Rats - ignorance was bliss...

[KevM]

OK, I'd heard that where a rat's head can fit its body can follow, but I'd never seen it before, this video is grimly fascinating. :shock:

How does this ultimate rat invasion actually occur?
First, it could easily sneak into grates or manhole covers open to the street.
Residential sewer pipes feed into the main tunnel.
A rat might consider this path an irresistible opportunity for exploration.
Its sharp claws allow the rat to scale almost any vertical surface.
The rat is in the home’s internal pipes, going up.

Now it faces the biggest test: getting through the last few feet of the narrow, maze-like toilet pipes.
Is this even possible?
The underwater passage leaves no room for error.
At a turn, the rat finds a pocket of air, just enough to help it push on...to the end of the line.
How does it collapse its body like that?

Take a look at this rat’s attempt to get to the other side of the tiny hole.
If a rat can fit its head through an opening, the rest is easy because of its “internal acrobatics”.
When squeezing through a constricted space, the pressure causes the ribs to give way.
At the spine, the ribs are hinged allowing them to effortlessly collapse.

How does the rat deal with all that...water? What if someone flushes?

We think of rats as land animals, but it turns out, they’re expert swimmers.
Rats paddle with their back legs while the front feet steer.
The tail also works as a kind of rudder.
Rats have incredible stamina—they can tread water for three days straight!
And they can hold their breath underwater for up to three minutes.
This aquatic proficiency is the very reason rats became global travelers.
Long distance swimming enabled them to hitch rides on boats and colonize new shores.

 

[Ali]

I wish you didn't post that :shock: :shock:

 

[Lons]

Thanks for that - I think #-o

 

[Mike-W]

Having seen a rat in our garden several times last winter feeding off the mess left below our bird feeder, i'm not sure i want to look at the video! All i know is they have been burrowing under ground in our garden, close to my timber store that sits on a paving slab base. A month ago I had to jack up a corner of the store by 2" due i am sure to the blighters mining under the slabs

 

[Lons]

Having seen a rat in our garden several times last winter feeding off the mess left below our bird feeder, i'm not sure i want to look at the video! All i know is they have been burrowing under ground in our garden, close to my timber store that sits on a paving slab base. A month ago I had to jack up a corner of the store by 2" due i am sure to the blighters mining under the slabs

My neighbours one side keep hens and the other put out tonnes of bird food so I see one occasionally, luckily not too near the house. I have a very efficient 22 air rifle and occasionally enough patience to bump one off.

After watching that video I'm going to power wash our sewers and put down gallons of beach tomorrow. :shock:

 

[finneyb]

We had a squirrel proof bird feeder, wire sphere with a wire gauze column inside containing the seed, on a five foot plastic coated pole. Birds can fly in and peck the seed, squirrel can't get near. A rat climbed the five foot plastic coated pole as though it wasn't there. Squeezed through the outer wire sphere. Lay on it's side and used its side teeth to bit through the wire gauze and the seeds comes out for the rat.
A very resourceful animal.

We don't feed birds anymore !!!

Brian

 

[Lons]

We had a squirrel proof bird feeder, wire sphere with a wire gauze column inside containing the seed, on a five foot plastic coated pole. Birds can fly in and peck the seed, squirrel can't get near. A rat climbed the five foot plastic coated pole as though it wasn't there. Squeezed through the outer wire sphere. Lay on it's side and used its side teeth to bit through the wire gauze and the seeds comes out for the rat.
A very resourceful animal.

We don't feed birds anymore !!!

Brian

Buy an air rifle!

 

[RogerS]

The one sure way of blocking rat entry is to fill it with coarse wire wool.

 

[Monkey Mark]

In a previous property I had an issue with rats after an old factory was demolished.

My two dogs killed loads. But I'll never forget the sound of them scampering under floors and in walls at night

I killed many with a big kitchen knife and a length of timber. Once caught one bare handed mid air as it tried to jump past me. Then thought "now what do I do?" so drowned it in the sink.

If there's one, there's certainly more. They leave a trail of destruction and stink when they urinate everywhere or when decomposing if you use poison.

I would suggest to anyone who see rat on their property to do something sooner rather than later.

As Roger said above, they hate wire (goes between teeth into gums). They will happily chew through concrete. When I found holes I would fill with a mixture of cement, poison and wire wool.

 

[damo8604]

I killed many with a big kitchen knife and a length of timber. Once caught one bare handed mid air as it tried to jump past me. Then thought "now what do I do?" so drowned it in the sink............

Quite possibly the best thing I've ever heard, I have visions of you dressed like Indiana Jones skulking around the house with a knife in one hand, 2x4 in the other =D>

 

[KevM]

The one sure way of blocking rat entry is to fill it with coarse wire wool.

I don't even want to imagine how to go about filling a rat with wire wool... :shock:

 

[damo8604]

Makes em easier to catch with a magnet!

 

[Benchwayze]

Leave a 'fuse' hanging from either end and set fire to the wire wool!