Anything To Worry About

[youngmafbog]

Now lets not get personal, my mothers side hails from Brum, but if rats are growing surely this could be a real problem to health and could lead to humans being attacked, particularly the young?

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/birmingham-being-overrun-by-unbelievably-big-and-heavy-rats-9225515.html

Or is it just something being put about to oppose the outsourcing of the rat catcher? (which I dont agree with)

[sandyRoe]

Outsourcing the rat catching? Are they bringing that guy in from Germany, the Pied Piper?

[mikey4444]

I don't think it is just Brum ymb. Around my estate, some people are very careless about putting bin bags out every week, and I have seen a few rats, on my early morning dog walks. Although, we back onto open woodland and farming country, so a rat sighting may not be so rare.

[sp1814]

That picture looks like a mouse, rather than a rat.

[youngmafbog]

Nah, I caught two of them last night. Definitely a chubby Roland.

[woofgang]

There is no point having any kind of rat catcher while the environment remains hospitable to rats. New rats will move in and breed....I guess it keep the ratcatcher in business though. You have to make the environment somewhere they won't want to stay, so no shelter, no food source, any overgrown or storage area disturbed regularly and vigorously. My garden used to house some very casual specimens indeed, would eat on the patio in the middle of the day. Since securing my rubbish better, getting rid of the compost heap, tidying the garden and garage and encouraging the dogs to hunt out there at night, the rats have completely vanished with no need for poison or traps. If you can, encourage neighbours to do the same.

[ludwig]

Is Birmingham twinned with Stockholm?

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26764929

[sandyRoe]

Or Sumatra?

[ludwig]

Interesting rat fact : Rats don't have bladders, so they're just constantly leaking p155 all the time.

[Svejk]

well,well.

[ludwig]

Yep, it's a bit like when I had a catheter in and left the tap open by mistake.

[Milvus]

Rats do have bladders but like mice use urine as a scent marker. Pet rats learn to control their bladder pretty well

[Peter Pedant]

ludo:

extract of H. sabdariffa has been shown to stimulate contraction of the rat bladder and uterus;

well I wonder how they found that out then

the fact is Mice ( sudduv like rats ) have poor bladder control ( yup they have one as well )and leave a trail of urine as they scoot around

and they navigate ( follow that mouse ! ) by smell

causes difficulty in rats learning T mazes ( they may not learn but follow the smell )

sorry technical point

{ Schweik - it is your cue to post a gormless " wot wiv dat den ? "

[Peter Pedant]

damn Milvus got there first !

[fiction-factory]

Yep, beat you to it by two years, PP