Ratcatcher's bike.....

[FrankCrank]

....have an infestation of rats here now, so set about trapping them - got 4 of the blighters so far.
Added a basket to my MTB so I can transport the prisoners out yonder to new pastures.....

...gotta be careful swinging my leg over the back - scratches on my leg now.

Couple of years back I trapped 11 in total over a short period, let's see if I can set a new record.

Anyone else have a strange use for their bike......

 

[Accy cyclist]

Good to hear you're going to set the rats free! Not that strange but i use my bikes as clothes horses when the proper ones are full.

 

[Cubist]

Very laudable that you intend to release the rat, but you need to be aware of the law. That looks like a Brown Rat, which is a native species, but it is illegal to release Black Rats into the wild.

http://www.ufaw.org.uk/downloads/we...e-on-humane-control-of-rodents-feb2509v19.pdf


Next, you need to think about where you intend to release it. What effect will it have on the new environment, whose land will you be introducing a pest species to?

Next, think of the rat itself. Where will it go? What food source will it find? A new rat in a colonized area will suffer through attack by established rats, and be either killed or injured.

Finally, be absolutely scrupulous about hygiene. We do a fair bit of rat control on farms and go to extreme lengths to avoid any bare skin contact with the rats. Gloves, tongs and shovels are a must. Weil's disease is not funny.

 

[mickle]

Mike Burrows owns the copyright.

 

[ufkacbln]

Mike Burrows owns the copyright.

My reaction to the title was the same!

 

[steve50]

How come you have an infestation of rats?
We took advice a couple of years ago after getting rats in the back garden, the pest control officer who cam e to talk to us put it quite simply, " remove the food source and the rats will go away". Seems one of our neighbours from foreign shores was not recycling their waste food, placing it into bin liners instead of the plastic bucket provided for that purpose. Once the neighbour had been "educated" the rats went away. No food , no rats.

 

[FrankCrank]

.....thanks all for the comments, and I doubt Mike Burrows will feel too threatened by my version of a Ratcatcher!

I'm certainly no lover of these vermin, will release any that I capture alive, but have to resort to poisoning as well. Have them in my ground floor ceiling void, no loft access, so undo light fittings and lob some poison pellets in there for lunch. Awful stench right now, so at least one has taken the bait. We have one side of the house which is open land, and that's where they hang out, coming over our wall to see what's what. Other neighbours are having the same problem, but that's no consolation.

Then there's the pigeons, monitor lizards, cobras, geckos, termites, ants.........it's a proper jungle over here I tell you..........

 

[Cubist]

Ah, presumption fail. Presumed you were in Reading, so my copy and paste doesn't seem relevant. Unless of course Reading has been overtaken by monitor lizards?

 

[Banjo]

I think I would leave the cobras to an expert

 

[FrankCrank]

....believe it or not, the fire-ants are the ones I fear most. Been bitten by them several times on hands and feet, and it's much worse than a bee or wasp sting, and swelling can last several days - ouch! Dogs are a close second - crazy, feral , and often in packs. They see me on my bike/trike and think I'm fair game. Been bitten twice, but I lash out now if they get too close - a thump on the muzzle works wonders.

Two neighbours dogs have been killed by cobras, even baby cobras have strong venom I've heard. You leave them alone and they won't bother you, but cornered and they'll strike. We saw one of the dogs just before it died, was bitten on the tongue - doubt whether a vet could have saved it.

We have lots of fish and shrimp farms round here, and this attracts otters. Only five sightings so far - very shy and elusive animals, but certainly makes my day if lucky enough to see one. Like I say, quite a jungle out there......

 

[kiriyama]

I worked in a pub in London that had a rat problem. The takeaways that shared the same back ally were a disgrace when it came to hygiene. The problem with poisoning them is they tend to crawl to the most inaccessible places to die and the stench is unbelievable... had to cut holes in ceilings/floors/walls just to get them out!

 

[Cubist]

Chocolate spread and peanut butter mixed with vegetable oil to pouring consistency, poured in small puddles on regular rat runs, then plot up with an air rifle equipped with Infra Red night vision scope from 10 Metres to ensure swift clean kills.

One farm we know is situated near a motorway. They were doing repairs on the motorway last winter, and all the rats from the drains made it up the short distance to the farm buildings. A professional rat catcher with such a setup killed enough rats to fill a wheelbarrow in one weekend, I think we were quoted 1100 or so.

Cubester has done a couple of dozen there last month already, so they haven't all gone. Farmers don't tend to be sentimental when it comes to rats.

 

[Dogtrousers]

Careful of those scratches. Rats carry a number of diseases including Weil's disease.

Main thing is to find out how they are getting in and to block it off.

Horrible things, rats.

 

[taximan]

If it is illegal to release a rat into the wild, how do you humanely kill it. I once worked on a ship which had a problem with rats and the accepted method was to toss them overboard.

 

[earlestownflya]

it's pretty easy to humanely kill a rat,they've only got small heads,i would certainly go for termination over capture and release.in the case of rats anyway.