Rats

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Garry R
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Rats

Post by Garry R »

Literally and as a polite swearword!! I picked up Gannet from the potato store where she has been residing all winter to find that the cover was covered in ratchets - sorry rat s**t. I have also noticed that the buggers have the rear wooden mast support and the wooden strong back chewed to bits. In the snow and rain on the way home from Edinburgh I haven't had the heart to see whether they have had anything inside the hull for afters!! The cover strangely hasn't been chewed at all just to hose off the crap. The farmer's comment was the "We pit poison doon this winter but they didnae seem to like it as much as last year". I seem to have suddenly gone off eating potatoes as well. Strange that eh?

It was great to see the quorate Committee last week at the weirdest pub quiz ever in Frome. Trish and I after blitzing every Estate Agent from Cheddar to Frome to Westbury are the proud owners of a magnificent workshop and double garage and a very large six boat lean-to shed which happens to have a pretty big garden and a house attached to it. It's near Wedmore/Cheddar/Wells and we should be arriving just after William and Kate's nuptials all being well. Logistics is now the name of the game getting all ready for the move. A house warming will of course occur in the fulness of time.

Off to shovel some snow.........
JimC
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Re: Rats

Post by JimC »

Andy (Bloodaxe Boats) Patterson tells the story of the first time he capsized the International Canoe he liberated from several years in a barn. Not only did it leak like a sieve, but when he opened the hatch to let the water out at least two mummified rats washed out with it...
Garry R
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Re: Rats

Post by Garry R »

Have dared to remove the cover and thankfully the only damage is the mainsheet which I had left on and has been chewed up into a fluffy ball and into a rats nest behind the buoyancy bags. Fortunately I have plenty of replacement (somewhere in the garage ready to take down south) so no problems. Boat and cover now rinsed out with Dettol - Weils disease and Bubonic plague a potential danger which I am trying to avoid. Not to mention the smell. Still haven't had a potato.........
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Re: Rats

Post by Nessa »

You need a jack russell, especially if you are moving to Zummerzet.

All makes me homesick...

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roger
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Re: Rats

Post by roger »

It was great to see you both. Of course we are blaming you for us getting the lowest ever result in the pub quiz. Great to hear you have found somewhere with lots of space for boats.
Looking ofrward to seeing both on the water again.
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Pat
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Re: Rats

Post by Pat »

Likewise good to see you both again. Let us know when you fancy a sail at Bristol Corinthian at Cheddar Reservoir as our guests. There's a good Wednesday night summer series there.
chris
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Re: Rats

Post by chris »

Apparently no one is ever further than 40ft from a rat in this country (The four legged furry things that is). Hope there's not too much damage though. Good to see you both, hope the buying selling and moving go to plan but leave the rats behind.
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Ed
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Re: Rats

Post by Ed »

that's what they say....

never knew if it was supposed to be an 'average' kind of thing though. cos it doesn't really sound right...

You would of thought there would be plenty of people who are further than that from a rat....when sailing for instance.

But if it was on average....

... as I live in a knackered old house next door to the river and a pub and a yard full of crap etc etc I know I live in close proximity to the damn things....so reckon I would bring the average up.

Not had them in a boat though....just the walls....above the roof etc etc.

Little buggers.....must lay some more traps, or get an air-rifle for a little sport.

eib
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Re: Rats

Post by roger »

Ed my parents had terrible mouse problems in their old house. It sounded like a mouse party going on in the ceiling. Bait worked for a while but they have treid one of these sonic deterrents which emit a sound which they dont like(bit like the mosquitos they used to deter teenagers). Worked really well. No mice since.
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Ed
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Re: Rats

Post by Ed »

Yes, I think we should try those out.

have seen them, but quite expensive.

traps are my preferred method of attack. Poison, just leads to them dying in the walls and the smell is worse than the rats!

nothing quite as rewarding as hearing the 'snap' of a trap going off and thinking....there's one less of the little buggers.

eib
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Michael Brigg
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Re: Rats

Post by Michael Brigg »

Garry R wrote: Boat and cover now rinsed out with Dettol - Weils disease and Bubonic plague a potential danger which I am trying to avoid. .
Not much chance of Bubonic plague (possibly also the Black death) which is/was mainly carried by Black rats (which have been largely evicted in this country by their Norwegian cousins.) It is actually spread by their fleas which seek a new host when their primary feeding scource dies.

Weil's disease is more of a danger if you capsize on stagnant water and is mainly spread by rats but also several other mammals besides. (You may know last year, Andy Holmes, the Gold medal partner of Steve Redgrave died of the disease, probably aquired when sculling the Boston marathon on the River Witham in Lincolnshire.)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/ ... ndy-holmes

What with Killer shrimps, we look all set for a bumper year! :lol: :twisted:
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Re: Rats

Post by Ed »

Gosh, it had totally missed me that Andy Holmes had died of Weil's.

