The Big Rat Diary

[womble]

I've always known about Weils disease, as a man in our village died from it many years ago. Last year I was working in a stream at the bottom of the garden, I got some water splashed into my mouth, two days later I was starting to get very ill with cold/flu like symptoms.
I went to the doctors, but apparently they have no way of knowing straight away if you have it or not. So I was started on the course of medicine straight away, as to leave it until they did know if I had it or not, would be too late.

Not something I want to mess with. Luckily I didn't have it

[HayleyB]

I quite like Rooster Cogburns attitude to rats...

"It's a rat writ, writ for a rat, 'n lawful service of same" ..... Bang

True Grit I adore that film

[Hilary B]

It's interesting that people are afraid of the diseases; these are bubonic plague and Weil's disease, both are rare in the UK.

Bubonic plague is rare NOW, perhaps mainly because black rats have largely been driven out by the brown invaders (and because rats and fleas generally are not tolerated). It was pretty common a few centuries ago!
Weil's disease might be a lot less rare if there was a more tolerant attitude to rats.....
I had a house fire years ago, and I strongly suspect that rats were a contributing factor. They will chew the insulation off wiring, and that can start fires. We knew there were rats around, tried to keep numbers down, but the house was not ideal, in several ways, and the combination could well be where the fire started.
They also contaminate a lot MORE food than they actually eat.

[Capsid]

Bubonic plague is rare NOW, perhaps mainly because black rats have largely been driven out by the brown invaders (and because rats and fleas generally are not tolerated). It was pretty common a few centuries ago!
Weil's disease might be a lot less rare if there was a more tolerant attitude to rats.....
I had a house fire years ago, and I strongly suspect that rats were a contributing factor. They will chew the insulation off wiring, and that can start fires. We knew there were rats around, tried to keep numbers down, but the house was not ideal, in several ways, and the combination could well be where the fire started.
They also contaminate a lot MORE food than they actually eat.

The diseases are rare because we have antibiotics now. Weil's disease is also spread by other mammals including dogs.

[Johnny Appleseed]

Rats are a reservoir of disease

Woman dies from Weil's disease after rat scratch in garden - Scotsman.com News

BBC NEWS | Health | Rat disease set to increase

Rat disease fears in city - Lancashire Evening Post


With rats urinating in my garden and possibly in my pond and running over the garden furniture - I want them disposed of asap - the health risks are simply too high - and they are vermin.

I mentioned this to my neighbour as my soon to be ex-rat disappeared under the fence into his garden yesterday.

"Oh yes, I've seen it too" he said nonchalantly,"it comes to feed at my bird table then runs under the fence into your garden"

I can't believe the stupidity of some people. - he is virtually feeding the bl**dy thing and didn't think to tell anyone.

Traps being bought and set tomorrow as Rooster Cogburn is not returning my calls. :-)

[Alice]

Johnny, if you catch them in a humane trap it is illegal to release them as they are vermin so you might as well do the job properly. They urinate and defaecate on everything and spread disease everywhere they go.

[Johnny Appleseed]

Humane traps and big garden rats.....

Johnny, if you catch them in a humane trap it is illegal to release them as they are vermin so you might as well do the job properly. They urinate and defaecate on everything and spread disease everywhere they go.

Thanks Alice - I have no intention of releasing it once caught -I just didn't want a spring trap set in the garden. So the humane trap will be inside a big inverted box in the garden and the spring trap will be set inside the shed.

Once caught - it will not be released. It is the risk of urination and defecation on everything in the garden that bothers me. Our pond has many visitors all year round both birds and mammals so ratty boy is on a one way ticket to nowhere.

The fact that domestic dogs and cats can carry and catch the disease and even transmit it to humans is also on my mind.

The risks are far too high to have rats visiting my garden.

HSE advice is to "get rid of rats" and that is exactly what I will do.

Now I've just got to catch it / them.

[Two_Sheds]

Rats don't like to eat rotting food, but they will take things like bread left out for the birds, .... So don't leave stuff lying around

Hit the nail on the head, didn't I? (for a change - it's usually my thumb)

[Two_Sheds]

Bread shouldn't be given to birds anyway ... it's not nutritious enough for them. All it's good for is ... rats.

If he wants to feed the birds, he should use hanging feeders, and not let food fall to the ground or on a table (any flat surface, basically).

I had the same problem at my allotments - the neighbours were always complaining of rats "on the allotments" but the rats were feeding off bread left on the ground, by the very same neighbours.

[Hilary B]

The diseases are rare because we have antibiotics now. Weil's disease is also spread by other mammals including dogs.

Antibiotics only continue to be effective against diseases if those diseases are relatively uncommon. The more times a certain disease meets a certain anti-biotic, the sooner a resistant strain appears. Rats are the main 'reservoir of infection' for Weil's disease, and the damage they do in other ways means that numbers HAVE to be controlled. I wouldn't want them extinct, but they really ARE undesirable neighbours! I have seen enough creatures suffering the after effects of rat-attacks. I don't want to see any more!

[Capsid]

If Weil's disease became common then we'd develop a vaccine. There is a vaccine for bubonic plague but again because it is rare then its only given to those at risk.

[Hilary B]

If disease was the ONLY problem with rats, there wouldn't be so much bother about them. It isn't the ONLY problem, just the one easiest to define. Weil's disease is (IMO) rare BECAUSE of modern hygiene standards, including intolerance of rats in domestic and comparable situations.

[poozie]

unless your nieghbours cat is a big tom, then don't rely on it to help you out, if its a big rat the cats aren't daft enough to try, find a mate thats got a jack russel though and you are on to a winner.

unless its my jack russell...............

[Johnny Appleseed]

Day 3 - 27th October

The traps are set and primed. Peanut butter on gauze as recommended by a friend of a friend. I've never heard of it as bait before but apparently my Prime Target loves it. Now for the waiting.

[lynda66]

peanut butter and chocolate digestives are rats and mices fave food