Super Rat Plague., What's the cause? Options

[Biker1]

Rat Plague??
Anything to do with our reduced refuse collection imposed by WBC??

[motormad]

Messy homes/area's get rats
Clean ones do not.

We live in a house of 5 and we manage with just one bin (well two as we recycle things) and we have no rats.
Neither do my 4 friends who live in Thatcham.

I know one person in Newbury and he reports a rat-free outlook for the next 5 days.

[On the edge]

Messy homes/area's get rats
Clean ones do not.

We live in a house of 5 and we manage with just one bin (well two as we recycle things) and we have no rats.
Neither do my 4 friends who live in Thatcham.

I know one person in Newbury and he reports a rat-free outlook for the next 5 days.

Not exactly right. Quite happy to spend some time at your spotless homes and show you the amazing amount of animal life you support. That includes rats.

Rather like nits; which many think only infect dirty hair; in fact, often quite the reverse.

[motormad]

Do come round
I'm sure we have a lot of spiders.

There's also a dog, 2 rabbits and one fat creature (me).

I was generalizing though, generally a dirtier area would be more attractive to rats and what not :\

[Biker1]

Do come round
I'm sure we have a lot of spiders.

There's also a dog, 2 rabbits and one fat creature (me).

I was generalizing though, generally a dirtier area would be more attractive to rats and what not :\

The one thing that attracts rats is not filth but food.
Now that WBC collect waste food less I wondered if this could be a contributing factor?

[motormad]

The one thing that attracts rats is not filth but food.
Now that WBC collect waste food less I wondered if this could be a contributing factor?

I guess that's true.
I just associate one with the other.

In Blasingdeath retail park where the chavs hang out in cars (I've moved onto motorway service stations) the McDonalds has litter spewed everywhere and you always see rats running from bag to bag.

[Nothing Much]

I think I have mentioned on this place or another that I get really nice Woodpigeons eating berries. (I have no gun),
In my south facing garden and feral one legged ones pecking at kebab boxes or the vomit (after Arsenal have lost) at the front pavement.

The house was built in about 1831,during "The March of Bricks and Mortar".No foundations. Lift up a kitchen floorboard
and there is earth and spiders. And Mice. I think they have a motorway between houses. AND the walls are lath and plaster.
So the little critters use the walls as a motorway as well.
The worlds ugliest Persian stray mog is driven wild. She gets a few! I think they are not just in our house. Brickwork was a bit poor.

Actually they are quite cute.They pop up through old gas holes and then they are gone. Did I really see a mouse?

Rats do seem more of a menace with attacks on children.
ce

[TallDarkAndHands...]

Let's hope RATS grow to 8 foot and become predators of humans. Would solve the population crisis.

[Nothing Much]

I believe Indian Tigers twigged on that one some time ago. For some there were no indoor facilities.
The path through the woods could be a dangerous trip for a poor villager. Still 8ft monsters need to eat!.
ce.

[On the edge]

The one thing that attracts rats is not filth but food.
Now that WBC collect waste food less I wondered if this could be a contributing factor?

May well be the case. Depends how its stored and as that's down to us there is little control. Interesting if we could see some before and after numbers.

[On the edge]

Do come round
I'm sure we have a lot of spiders.

There's also a dog, 2 rabbits and one fat creature (me).

I was generalizing though, generally a dirtier area would be more attractive to rats and what not :\

Wholly agree. Slummy mummy who lets her kids drop litter and half eaten biscuits isn't exactly helping.

[masons]

Wholly agree. Slummy mummy who lets her kids drop litter and half eaten biscuits isn't exactly helping.

I think in the not to distant past local councils used to come out to with their poisons etc. and use it responsibly,now, if there is a problem with vermin its off to the nearest stockist of suitable poison with a, the more that's put down the quicker the little blighters will die attitude, now most of the little beggars look on poison as another source of food as they are immune to it.

[gel]

Rat Plague??
Anything to do with our reduced refuse collection imposed by WBC??

Possibly a factor, as increased sightings have been reported countrywide,
in recent years as weekly bin collections came in.

