www.sthelensstar.co.uk/news/1151 ... festation/

www.sthelensstar.co.uk/news/1151 ... festation/

Happens in a lot of places I'm sure. Why the St Helens link?

Oh.

Slow news day in St Helens ?

We found rats nested in our garage in the spring of this year, they'd probably been there over the winter, not a pleasant job to evict them and the smell hung around for days and days, everything in the garage was thrown out and poison bait left, which they took away and presumably perished elsewhere after eating.

I've dealt with mice in the garage and even in the house before but they do not seem to make the sort of mess that rats leave behind, had no guilt at all about baiting them and making them die a pretty horrible death, horrible creatures.

baiting is a tough one, yes, the issue dies, but where, under someone else's floor boards?

my parents had a neighbour who (not unlike the woman in the article) didn't manage her household waste well, rats became a problem so she baited, two died under my parents floor and the whole lot had to be ripped up (obviously can never prove the rats were the same one's in her refuse, but a costly and smelly experience for my folks)

get a Jack Russel instead!

I'd probably plump for rats.

For an infestation, suppose you've got to bait but half a Rolo, left in a spring trap does the trick very well.
Best dog I've ever seen for ratting was a poodle, followed by a Welsh Border terrier.

You'd give a rat your last Rolo?
Weird.

Don't know about a Jack Russell, I've got a big German Shepherd Dog here who'd go ballistic if he saw a rat but would have less chance than me of catching one and a Labrador puppy who'd bark at a rat then run behind my legs and hide.

when you next get Rats, buy them a boat and a waistcoat, introduce them to toad and badger, they can have spiffing adventures.

or smack it with a shovel

up to you

Hopefully there won't be a "next", when we were dragging some cardboard boxes out of a corner of the garage where they had been nesting (and boy did they stink), one of them disintegrated so I put a new box underneath it and tipped the old box up so that the shredded up nesting material would slide out - out slid a rat and fell into the new box, so now I had a big cardboard box with a very angry rat in it, and a rake in my hand.

The wife asked if it was a mouse and I was sort of hoping it was but when I looked inside the box there was no way that I could pass it off as a mouse but even with a captive rat and a rake in my hand I couldn't kill it so I threw a bag of bait in the box and sealed the lid.

Next morning the bait was gone and so was the rat, we saw at least three in the garage and they took a full box of 24 packs of bait, but we never found a body and frankly I don't care as long as their children don't come back.

How the hell people keep them as pets in their houses is beyond me, they smell so bad you'd have to wear a peg on your nose all day long, or be weird.

I think you have it there, I met a young girl (as in early 20's, not illegal) in Manchester, we dated a few times, meals, cinema, drinks, usual stuff. Then she invited me back to her place one night, I happily agreed, we got there and the rat was just running free in her flat, needless to say I reckon I could have given Usain a run that night, no way was I spending a night anywhere near a rat in a cage, let alone a free range rat.

You big tart! They're only big mice but with longer tails Rats make very good pets, don't smell if you clean their cage and are very often found snuggled around their owners neck nibbling their ears. Or is that what you wish you were going to do instead of it being her rat

There is of course one big issue that you just can't dance around with the "Rats make good pets" argument - rats pee everywhere, they have very little bladder control and they "mark" everywhere with their urine, your pet rat is ing down your back while he's sat on your shoulder nibbling your ears.

24 sachets of bait in Wilkinsons for £2 - bargain.