Rats

[steveeeeeeeee]

I am seeing a lot more of them recently, probably getting 2 or 3 sightings per week. Is this a consequence of lockdown in the UK? A general trend to leave or drop litter amongst our youth? Or, have they finally got their sh*t together and are about to take over?

All of the rats I've spotted have actually been quite cute with nice, shiny brown coats and a certain skip in their step, not too far removed from a squirrel (whose tails seem to be getting less fluffy and more rat like). They run for cover as soon as they realise they've been spotted, so, they're fairly polite as well.

[E10 Rifle]

Our office was seriously cut with rodents before Christmas, due I guess to the general desertedness of central London. Think they've gone now but there's never only one

[caja-dglh]

With fewer people in offices they will need to migrate to more suburban areas. There is an excellent book on Rats in NYC (title - Rats) which, if I remember rightly, includes a lot of detail about their move into Tribeca after the twin towers fell as there was all that food in caverns underground. Also good story about a guy putting a cat into his basement to deal with the rats. Didn't quite work out.

[Patrick Thistle]

Weirdly I saw one today scuttling along a street in Cardiff Bay. It's been a while since I last saw one out and about.

[steveeeeeeeee]

Yes, I would say that pre-lockdown I saw a rat about once or twice a year.

[Fussbudget]

[torres]

After ten years of ignoring what a shithole my garage had become I decided to clean it out last week. Every box I lifted culminated in ten or fifteen mice running for cover. I eventually cleared them all out only to have a few of the neighbours complaining about mice infesting their houses.

[Mr Delicieux]

We had a notice posted by the housing association advising us that we had rats in the area here in Helsinki and to be vigilant, did see a couple plodding about, but the snowy ground betrayed their location and they seem to have been taken care of.
Closer to home, we noticed some footprints in the snow-covered window ledge outside our living room that looked too small to be rats, but couldn't work out why they were walking along their because it didn't seem to lead to anywhere, then one late night, I noticed them climbing up the wall, and I was really quite impressed with their climbing skills.
Then curiosity got the better of me, and set up the phone outside to capture them:

[Balderdasha]

We had a big rat in the garden a few years ago. We would see it walking past the patio doors to the shed. Given previous experience with rats we now take a "no delay, no mercy" approach. So the weekend after we saw the rat, I cleared out all the undergrowth around the shed, and most of the rest of the garden, leaving nowhere to hide, and my husband set up a trap with poisoned bait inside. We have not seen the rat since. We think clearing the undergrowth was the main factor as the bait in the box has been only tentatively nibbled.

[Moonlight Shadow]

I once opened the curtains of my back door and a rat was staring at me from the patio, in daylight...It only buggered off when i opened the door.

[ChrisJ]

Seen a couple (or one, twice) in the back garden this year - bold, sleek fellows, obviously busy. Never seen them here previously and I assumed they were making use of the hedgehog gap I recently made in the back fence.

If you like rats, you should visit Bikaner. If you are a rat, you also should visit Bikaner, they love you.

[jwdd27]

This article (from a pest control company, so they would say that, and they are their own source) suggests a 25% increase in rat numbers during 2020, partly lockdown, and partly a genetic mutation making them immune to poison:

https://www.pest.co.uk/council-cuts-...0150%20million.

We have new rats in the warehouse yard at work, which is not good news and doesn't happen often - older sites, especially those close to water have much worse problems. The pest control guys are always a rich source of horror stories.

The one positive of having rats is that if you've got rats, you don't have mice. Because the rats have killed and eaten them.

[Bizarre Löw Triangle]

We had a notice posted by the housing association advising us that we had rats in the area here in Helsinki and to be vigilant, did see a couple plodding about, but the snowy ground betrayed their location and they seem to have been taken care of.
Closer to home, we noticed some footprints in the snow-covered window ledge outside our living room that looked too small to be rats, but couldn't work out why they were walking along their because it didn't seem to lead to anywhere, then one late night, I noticed them climbing up the wall, and I was really quite impressed with their climbing skills.
Then curiosity got the better of me, and set up the phone outside to capture them:

are they field mice?

[caja-dglh]

The one positive of having rats is that if you've got rats, you don't have mice. Because the rats have killed and eaten them.

In Alphabet City (NYC) it was the same truism that was noted, just from the reverse perspective. No one wanted the Tompkins Square rats getting into their apartment.

[Incandenza]

We had a big rat in the garden a few years ago. We would see it walking past the patio doors to the shed. Given previous experience with rats we now take a "no delay, no mercy" approach. So the weekend after we saw the rat, I cleared out all the undergrowth around the shed, and most of the rest of the garden, leaving nowhere to hide, and my husband set up a trap with poisoned bait inside. We have not seen the rat since. We think clearing the undergrowth was the main factor as the bait in the box has been only tentatively nibbled.

Everything I've read says to not to try to deal with mice/rats with poison, as that can have knock-on effects with other animals, namely cats or birds eating a poisoned rodent and then getting poisoned themselves.

[Mr Delicieux]

are they field mice?

We think they're house mice.

[Hot Pepsi]

Everything I've read says to not to try to deal with mice/rats with poison, as that can have knock-on effects with other animals, namely cats or birds eating a poisoned rodent and then getting poisoned themselves.

Indeed.
The only way to really eliminate rodents long term is to make your environment unhospitable to them.

[steveeeeeeeee]

It's just been a feature on Channel 4 News. Estimated 80% increase in London Rats over lockdown.

[Bored Of Education]

I used to have a pet rat and learnt a fair bit about them. Firstly, they are super intelligent and, as many people know, actually very clean - like pigs. However, they obviously can transfer diseases not least Weil's disease (although dogs, cows and mice also carry this) in their piss.

As they are so intelligent, it is very difficult to actually get rid of them even with poison. They can get into ridiculously small areas - 20-25mm holes, for instance.

Obviously, they like to keep themselves to themselves so any idea that they attack or bite people is a myth or, at least in the latter, a rarity.

I don't want to downplay the danger of disease being spread by rats at all. The rat I had was a pedigree fancy rat which is a different kettle of fish. However, it does amuse me that people will feed pigeons and they are nothing but flying vermin with less intelligence than rats.

[hobbes]

They figured out how to fly, didn't they?

[Bored Of Education]

Well, all birds came from dinosaurs so you could say that they haven't evolved much over that time. Having said that, credit that they survived where other dinosaurs didn't but I bet pigeons weren't there then. Anyway, anything thats own shit rots their feet aren't that clever.