Another contributory factor was WBC withdrawing from their statutory obligation some years
back to deal with rats that wers sighted on residential premises.
Many Councils still offer a service as they rightly see as public health risk.

In WBC they washed their hands of responsibility.

No matter how clean your domain is, if an adjacent farm has fields with junk in,
rats will be present you can be certain
They will spread into adjacent properties.

[spartacus]

We're all guilty of feeding them, but some are more guilty than others (including those b*ggers who throw McD's boxes along Burys Bank Road)... BUT none of us are immune, however 'clean' we think we are..

Along with many people I have a couple of the large green plastic compost bins out in the garden. Potato peelings and all sorts of fruit and veg' bits have been chucked in them over the years, but there have been several occasions when there's been movement when I've walked up to them to lob in the latest scraps in the dark evenings. Most often it's just a hedgehog, but there have been times when 'things with tails' have scurried away. What's the answer though?

I'd prefer to shoot them but then again I don't shoot enough to make a difference, so given the option I think a handful of pellets that actually kill rather than 'fatten up' need to be employed.

However while the website has a picture of this pretty little furry creature (awww... want one...)

rather than the disgusting creatures that they are...

then we haven't got a chance of winning over those who think ALL God's creatures should just be cuddled...


They DO make nice slippers though.....

[spartacus]

In WBC they washed their hands of responsibility.

If we ALL washed our hands it may help with other types of plagues........

[Andy Capp]

Good rat catchers are feral cats and terriers. Pellets just kill anything that eats them including things we perhaps might not want dead.

[Simon Kirby]

Rat Plague??
Anything to do with our reduced refuse collection imposed by WBC??

Rats are intelligent adaptable creatues that thrive anywhere they have both food and cover, but that doesn't create the super-rat of the news article. The problem of the Newbury Super-rat is all down to poison, or more particularly the inappropriate and inexpert use of poison:

Warfarin came into widespread use in the early fifties as a rodenticide, and it only took around ten years before some brown rats started to show immunity to it. As a one-off last resort poison is effective at wiping out an entire population, and if the poison is removed after a few weeks then rats with a natural Warfarin resistence have no evolutionary advantage over non-resistent rats re-entering the niche and resistence never build in the population. However, if the poison is left down all the time then evolution will steadily select those rats best able to tolerate Warfarin, and that's just what happend.

By the eighties Warfarin had become ineffective as resistence was so widespread, and the so-called second-generation anti-coagulant rodenticides like bromadiolone were introduced. Bromadiolone works in the same way as Warfarin, but it's very much more potent. However, the same lazy and unsustainable control led to the development of second-generation anticoagulant-resistent populations developing by the nineties - a significant population was right here in Newbury.

There are anti-coagulant rodenticides more potent still than bromadiolone, but they're not licensed for out-door use, and that's what the Council are asking to use, but secondary poisoning is already a significant problem with bromadiolone - red kites are particularly affected because they eat a lot of rats - and it would be very bad news for scavaging animals if even more toxic poisons got into the environment.

The answer is to control rodents sustainably - deny them access to their food, open up their environment to their predators, and tolerate low-level populations where they're not infesting buildings and causing an active health problem. Putting down poison because someone saw a rat by their dustbin is just what caused the problem, and allowing the council to use ever more toxic alternatives indiscriminately will simply kill more wildlife and domestic animals while allowing the evolution of more super-rats.

[dannyboy]

The answer is to control rodents sustainably - deny them access to their food, open up their environment to their predators, and tolerate low-level populations where they're not infesting buildings and causing an active health problem. Putting down poison because someone saw a rat by their dustbin is just what caused the problem, and allowing the council to use ever more toxic alternatives indiscriminately will simply kill more wildlife and domestic animals while allowing the evolution of more super-rats

exactly.

Rats can be dealt with without poison - we had them in our house & we just blocked up the hole by which they were entering. Job done.

[Rachel]

I'm surprised that a disease that kills rats hasn't been introduced, miximatosis style?

[dannyboy]

I'm surprised that a disease that kills rats hasn't been introduced, miximatosis style?

Yes, because that worked so well didn't it.

SK has the answer - if we humnas were a little cleaner & took more care about the way we live our lives, the rats would not have such an easy time of it.