Are you afraid of rats?

Are you afraid of rats, or do you consider them harmless? While some are unbothered by them, with a few even keeping them as pets -it would seem like a vast majority of people hate the rodents. The tail, the tiny eyes, the teeth, the way they scurry about...revolts many individuals. The thought of a rat infestation at home has to be one of many folks worst nightmares.

That said, at least they're small and are probably more of you than you are of them.

billyhead

More so the human kind.

Atlantic Dawn

Yes but I could watch working over engineered rat traps for days...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=We4ReDkBKrQ

JP Liz V1

Yes I'm afraid

dudley72

Live on a farm and they are just another animal….

siblers

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117939862#Comment_117939862

It's when you lift up a bag of feed or move a pallet and a fucker will shoot out of nowhere , that always makes me jump. It's the tails especially which I hate

Tomaldo

Yes I'm probably about 50 to 100 times their size, in Thailand they're tolerated more, I shouldn't but I am afraid of them, hate them

bazz26

Nothing to fear:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8Cv4RkVT6I

Donald Trump

There's always rats nidgey

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBxYrhlSEYA

Meeoow

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117939846#Comment_117939846

That's my dream for tonight sorted. Rats scurrying around, I'll wake up in a cold sweat.

Capt'n Midnight

Has the Lyubov Orlova arrived yet ? The ghost ship with the cannibal rats.

bb1234567

I really am, something about the sight of them just stirs pure unbridled primal fear and disgust within me . I think if one ever touched against my skin or scurried across my body I don't think I'd be mentally right again for a long time. I don't know if a lot of this is because we are taught as children how deadly the diseases they carry are to us but either way it's a YES from me , scared big time.

Riddle101

Domesticated rats are fine, but wild rats would make me feel uncomfortable if only because i'd be paranoid about them getting into the food or scurrying around the house and making nests, as well as increasing the risk of catching a disease. I just don't want to be taking any chances with them.

AllForIt

Rat's are 'vermin' in that they carry disease. It's a natural thing to be afraid of vermin, it's in-built.

Homelander

Not remotely. I mean I wouldn't want them scurrying around my house, but in the main, I don't really have an issue with them. Spiders, though....

I'd rather have the place crawling with spiders than the presence of one rat.

My parents live in the countryside and had a rat problem every winter until four years ago when they got two cats. No more rats - and two plump cats.

Zak Flaps

A little. Similar to others, i think it's the fact that i learn when i was young that they carried disease.

I grew up thinking that they would bite me given half the chance.

Quantum Erasure

hate 'em. I'd throw them into room 101 if i could,

topmanamillion

"The tail, the tiny eyes, the teeth, the way they scurry about"

None of this has anything to do with why i hate them. Its the amount of disease they carry and spread by drooling and defecating everywhere they go.

Undoubtedly the deadliest animal in terms of causing human deaths with the likes of the black death.

David Attenborough called them foul disease carriers with no positive contribution to the natural world. And he'd be known as a bit of a fan of animals!

whisky_galore

No, not really unless they're about to invade my personal space. I did murder one once that had got into the house with a sweeping brush.

Mad_maxx

Terrified, only creature which makes me freeze in fear

I see sheep

No

dudley72

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117939874#Comment_117939874

One is grand, it’s when a whole f**king family is under it that it scares the s**t out of you

Wibbs

Not really. I find them cute. Kinda like squirrels with bad press. Years ago one used to visit a bird feeder I had in the garden. Clever little bugger. Tried all sorts of ways to stop him but no joy. In the end I just left some extra food at the base of the feeder and he ate that and left the bird part alone. Very shiny fur. Used to sit upright and eat with his little hands. Got quite used to me too so after a while I could get within a metre of him.

Now I wouldn't like an infestation of them, but I wouldn't want an infestation of squirrels or starlings either. I bloody hate wasps mind you.

dudley72

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117940780#Comment_117940780

If you have one you have more 😂 and they have a lot of babies every year

The issue for kids etc is their poo/wee is very very dangerous so that’s why you need to be careful

They love seeds/nuts etc…this year I forgot a bag of grass seed in a shed, cost me 90 quid, I left it out for two weeks, came back and it was nearly empty, some very happy rats

cj maxx

Don't like them but working in agriculture and poultry i got used to them. I love that idea of the pipe into the box shown above. True saying, like a rat up a drainpipe 😉

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117940377#Comment_117940377

A rat got into the house with a sweeping brush? He was probably telling you it was time for a clean up.

corner of hells

We did have a problem until our Jack Russell went into full combat mode one weekend.

He killed three out in the open and then dug his way in under a shed , took him an afternoon to get and kill that rat.

No, OP, I’m not afraid of rats at all in spite of having been bitten by one. Think it must have been my upbringing, my mother used to tell me of how she enjoyed minding her friend’s pet rat when she was a young teen.

