RenHoek said:

do they sell that at Aldi?

Just go 2 Bunnings & get Talon! make sure there's no other food around! He'll eat then feel the need 2 get the hell out of the house & die!

Amaxx said:

now where is the fun in that!!! we have used that before, but I don't think we HAD rats (it was possums on TOP of the roof, not inside it)
We really need to do it properly, but I think the master likes to see the result

You're mean.

RenHoek said:

JustErin said:

Well so far not really
we let them live in our house and do what they damned well please - they have shelter and an abundance of food.

ZombieKitten said:

How are they getting in?

JustErin said:

I don't know exactly, but they seem to hang around behind the dishwasher.

ZombieKitten said:

Well in tha case, buy him a rocking chair, a banjo and a shotgun! And he can sit there rockin and a pluckin waitin 4 the little f*ck#r 2 come out, then blast him! Heryuk! Yuk! Y'all!

Get a cat My cat on occasions comes in with a rat or mouse in its mouth, plays with it for a few minutes and then eats the thing whole!

JustErin said:

rats are gross and mean!

thekidsgirl said:

I disagree.

I'll never, ever forget a documentary about rats in New York where they were interviewing some big fat, gross man who was talking about how filthy rats were then they panned down to the garbage and filth that humans had thrown all over the ground. Brilliant.

JustErin said:

I mean, if they were like squirrels and just kinda stayed to themselves, that would be ok, but they bite kids and carry diseases and such

JustErin said:

I happen to like rats

thekidsgirl said:

Seriously, that's a load of shit.

Besides, humans carry more disease and cause more harm than rats ever could...they probably bite more too.

ZombieKitten said:

Me too. They make the best small animal pet for kids because they are so sweet and gentle.

But I totally do understand the annoyance of having them invade your home...that's why it's important to not only get them out but to also find out how they got in in the first place and do the repairs/animal proofing to not have more move right in.

JustErin said:

rats actually do carry many diseases that are contagious and dangerous to humans.

Although rats will probably be around longer than humans ever will and cause far less harm to the environment, I can understand not wanting them near or in your house.

JasmineFire said:

Actually, it's not the rats that carry it. It's the parasites on them. Rats are opportunistic and ya, they live off the waste that humans blatantly leave around. If humans didn't make it so easy for them to be so successful we wouldn't have the populations we have.

The cases of humans catching diseases from rats/parasites is extremely low and the cases where it does happen, the people who tend to get them usually live in filth in the first place.

JustErin said:

Leptospirosis is a bacteria that is carried by rats and excreted in their urine. It causes severe symtemic signs in humans can can lead to acute renal failure and chronic renal disease.

Rabies is a virus that is carried by rats. Obviousy, any warm blooded mammal can have rabies, but rats are one of the main transmitters of the disease to cats and cats tend to live with people. Rabies is very often fatal in humans and animal alike.

Neither one of these are associated with any parasites, unlike Yersinia pestis (the plague) which is transmitted to rats through fleas (parasites) that live on them. Incidences of the plague are far lower than those of rabies or leptospirosis.

Rats that are not domesticated are not very clean. They're like racoons. They're not bad, but they don't need to be around or in anyone's house. Rats will always be around no matter how clean humans are or aren't and judging someone's cleanliness by whether or not there are rats around is strange. you can be a very clean person who is not living in filth and be exposed to rats and their diseases through many other ways (occupation, public transport, chance, etc.)

As far as keeping rats as pets...to each their own i guess. Many people like them.

JasmineFire said:

I'm curious to see the statistics of cases of rats to human disease transmission.

Rabies is a virus that has been around for thousands of years and as you said is not specific to any animal. It has nothing to do with how dirty an animal is...nor does it make an animal go into a rage and attack people. As well, rodents (rats included) are not considered transmitters of rabies to humans. There are also different strains of rabies, the bat strain being the most common and that's the one that infects pets. In Canada the rate of bat rabies is less than 1%. The raccoon strain is even lower. I'd imagine the rates in the US, although higher than here, would still be in the single digits.

As someone who worked with/rehabed wild rats and especially raccoons, I can tell you first hand that the "not clean" argument is total crap.