Blimey!

having spent most of life swimming and playing in stagnant and dirty water from the Thames in the 60s & 70s to the Tideway in the 70s, (OK I was in the sea for most of the 80s) but back in Bristol Harbour for the 90s and the Tamar for the 00s.....been bitten by a water-rat....I have never worried too much about it.

Although I certainly knew that people did occasionally get it on the docks. We just always told people to be aware and tell your doctor to test for it if you went down with flu-like symptoms.

But what about Lymes? My next door neighbor has 3rd stage Lymes at the moment and it is really rather nasty. The doctors never thought of it....and it was only because he asked to be tested for it that they diagnosed it. (Note to Alan - this is Archery Ian of Ian & Brenda).

And of course what do you get from Blue-Green algae? That sounds nasty too!

I have always wondered if you could build up any kind of immunity from some of these water-borne bugs. As a child I swum in the river (Thames) every day of the summer I could. I would never get ill.....but many friends would come and play...and swim...and go straight down with what we called 'river-lurgy'.

What the hell, I will be back swimming in the Tamar as soon as I can this summer.

cheers

eib
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Michael Brigg
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Re: Rats

Post by Michael Brigg »

Ed wrote:.... just leads to them dying in the walls and the smell is worse than the rats!

nothing quite as rewarding as hearing the 'snap' of a trap going off and thinking....there's one less of the little buggers.

eib
Does your rat answer to "Polonius" by chance?
KING
Where is Polonius?

HAMLET
In heaven; send thither to see: if your messenger
find him not there, seek him i' the other place
yourself. But indeed, if you find him not within
this month, you shall nose him as you go up the
stairs into the lobby.
We had a company of Rats when we first moved to our own Elsinore. The main drain had cracked and much use of a washing machine caused enough water to leak out that it washed away the supporting sand and the pipe dropped. The furry beggars entered from the main sewer and dug their way into the cavity wall, and thence found the only small breach in the inner wall via an RSJ beam (supporting an extention) to gain access to the first floor ceiling space. :roll:

They are dirty beasts, not like sqirrels or mice who have a latrine area, rats just drop it and go. When I lifted a board to take a look, along with all the builders waste (another genus with some messy crafty bodgers amongst its ranks) there was Rat poo, liberally scattered along every run between the floor timbers. It took a whole week-end to clear, using a double length of Vax tubing like some gigantic endoscope. 8)

We then had to get rid of our guests.

After we, (well, the council in fact. Rats are an enviromental health issue so they will do the dirty deed for you for free,...) laid the poison that was pretty much the end of the problem
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Now, Hamlet, where's Polonius?

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At supper.

KING
At supper! where?

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Not where he eats, but where he is eaten: a certain
convocation of politic worms are e'en at him.
We had two small plagues of flies while the maggots disposed of the remains and mummification I presume has done the rest. Really no problem with smell, but it might be worse in winter when there aren't any flies around! :mrgreen:

After all that vax work with the giant gastrocope, I imagined I could smell rat poo in everything for about 2 months. :x

:idea: It is worth fitting a 1-way trap/valve after repair of the sewer although this can cause a problem if ever you have to use drain rods. The expensive way is to have a sump between the house and the main. We've had no problem since.

:!: If you put traps down, the Enviromental health bods by law have to check them every day,...at your expense. :? Its theoretically more humane, but more expensive.
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roger
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Re: Rats

Post by roger »

Ed wrote:Gosh, it had totally missed me that Andy Holmes had died of Weil's.

Blimey!

having spent most of life swimming and playing in stagnant and dirty water from the Thames in the 60s & 70s to the Tideway in the 70s, (OK I was in the sea for most of the 80s) but back in Bristol Harbour for the 90s and the Tamar for the 00s.....been bitten by a water-rat....I have never worried too much about it.

Although I certainly knew that people did occasionally get it on the docks. We just always told people to be aware and tell your doctor to test for it if you went down with flu-like symptoms.

But what about Lymes? My next door neighbor has 3rd stage Lymes at the moment and it is really rather nasty. The doctors never thought of it....and it was only because he asked to be tested for it that they diagnosed it. (Note to Alan - this is Archery Ian of Ian & Brenda).

And of course what do you get from Blue-Green algae? That sounds nasty too!

I have always wondered if you could build up any kind of immunity from some of these water-borne bugs. As a child I swum in the river (Thames) every day of the summer I could. I would never get ill.....but many friends would come and play...and swim...and go straight down with what we called 'river-lurgy'.

What the hell, I will be back swimming in the Tamar as soon as I can this summer.

cheers

eib
Ed,

Its well known in dariry herds and most are now vaccinated against it.(leptospirosis).It is not unknown for dairy herdsman to catch it, in fact I am convinced I had a dose of it before it was vaccinated against back in the early 80s. I had the worst flu I have ever had, even worse tha man flu, our doctors was an urban one and not aware of the risk at the time. I think you could build up resisitance.
Of course our eminent GP may well say Im wrong
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STEVEB
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Re: Rats

Post by STEVEB »

Vaccination sounds an excellent idea, should be offered to all dinghy sailors etc
Steve :roll:
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