Oh the most vile thing just happened

[KimmyChi]

Dark. Rural

Taking the wheely bin to the road (down the drive) , torch in hand

Bin lid not closed properly as it’s quite full

Pulling the bin behind me

A rat. A fucking RAT runs out of the bin, up my arm, over my shoulder and down my back.

Christ I can still feel it. I screamed like a pathetic idiot, threw the wheely bin on the floor and ran inside. The rat was running ALONGSIDE ME

Christ I’m never going outside again

Yuck. Their tails give me the creeps. I saw Michael Crawford on TV with one crawling over his shoulders for a stage show. Not sure which one

Horrendous!!

The rat running alongside you made me laugh hard 🤣

Urgh, cockroaches...

I used to live in flat infested with them many years ago. If you turned on the lights at night, they would scuttle all over the place. If you stood on one accidentally, and it was a pregnant female, she would release her egg sack and you would have loads of tiny ones everywhere. I also had a couple of cats, including one who liked to retrieve things. They hated each other but used to work as a team to hunt them from under the sofa. One day, I was doing some university work and had mislaid the lid of my pen. Retrieving cat came trotting over with something black in its mouth, and I put out my hand to receive the 'lid'...

Some time later, I was in Spain and realised that they have flying ones, so you couldn't even run away as they would land on you. Years later, I tried to get over my phobia by attempting to hold a giant hissing cockroach at an outdoor event. I was managing, until DH decided to touch, or rather poke it. It suddenly gripped on for dear life and felt really heavy- I passed it back to its handler and went to retch in a bush.

A few years back we were on holiday in Sardinia, which was idyllic until I realised they were all over the rocks between the sea and the town. I couldn't relax for the remaining nights. A couple of years back we were in Crete, having a lovely dinner in a taverna which had a tree in the centre. I was sitting in front of it enjoying my meal, when I saw DS' face turn to horror while staring over my shoulder. I turned round and there was a massive one staring at me! I ran away from the table and the bastard ran down the trunk and chased me into the middle of the restaurant, with all the other diners laughing (I hope) sympathetically. The waiter carefully brushed it out of the door; I was glad he didn't kill it, though, as it's not their fault that they're revolting.

Rats don't bother me, though. I once saw one in a busy city market in broad daylight dragging an enormous bar of chocolate along a main road into a bush.

This, in spades. What a horrible thing to happen.

Many years ago I lived with my then boyfriend in a garden flat in south London. We used to hear scrabbling noises in the night, and one night boyfriend went into the kitchen to get a drink. He came face to face with a huge rat who just sat there coolly, staring him out. We got the council rat man in when I was at work and boyfriend was at home. Apparently when the rat man pulled out a cabinet he disturbed the rat and went white and said 'bloody hell, that's a huge one'. I won't describe how he dealt with it.

Hahahaha!! Actually laughed out loud to this 😂

I screamed loud enough when one jumped out of my small bin when I was taking the sacks out!
Op that sounds like an awful experience, I'm getting goosebumps 😰

My grandparents had a farm and there was always a rat situation.

My worst memory was of her standing in the haggart (kitchen garden), talking to a neighbour while holding two cages of squealing rats.

After the conversation she headed off cheerfully to drown them.

Didn't take a feather out of her

😱

We have large, brown rats living in the sea defence rocks near me... I've seen 4 now, they have all scuttled off into their cave homes when they sensed my presence. I can be quite rational from a distance of 3 feet or so but not sure how I'd feel if they sat on a bench with me...

When I was young, I used to work at a small local stud (Arab horses) in exchange for riding lessons.
There was many a time that I went in to kick out a stable to find that a mouse had drowned in the water bucket... I used to pull the bucket to one side, slop out the dead mouse and put the bucket back over it! 😳

to muck out

@TheyAreMinerals
I do sympathise. It sounds a terrible experience. But I think you may have posted on the wrong thread

As to matches, long ago when non-safety matches were a thing, I was sitting in my room with my 2 rats loose about the room. (Both male, so not the sharpest of rattus norvegicus brains) Suddenly I heard a sound like....a match being struck, immediately followed by one of the rats fleeing across the room at high speed! The match went out of its own accord, and we all lived to tell the tale.

Have you seen those videos of Australian rat hordes on conveyors in grain barns?! Monstrous rat problem, not sure whether the situation improved?