As well, I never judged anyone's cleanliness on whether they have rats around or not.

The chances of having a random chance encounter with a rat where you're gonna pick something up from it is so incredibly low (and rabies would not be one of them). As I said, most cases where people get sick were due to situations where the people were living in intolerable conditions...where rats took advantage of. Same goes for mice and hantavirus. You have to be exposed to massive levels to get sick from disease.

Like I said, I worked with wild animals every day for years...we knew (and had to know regulated by Health Canada) the kinds of risks we were taking.

Trust me, other than the bats, the risks were slim to none.

ZombieKitten said:

Could it be because this is back there...

JustErin said:

any animal that is living in the subway tracks, in garbage dumps, in abadon buildings, is not a clean animal. this goes for rats, cats, dogs, etc.

now if you have some pet rat that is in your house, living in clean conditions, then that animal is clean. any animal living in the streets is not.

you don't have to be exposed to very much lepto to get sick from it. i'm not saying that rats are a major cause of human disease but they are a cause nonetheless and should be avoided. any public health clas will tell you that.

and the furious form of rabies, which is VERY common, does cause animals to act very aggressively and attack. i don't know who told you that lie about rabies not causing animals to be aggressive but they were SORELY mistaken. Rabies can cause paralysis or be silent, but usually it causes aggression. In Massachusetts, racoon were the major cause of new rabies cases.

I also never said that rats give rabies to human but that they do give it to cats who then can transmit it to humans. Another good reason to vaccinate and spay/neuter your pet.
[Edited 5/7/08 21:47pm]

this website has some good information about rabies:

http://www.merckvetmanual...htm&hide=1


anyway, as far as getting rid of rats in your home...don't they have professionals who can get rid of them? Rats are pretty smart, what if they figure out a way to eat the peanut butter and escape the trap?
[Edited 5/7/08 21:57pm]

JustErin said:

Well it must be nice to live in a place where the rats are cute and friendly, but in the back alleys of Baltimore City, I can tell you its not like that

They are large and aggressive and can cause alot of damage...yes, human waste is what is feeding them, but that doesn't mean the average person wants them crawling all around them in the night.

I've met a couple people who have been bitten before, and none of them seemed to find it to be a pleasent experience

ZombieKitten said:

goulash.

JasmineFire said:

the rats in my house are very nice and clean

jami0mckay said:

JustErin said:

My sister had rats they knew their names and came running when they were called. Elka used to like to sleep inside my sweater

JasmineFire said:

Rabies in rats (and all rodents) is extremely rare period...so they are not common carries and are not actively infecting cats, it's bats they are more likely to do that. Don't think that's true? You can probably google and see for yourself.

Considering I dealt with rabies first hand (in bats) I absolutely know what I am talking about. Rabies causes an animal to be extremely irritable but it does not cause animals to go out and randomly look for things to attack. You have to provoke a sick animal in some way to have it act aggressively - and yes, it will be quick to act out aggressively once bothered. You may see a sick animal out because it's not 100% with it...but that doesn't mean it's out looking for it's next victim....it's not like the movie Cujo like many seem to think it is.

And finally, of course rats and all wild animals should be avoided. No one should be going near any wild animal.

But hey, think what you wish...

Charlotte, find out where these things got in and do the repairs. This will solve your problem.

JustErin said:

what you describe is right and is what i meant with the word aggressive. I wasn't thinking about Cujo! Although animals that are affected with rabies will bite without being provoked, it's definitely not like Cujo.

In veterinary school they teach us that any animal that is acting abnormally, especially if they have neurologic signs, and has bitten someone unprovoked should be considered a rabies suspect and have their vaccination histroy checked. When an animal bites unprovoked or not, it is labeled as aggressive in most, if not all veterinary clinics. People such as yourself who have worked with wildlife do have lots of experience with rabies and I'm not trying to undermine that BUT I'm going to take the word of my very experienced and well respected veterinary professors and my experience in a veterinary clinic with domestic animals over the word of a wildlife volunteer. SOrry.

I had no idea you were thinking Cujo when I was merely thinking "aggressive" in a veterinary context.



Have fun with your rats, erin.