'crowd' on No. 1 hatch waiting for all the sealing tape to be taken down so they could go into the fo'c'sle accdommodation. Oit comes thi8s enormous creature. One of the AB's was playing with a hatch butterfly wing nut which he threw at it and got it dead centre. The fumigators took charge of yhe body as they were amazed it had survived the fumigation.

They can indeed be very resilient creatures.
I caught another one last night and having reset the trap found it sprung this morning, so there must be at least one more.


I do put out poison in strategic places around outside the house from time to time, but am ambivalent about doing so because it takes a couple of days to have effect and if the rat is caught and eaten by an owl in the meantime, its curtains for the owl as well.

When I first married, my university-student husband used to take me out to the town dump to shoot rats. He would put red cellophane over the headlights, and the rats' eyes glowed red in the light. Every time he shot one, he would mutter the name of his Phd advisor, and it did help lower his stress.

Sure knew how to show a girl a good time, Mary.

I've heard that rats love coca cola, but their digestive system does not allow them to burp out the gases. Therefore if you leave a bowl of it out, and they drink from it, the gases expand inside and kill them. There may be folk on here who can confirm this as fact or urban myth.

Strange, you don't see anything about that in this .... :big_tongue:

https://youtu.be/1VM2eLhvsSM

Is it another urban myth that the actor James Cagney tripped over a rat that was covered in filth, thereby giving him the inspiration for his often imitated famous phrase?

Many years ago at a dinner given for James Cagney's long service to movies and theatre (he started out as a song and dance man believe it or not) he stood up to give his audience his acknowledging speech and pointed out that that in no movie he'd ever made did he say the line:

"You dirty rat."

Thus thousands of impersonators were put out of a job. :jester:

https://youtu.be/XXxZCrM04uI

About our third trip out to the city dump, my husband taught me how to shoot. I think it was a .22 pistol. He was relieved that I didn't like it much, and he wouldn't have to share the gun. Later, when I was expecting my first son, I told my husband I didn't want to shoot anymore. I didn't like the squeals in the night. It was about the same time that I developed an aversion to eating eggs. In time, I got over the egg business, but not the shooting.

I'll happily try the Coca-Cola method next time they get in; watch this space.........!


Yesterday we caught the sixth one; it nearly escaped the trap but got caught by the tail so my young step-niece hacked it to death with a machete. She is 21 but looks 13 and is accustomed to cutting off the heads of chickens in her home village in Jamaica!

When i worked as a Riverman for Truro Harbour Office , Cornwall we seen a lot of rats
in the riverbanks . size would put a cat to shame

because my title was Riverman always said if i bought a boat i would call it " RIVER RAT .
When CB RADIO craze started had a radio in my Rangerover so River Rat was my Handle .

Tony