Rats in parks

[CleverCatty]

In a few suburban parks recently I've seen rats - ground rats - quite cute actually but I know a few other parks have had poison put down for them as some people don't like them. I saw 2 playing the other day and they actually looked very cute!

My question is - do you mind them or not? I know a few parents who really don't like them but some don't mind them at all. Do they carry disease apart from Weils Disease etc? I saw an article that more rats were encouraged to come to ground level during lockdown as less people were around and there was more discarded food around. I heard years ago that they are more like squirrels - so quite harmless generally.

I do hear a few owls in the local big park so presumably they have 'dinner'.

Disgusting, loathsome, vile...?
I understand people using those sort of words on another active thread that’s about paedophiles, but these are just animals! Humans understandably want to discourage rats round buildings and/or cull if they start causing environmental problems. But they are just doing their natural mammal thing of eating, crapping and bringing up their young, and minding their own business. It’s humans who are going round the place trashing ecosystems and causing mass extinction, without even the excuse that they don’t know the harm they are causing.

@KizzyWayfarer

Disgusting, loathsome, vile...? I understand people using those sort of words on another active thread that’s about paedophiles, but these are just animals! Humans understandably want to discourage rats round buildings and/or cull if they start causing environmental problems. But they are just doing their natural mammal thing of eating, crapping and bringing up their young, and minding their own business. It’s humans who are going round the place trashing ecosystems and causing mass extinction, without even the excuse that they don’t know the harm they are causing.

Exactly.

They're also food for foxes and any feral cat population that's around.

You might mind them if they were in your loft or cavity walls. I could hear one scratching around in the cavity wall just behind where DD was sleeping last night. Not nice at all.

Pest control have been around 4 times now to set out traps and bait, no luck so far. It/they are making their way between ours and the next door's loft and cavities (in a semi).

“I saw 2 playing the other day. They actually looked quite cute.”
Awwwwwwwwwwww.

I love rats. I always have done. They get a bad press mainly stemming from the Plague. However it was the fleas on the rats which caused the outbreak. The rat was only the carrier.
I wonder is the same will happen with bats on account of the Covid

@LittleSwede

You might mind them if they were in your loft or cavity walls. I could hear one scratching around in the cavity wall just behind where DD was sleeping last night. Not nice at all.

Pest control have been around 4 times now to set out traps and bait, no luck so far. It/they are making their way between ours and the next door's loft and cavities (in a semi).

I've got the same issue in my house but definitely mice not rats!

@Awwlookatmybabyspider

“I saw 2 playing the other day. They actually looked quite cute.” Awwwwwwwwwwww.

I love rats. I always have done. They get a bad press mainly stemming from the Plague. However it was the fleas on the rats which caused the outbreak. The rat was only the carrier.
I wonder is the same will happen with bats on account of the Covid

It was also when i screamed (yes I know!) in summer - the rat heard and went darting into the bushes - obviously far more scared of me than I was of it!

It's five o'clock somewhere, oi oi.

Tbh, rats are a problem if you are seeing them during the day.

Rats are pretty much right at the bottom of the food chain. Birds of prey, covids, foxes, dogs, cats, weasels, stoats, herons, badgers, will all take and kill rats. Many reach their end through roads, too. They don’t tend to last longer than a year in the wild, but the problem is that they reproduce so rapidly that even within that year one female rat can have six litters, so even if her litters are small (five is the lower amount) that one female has replaced her time on the planet with thirty offspring.

They live together in social groups with strict hierarchies. When you start seeing them during the day, that’s a sign the group or the mischief to use the actual collective noun (though I think it’s a bit odd!) is just too big. The rats on the periphery of the group are forced out to find food, and it’s very dangerous for them. So if you see one rat during the day, chances are there’s about a hundred more very close.

Encourage natural predators. Be careful in how you dispose of food. Things like kids dropping ice creams or a bit of sandwich is rat heaven.

@ratsaretwats

Tbh, rats are a problem if you are seeing them during the day.

Rats are pretty much right at the bottom of the food chain. Birds of prey, covids, foxes, dogs, cats, weasels, stoats, herons, badgers, will all take and kill rats. Many reach their end through roads, too. They don’t tend to last longer than a year in the wild, but the problem is that they reproduce so rapidly that even within that year one female rat can have six litters, so even if her litters are small (five is the lower amount) that one female has replaced her time on the planet with thirty offspring.