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9654401/Farmer-fed-Australias-worst-mouse-plague-goes-brutal-lengths-save-crops.html

I grew up in old houses, farms, with pigs, horses, chickens, sheep etc; mice, rats anything like that does not bother me. We have a communal bin store that had a rat issue a few years back, myself and my neighbour watch a rat the size of a small jack russell climb a wall and sit on the rafters and while DH screamed I was impressed the rat was so mobile considering the size of its' arse.

However, about 10 years ago we rented a lovely 17th century cottage with a 20th century extension on the back - bathroom, huge kitchen, utility room with a sun lounge added later by the landlord who disnt worry about the external waste pipe running from the kitchen sink to an external drain and just boxed the whole thing in but without sealing off the drain cover so it could be moved for access.

Im sitting on the couch breastfeeding DS2 one day and a rat saunters across the hall from the kitchen to the bathroom. I shut it in the bathroom, called the landlord, he brought his terrier down, big scuffle in the bathroom and the rat disappears down the loo. Landlord calls a plumber to see where rat could have gotten in. I also posted on MN to see whether or not I should flee with my children, burn all our belongings etc and got a lot of people quoting "theres a rat in the bathroom what am I gonna do" at me....

Anyway, the fucker had climbed out of the external drain, up the box closing off the external waste pipe and had chewed a hole the size of a tennis ball through the plastic pipework then just pushed open the cupboard door. Plumber said in 20 years he'd never seen anything like it. Waste pipe replaced, drain cover sealed, Landlord laid bait, we went away for the weekend and came back on the Monday morning to a dead rat lying across our back step like an offering. Moral of the story? Rats give ZERO fucks.

Hope your water bill from 27 showers isnt too high OP.

I used to run a riding school so of course we had rats here and there. One day I was in the yard and one ran sauntered past me. Out of pure instinct I jumped up in the air and landed on it. Splat a rat day.

My sister used to keep her horse on a yard where the yard owner put poison down for the rats. There were loads there, if you disturbed them unexpectedly they would bolt out and run up the stable/building walls in streams.

My poor sister came across one that had taken the poison and was clearly dying. She didn't like to think of its suffering so she got a spade and dispatched it.

She's still not over the trauma even though it was decades ago

There were new houses being built near us and they must have disturbed a rats nest. I saw a rat run across our patio and I screamed. Hubbie shooed it with a broom and it ran in the back door of our garage.

He then put up the garage door, which is a roller shutter door, to let the rat out the other side . Thankfully it didn’t appear again until later on that evening hubby was closing the roller shutter door the rat fell down squished and obviously dead. It had run up the garage door as he was putting it up.

But omg @KimmyChi . I would have been absolutely hysterical if that happened me. I’m now going to move my bins to a brighter area as they are under some trees in a dark corner

@KimmyChi Yep we are never more than a meter, even a foot in some cities, away from a rat but most of the time they are hidden from our sight.
I have had a few pet rats but this would have freaked me out too so totally understand your feelings on the situation.
Going forwards

1. ALWAYS kick the bin before moving it
2. Recycle more so the bin doesn’t get so full in my house I only fill one bin bag every 2 weeks now but I am fastidious about recycling.
3. Make sure bin lids are not left open… EVER 😬

Last Summer useless DH forgot to put out the bins, so they'd been standing in hot sun for over two weeks. One of them had takeaway remains in it. I noticed a vile smell and a couple of maggots crawling about the lid. Foolishly I opened the lid and there were HUNDREDS of maggots swarming inside the bin. I screamed which brought our NDN jogging into our garden to investigate. When he saw the maggots he visibly paled and backed away and couldn't engage at all. For context our NDN is an ex Royal Marine so presumably made of stern stuff? Clearly not.

Did you know that maggots can even withstand being doused in neat bleach? No, me neither. Not until that day.

Christ now I'm scared to go near my wheelie bin. I do own a dog who turns out to be a fantastic ratter so hopefully he would sort it pdq.

I’m not usually scared or freaked out by anything but I think I would almost be hysterical if that happened to me! It has the disgusting factor!
I would never pull the bins out again……

now it’s got me thinking about what could possibly be lurking in my bin!!!!!

Poor rat was probably as shocked as you though

My Dad had stables. We had huge feed bins. One evening we had a power cut. Our girl groom put the bran scoop into one of the bins and the food came out with a rat sitting on top. Apparently she screamed very loudly!!