Where I worked in a rough area back in the 80s, two boys brought in a wild rat and put it on the counter “to scare the girls” as he thought. A soft touch when it comes to animals, my first thought was for the welfare of the creature and to take it back outside. It dug its very long curved incisors deep into my hand, hammering down on the bone. In agony, I prized its head as carefully as I could out of my hand without damaging the animal, and put it outside. The boys got a right scare as they realised they could have got bitten likewise.

Health & safety hasn’t quite been invented then, however my boss insisted if I wasn’t inclined to be going to a hospital (I didn’t even have tetanus on board) would I phone my then GP for advice. He just roared laughing at the other end of the line, no thought of possible tetanus or anything else. As long as he didn’t potentially carry HIV back then, all was hunky dory.

"That said, at least they're small and are probably more of you than you are of them."

I truly hope there is a word missing in that sentence or the implications are not something I wish to consider.

endacl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117939846#Comment_117939846

Trap needs more electricity.

Mad_maxx

They are vicious bastards who will attack when cornered , once saw one attack a St Bernard dog ,two squared up to each other on the lawn

honeyjo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117941067#Comment_117941067

I'm scary silly of rodents. Fair play to the Jack Russell. I have a cat so far no sign of any rodents near my house.

Burt Renaults

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117939846#Comment_117939846

I have a healthy respect for them. Lost a bit of that respect after watching them blindly going into that trap though. Idiots.

whisky_galore

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117954312#Comment_117954312

I hazard a guess that they're rats from foreign climes that aren't that afraid of humans and their chattels. They'd nearly talk to you ffs.

Rats in Ireland are far more wary, you'd know if you ever tried getting an Irish rat to go into a trap or take poison. They get afraid of strange new things and smells.

Gregor Samsa

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117939862#Comment_117939862

Same here. They're a little harder, although not impossible, to milk though.

dudley72

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117954573#Comment_117954573

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tafO54XRXG0

You can always find a way

ohnonotgmail

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117939929#Comment_117939929

In thailand they are the size of cats. normal sized rats I can handle, the thailand ones scared the **** out of me.

Tomaldo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117955046#Comment_117955046

And they're very brave, I've seen them in bars, around the swimming pool etc. Any idea why they don't poison or trap them like they would here

murpho999

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117941580#Comment_117941580

How does that make them vicious?

A cornered animal means it's under attack so it's natural it attacks.

whisky_galore

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117957247#Comment_117957247

Look up the great rat massacre of Hanoi of 1902 for some fun reading.

Montage of Feck

'Do you remember,' said O'Brien, 'the moment of panic that used to occur in your dreams? There was a wall of blackness in front of you, and a roaring sound in your ears. There was something terrible on the other side of the wall. You knew that you knew what it was, but you dared not drag it into the open. It was the rats that were on the other side of the wall.'

Tomaldo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117957845#Comment_117957845

cheers, lol, I just did that. It seems the big mistake was to submit a tail for payment and let the rat live or corrupt hunters. Over a hundred years later surely there's a better way to make a dent in their population.

whisky_galore

I think with many of those SE Asian cities by the way they're built with plenty places rats can hide and the culture that rats are tolerated they're just not bothered anymore. People set up pop up restaurants with plastic seats and tables on the pavements and rats scurrying around in the background.

They'll kill things that are a direct threat alright, saw a Thai lady take off her flip flop and whack a scorpion to death that got a bit too close for comfort in a situ where a Western woman would just run away screaming. Fair play I thought.

Still stihl waters 3

Not in the slightest as long as they stay outside, if they venture inside the shed or house we're going have a problem although I've 2 cats who entertain themselves killing rats down by the nearby river so they're a good deterrent

yourdeadwright

Only a month ago i was having Dinner and caught something moving out of the corner of my eye,

The back door of the house is one giant glass sliding door, I was convinced it was a rat running across one side to the other, , the missus said i was going mad, Then the next day at lunch i seen it again & then later in the evening , making the same run ,

They had eaten a hole in the shed & where running back and forth, I don't mind them but with kids in the garden i wasn't taking any chances ,

I'm not scared of them but id gladly never come across one again but its silly not to deal wit something that carries disease

I caught two of them within 3 hours of putting a trap down, I think i got them all no sign of any since,

Larbre34

Anyone should be wary of rats for the harmful diseases they carry, especially for infants and the immunocompromised, but if I see one out in the open while walking, near a river or whatever, they don't bother me at all,so long as they mind their own businesses.

Anyone into things like Golf, hiking, climbing, caving, kayaking, fishing etc are at increased risk of serious infections from rat excretia though and should make sure they sanitise their hands and equipment throughout their activity time. Leptospirosis is an absolutely horrific disease.

A neighbour of mine died of it aged 28. Super fit, sporty young woman - contracted that disease (can't remember how) and died in days.

Realtine

ah christ hate them, they give me the shivers, not too bothered by them here though as have loads of cats.

Gambian Pouch Rats.....rats the size of house cats, literally.

Tony EH

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117940333#Comment_117940333

It was the fleas on the rats that carried the Black Death and the biggest spreader was actually other humans. Fleas would jump from the rat to the human host and transmit the disease. The human host would then interact with other humans spreading it even further.