AIBU to ask where has loads of rats?

[cretelover]

Inspired by another thread of places you have no desire to visit and a poster mentioned New York as having loads of rats, where have you travelled to that had loads of rodents? Except squirrels of course, they are exempted haha. And yes of course I know they are everywhere, but it's rare you see any day to day in the UK. I think! I am so so scared of them! That rat temple in India is the stuff of my nightmares.

If I walk around were I live in Liverpool at 4am or just as it's going dark, I see rats out and about. There's always been a decent sized population, they'd be in the garden as we played as children. People are nicer to cats because of them. I always have a tortoiseshell cat because they are always good ratters. They are always wherever there's food, so our local lakes, parks etc.

@cretelover

Inspired by another thread of places you have no desire to visit and a poster mentioned New York as having loads of rats, where have you travelled to that had loads of rodents? Except squirrels of course, they are exempted haha. And yes of course I know they are everywhere, but it's rare you see any day to day in the UK. I think! I am so so scared of them! That rat temple in India is the stuff of my nightmares.

Rome and Paris are pretty bad

Bradford! I lived there for 3 years for uni and I saw rats every day

I went to a wedding in the (boiling hot) summer of 2018 at a hotel in Surrey. It was a really lovely hotel with beautiful grounds which were full of horrible massive rats. In the evening, if I sat outside on a bench rats ran over my feet. A family having a birthday meal on the restaurant terrace had rat footprints on their beautiful chocolate cake. It was like a bad dream.

In Brooklyn summer 2019 walked past a black bag that was just moving and shuddering. It was full of food and the rats had got inside and eating it. Horrid!

New York is full of vermin, rats and cockroaches. I sat in a yoga studio waiting once and the exterminator popped in and they quietly ushered him out.

And living in Hong Kong I was told “if you have rats the good news is you don’t have cockroaches. And if you have cockroaches you don’t have ....”

And first lockdown a rat ran across all the back gardens and fences in daylight. It was so quiet that it was completely unafraid.

And as the climate heats up its more likely that it will happen here in the big cities in the future.

I live next door to a farm with grain sheds. When we come home in the dark and swing the car lights round the corner and across the yard, the rats are like rippling water!

When my last terrier was young and fast, she was killing a couple of rats a week and leaving them on my lawn.

Mine too. At least unlike cats terriers have no daft ideas that you might like the corpse asa gift and bring it into the house for you. Just kill it, job done.

I’m not afraid of rats but cockroaches aaargh.

Ugh wish l hadn't read this thread - l will have nightmares tonight!!
I can handle spiders and snakes but rats just terrify me!!
Remember once being at the zoo and theybwere feeling the python - thought l was so hard just watching until they starting feeding it dead rats at which point l legged it!

I'm a Londoner born and bred and have lived here for 50 years. In all that time I think I have seen no more than 5 rats ever - mostly in local parks with ponds/lakes, and once in our front garden years ago when the road was dug up for new water/sewage pipes. See lots of mice on the underground.

Ha ha at Hamelin

@PainterInPeril

Many years ago, we regularly went on a family holiday to Christchurch (Hampshire). We would stay at a caravan site next to a river (I love it there, it's my happy place).

An elderly gentleman had told me that, as well as a kingfisher and other wonderful wildlife, there were water rats on the riverbank early in the morning.

I persuaded my dad to get up early one morning (I think he only agreed because he had a new camera and wanted to try it out!!), took some buttered bread to put out for the rats, and sat watching the beautiful little creatures scurrying around. It was totally worth losing a couple of hours sleep for that!

Having said that, I really wouldn't want them anywhere near my home!

The water rats on the riverbank are a completely different creature though.

If every local council employed a rat catcher with a terrier, things would be different. Sometimes the old ways are the best.

Bangkok was swarming with rats. After dark the bin bags were alive!

Also saw a rat in a restaurant in Vietnam (we didn't stick around to eat).

New Orleans, Hawaii, and San Francisco all have serious rat problems.

@UnityUnited

If every local council employed a rat catcher with a terrier, things would be different. Sometimes the old ways are the best.

When I was at school (early 70s) my boyfriend had an occasional job spearing rats with a spike. It was a rural area.

Yikes.

Near rivers and streams I suppose.

There are always rats about anyway but they don't usually surface much. When I had cats one would bring a rat in occasionally through the cat flap. That was OK if they had killed it, not so much fun if it was still alive and escaped! I persuaded one to go out the back door once.

Don't they something like in then uk your never more than 2 ft from a rat or something like that - or is that just made up

It's made up.

Selly Oak Birmingham was absolutely overrun with rats when I was a student. Lots of canals nearby combined with lots of rubbish from the students. There were so many when I was in my second year we could hear them squeaking really loudly in the garden.
They were huge as well

I’ve not seen any rats in NY (been there a few times) but have in London - local park has lots of them. We have foxes too.

I have four running around my house. They're the best

Everywhere once you look.

Best not look OP 😂

Love the Undermice!

Loads in London. Go feed the ducks on Hampstead Heath and you’ll meet some very sleek looking rats hanging out by the ponds.

Sitting on the green seats in the Houses of Parliament.