No, they were in the cavity wall. They did eat through our mains water supply pipe which was in the cavity wall. We came downstairs to a kitchen full of water and plaster boards that were saturated with water, got into all the kitchen electrics, Kitchen units and kick boards had soaked up lots of water - it took weeks to dry out properly - with lots requiring replacing.
Yes, they are nocturnal so they would scurry between the walls and plasterboard at night. The way the batons were attached vertically- they could go right up and over the house. I wanted to invest in a 12 bore shot gun to shoot through the plasterboard into the 'hot spots'. Thankfully my willingness to keep them out was greater than their desire to get in. Nine years rat free and counting.
I went to Duncan's gun shop on Willerby Rd to buy a ratting gun. Thought a pistol would do the trick but got told it would have to be a high powered air rifle. Glad I didn’t splash out the moolah because I haven’t seen the bastard since it was in my kitchen.
Currently got a mouse in the cavity wall of my bedroom (I think). Nothing I can do about it sadly apart from make sure all holes are sealed.
Somehow I missed this thread. I ****ing hate rats. They give me shudder. I walk to work and pass a Gypsy site along the way. There's a stretch, maybe 20 yards long, it's absolutely infested with the horrible ****ers.There's that many on both sides of the footpath, it sometimes sounds more like a family of monkeys are diving about in the trees. I'm not ashamed to say, I have been known to run past that gauntlet of utter wretchedness. They have poor eyesight and they only **** off if you make a noise. If you're freaked, stamp your feet. I hate rats.
I was up in Murmansk once and went to check fish in a cold store, and saw the biggest rat I've seen, and with long hair. The guy told me they come into the coldstore as the temperature is warmer minus 20 than it was outside minus 35.
I lived in a few rented flats and houses which had rodent infestations and the landlords always had this attitude that it was just a case of putting some bait down and then there was nothing more they could do. Apart from anything else the bait hardly ever seems to actually work. They always say it's the strongest stuff but then like Carmine said it all gets eaten and you've got no less rodents than before.
Big rats actively seek rat poison and get off their teets on it. It's like crystal meth to the big ones.
Had my shed and half the contents decimated by rats over winter. I'd not been in it for ages and opened it to find a horrible stench and the floor about an inch deep in rat ****! Had to throw a load of stuff out they'd destroyed and even after I'd sealed up the gap I though they were getting in by, they still managed to chew their way back in through the wood panels. Little bastards that they are! Finally eliminated them with a rat trap and sonic-deterrent. It was a vile job cleaning the shed out after - should really have got pest control in. Oddly enough I'm reading Domain right now. Third book in James Herbert's Rats trilogy.
Rats reproduce very quickly. Sexually mature at around 25 days & able to reproduce by 42 days. A gestation period of 21 days & a usual litter size of upto 18. They will mate straight after parturition meaning by the time the litter is weaning the dam is giving birth again. One female dropping 18 every 3 weeks. If there's 10 females in that first litter it could mean after 9 weeks a single pair have risen to over 200. Six weeks later you have a lot more. It escalates very quickly so act accordingly.
Don't know if this is true or not but I was told that who ever is responsible for the raised railway track that circles Hull to the Docks have stopped baiting it. This has been the case for the past two years and the rat/rodent problem seems the have increased since then. Rat poison does work despite rumours to the contrary.
There’s this myth that if the rat eats the poison it goes outside of your house to look for water and that’s where it dies. Absolute load of bollocks.
Biggest one I saw was in Lathbury Barracks, Gibraltar, 1993. Thought it was a dog when I first saw it. And not a small dog, it was the size of a St Bernard. Slight embellishment for theatrical effect but it was rather large.
Rats can’t vomit. That's what the poisons do. I did some research work for, what was then, the MAFF a few years back looking at why poisons weren’t working as efficiently as they used to. It turned out the rodents we investigated had built up a genetically inherited system of tolerating the poisons.
Walk through Hong Kong at 2.00am and you'll see far bigger rats than that, I've no idea where the massive ****ers go during the day.
Funnily enough that rat was still there in 2001 when I was in Gib. Except he'd moved to Devils Tower Camp and was running the NAAFI....
