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- May 9, 2014
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Now HERE IS something to look forward to in 2021 
As somebody who is absolutely terrified of rats and mice, this article is QUITE a sobering read.
https://www.theguardian.com/science...the-rat-race-how-rodent-took-over-our-offices
A shorter cutdown of a few select passages:
“A rat can climb up a wastewater pipe, no problem,” says Andy Tyson of Guardian Pest Management in London. “If no one’s there using a toilet and flushing a cistern, rats can come out.” This is a particular problem in modern office buildings, he adds, where wastewater pipes are usually made of plastic and encased within walls. “Rats can gnaw through plastic. Not often, but they have done it and you can tell. But it’s a real problem finding it and no one I know has a perfect solution to it.”
And once inside, you and your rat family will find the modern office environment has many convenient nesting sites. “You know those horrible ceilings you get in offices – those square tiles that you move and you can never put back straight?” says Rick Young, a pest controller from Manchester. “That’s one of the key locations for rats. Full of lovely wires to chew.” He was once called to a sports shop where a rat had fallen through this liminal zone on to a customer. “Rats are pretty heavy,” he adds, “so you’re going to know about it.”
During lockdown, the British Pest Control Association has reported an increase in rodent sightings of more than 41%. “We’ve had reports of rats and mice infesting empty buildings and it seems that their lifestyle patterns are changing,” says BPCA spokesperson Natalie Bungay.
Since our cities and towns emptied out and there’s less food discarded in outdoor spaces, rats are more tempted to come inside. As one office worker who still cycles in part-time says: “Our office is designed for 500 people and it’s steadily gone down to 50, 20, 10 of us. It’s full of mouse and rat traps now. Recently a mouse scampered over my desk while I was sitting there. And one of my colleagues went into the gents and saw a live brown rat flopping around in the bowl of the loo like a seal. He let out a yelp, pulled his trousers up and shot out in horror.”
Once a week, he says, the cleaners now turn on all of the sinks and showers full-blast to flush out the rats. “It does make you think that when we’re not there, the rodents are all running around making themselves at home.”
“There’s nothing good about rats,” complains Mohammad Hanafi, a technician with Pest Control Service Group. “All they do is mate, breed and cause damage.” He was recently dispatched to a call centre that had been destroyed by rats entering via an air vent from the kitchen. A rat’s incisors never stop growing, he tells me, so they will gnaw through anything to wear them down. “Internet cables. Keyboards. Anything they see. That’s where the word rodent comes from: the Latin word for gnaw.”
Rats are clever, too. Extremely clever. A trap is nothing to the older, more experienced rats, an exterminator told the journalist Joseph Mitchell in his classic New Yorker essay, “Rats on the Waterfront”: “They just kick it around until it snaps; then they eat the bait. And they can detect poisoned bait a yard off. I believe some of them can read.” Young says he once saw a rat pause at a glue trap that had been laid in its path, return to the bin it had just come from, and fetch a crisp packet to stick over it, meaning it could pass with ease. “I think they’re a fantastic rodent,” he says. “Not just because they provide me with a living. But everything tries to kill the rat. When you think about how much they pack into 12 months of life, you gotta have a bit of respect for them.”
But what happens when lockdown finally eases and we have to return to our ghostly offices? Will it be a battle to win these neglected spaces back?
While the guesstimates and warnings of pest control companies should be read with scepticism, clearly the problem is real. “A lot more people are seeing rats when they’re out and about, which is always a warning that numbers are on the increase,” says Jonathan Ratcliffe of Pest.co.uk. “What we’re waiting for is when people do start going back into factories, offices, all the food outlets that have been shut – well, it could be interesting.”
CAN'T WAIT!
As somebody who is absolutely terrified of rats and mice, this article is QUITE a sobering read.
https://www.theguardian.com/science...the-rat-race-how-rodent-took-over-our-offices
A shorter cutdown of a few select passages:
“A rat can climb up a wastewater pipe, no problem,” says Andy Tyson of Guardian Pest Management in London. “If no one’s there using a toilet and flushing a cistern, rats can come out.” This is a particular problem in modern office buildings, he adds, where wastewater pipes are usually made of plastic and encased within walls. “Rats can gnaw through plastic. Not often, but they have done it and you can tell. But it’s a real problem finding it and no one I know has a perfect solution to it.”
And once inside, you and your rat family will find the modern office environment has many convenient nesting sites. “You know those horrible ceilings you get in offices – those square tiles that you move and you can never put back straight?” says Rick Young, a pest controller from Manchester. “That’s one of the key locations for rats. Full of lovely wires to chew.” He was once called to a sports shop where a rat had fallen through this liminal zone on to a customer. “Rats are pretty heavy,” he adds, “so you’re going to know about it.”
During lockdown, the British Pest Control Association has reported an increase in rodent sightings of more than 41%. “We’ve had reports of rats and mice infesting empty buildings and it seems that their lifestyle patterns are changing,” says BPCA spokesperson Natalie Bungay.
Since our cities and towns emptied out and there’s less food discarded in outdoor spaces, rats are more tempted to come inside. As one office worker who still cycles in part-time says: “Our office is designed for 500 people and it’s steadily gone down to 50, 20, 10 of us. It’s full of mouse and rat traps now. Recently a mouse scampered over my desk while I was sitting there. And one of my colleagues went into the gents and saw a live brown rat flopping around in the bowl of the loo like a seal. He let out a yelp, pulled his trousers up and shot out in horror.”
Once a week, he says, the cleaners now turn on all of the sinks and showers full-blast to flush out the rats. “It does make you think that when we’re not there, the rodents are all running around making themselves at home.”
“There’s nothing good about rats,” complains Mohammad Hanafi, a technician with Pest Control Service Group. “All they do is mate, breed and cause damage.” He was recently dispatched to a call centre that had been destroyed by rats entering via an air vent from the kitchen. A rat’s incisors never stop growing, he tells me, so they will gnaw through anything to wear them down. “Internet cables. Keyboards. Anything they see. That’s where the word rodent comes from: the Latin word for gnaw.”
Rats are clever, too. Extremely clever. A trap is nothing to the older, more experienced rats, an exterminator told the journalist Joseph Mitchell in his classic New Yorker essay, “Rats on the Waterfront”: “They just kick it around until it snaps; then they eat the bait. And they can detect poisoned bait a yard off. I believe some of them can read.” Young says he once saw a rat pause at a glue trap that had been laid in its path, return to the bin it had just come from, and fetch a crisp packet to stick over it, meaning it could pass with ease. “I think they’re a fantastic rodent,” he says. “Not just because they provide me with a living. But everything tries to kill the rat. When you think about how much they pack into 12 months of life, you gotta have a bit of respect for them.”
But what happens when lockdown finally eases and we have to return to our ghostly offices? Will it be a battle to win these neglected spaces back?
While the guesstimates and warnings of pest control companies should be read with scepticism, clearly the problem is real. “A lot more people are seeing rats when they’re out and about, which is always a warning that numbers are on the increase,” says Jonathan Ratcliffe of Pest.co.uk. “What we’re waiting for is when people do start going back into factories, offices, all the food outlets that have been shut – well, it could be interesting.”
CAN'T WAIT!
Also any animal who can IDENTIFY a trap and find a solution deserves my RESPECT. Just don't go shitting your radioactive poo all over my kitchen.