They live together in social groups with strict hierarchies. When you start seeing them during the day, that’s a sign the group or the mischief to use the actual collective noun (though I think it’s a bit odd!) is just too big. The rats on the periphery of the group are forced out to find food, and it’s very dangerous for them. So if you see one rat during the day, chances are there’s about a hundred more very close.

Encourage natural predators. Be careful in how you dispose of food. Things like kids dropping ice creams or a bit of sandwich is rat heaven.

apparently the pandemic has made rats more bold to come out onto the streets.

where they are seen now is near an area off the high street but in a park with seating where people sit and eat and drop food - takeaway food. so of course the rats come out for the food.

I saw 2 rats playing or fighting with plastic the other day but it probably held food at some point.

there are owls in that park near the rats.

If there is poison down the owls and foxes will be killed too once they’ve munched down a rat who’s ate it. There’s probably rats in our garden somewhere, we have a big garden lots of vegetation that backs onto train lines, we found a dead fella once, just slung it back into bushes on the train embankment. Something ate it as it was gone the next day. Nature innit.

I have to say I think rats are cute! not that I would want them in my house but putting poison down in parks is a really bad idea, especially if owls have been heard nearby which are a much rarer species that should not be put in danger of poisoning. If rats are a risk, another, less harmful means of culling needs to be found such as trapping.

I dont think predators are poisoned by eating poisoned rats. The rat metabolises the poison down to harmless levels. A vet told me that once. Maybe there was different more harmful poisons used in the past that's not so common?

I only mind them if there is a population that becomes too large and starts to look for food and shelter in human houses. That they do this is a result of human behaviour (litter etc).
The odd one in a park or open area isn’t a problem. I’m fairly sure there are rats in the gardens bordering our property, but it’s extremely rare to see them.
I saw a squashed one on the road the other day in a very built up area. The pub there leaves its bins overflowing, takeaway litter is a constant problem and it will be down to that they are crossing (well, attempting to cross) the road and I wouldn’t be happy to live in one of those houses.
You sometimes get an influx where building work has taken out foundations and drains of old buildings and disturbed their nests.

My cats have brought in 2 dead rats this autumn - never had anything but mice or small birds before, so I guess this means they are moving into the residential areas (we are close to an area with lots of restaurants and pubs)

I've seen a lot more rats in my local park since the first lockdown. You used to occasionally see one during the day, once every few months. Now we see a few of them every time we go. I don't think there is a big problem with discarded food and litter - it's a well maintained park so bins are used and emptied regularly. I haven't seen any sign of the council doing anything about it (e.g. laying traps), although I'm sure they're aware as there are always park keepers around.

Rats outside, I'm not a fan, but live and let live.
The big fat sewer rat that was in my house however, much less happy about!
The movement of rats into residential areas is one of my least favourite things about this year!

They are cute, I'm biased as we've always had pet rats. They are lovely affectionate creatures.

Wild rats play their part in the ecosystem, so this horror that they exist is really OTT. But the numbers do need to be controlled, they can cause havoc. They chew on, and through, everything. I know we had to replace an old cage when our rats chewed their way out of the plastic bottom of it.

I get the desire people have to want to eradicate them entirely, some people are scared of them, I feel the same way about spiders. But it's not logical.

All you people calling rats vile - Asbo, Blair and Froppy would like a word

Oh look at those iccule wiccule tiny hands and gorgeous faces. How could you not love them. 😍😍😍😍😍😍😍

No hate them. They're disgusting and should go! 👋🏼

@KilljoysDutch

All you people calling rats vile - Asbo, Blair and Froppy would like a word

Oh god, gross.

Absolutely crying with laughter over the poster who flounced out of the park because she saw a rat. Don't forget to leave a TripAdvisor review!

@KilljoysDutch

All you people calling rats vile - Asbo, Blair and Froppy would like a word

They're adorable! I'm a sucker for a dumbo eared rat!

We used to have a grey dumbo eared girl who was also the runt of the litter, so she was tiny. For some reason she always smelt like candy floss.

Pet ones are different in my mind to the ones you see on streets!

@CommunistLegoBloc

Absolutely crying with laughter over the poster who flounced out of the park because she saw a rat. Don't forget to leave a TripAdvisor review!

I didn't flounce out of the park but was certainly startled! Don't think it was me.

My SIL this summer we were in a park and saw one - she'd normally scream but her toddler son was with her and she was very calm and tried not to show her worry!