Are you afraid of rats?

25-09-2021 10:29pm #1

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 · 25-09-2021 10:40pm

More so the human kind.

Atlantic Dawn · 25-09-2021 11:18pm

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

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

JP Liz V1 · 25-09-2021 11:21pm

Yes I'm afraid

dudley72 · 25-09-2021 11:24pm

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

siblers · 25-09-2021 11:27pm

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 · 25-09-2021 11:41pm

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 · 25-09-2021 11:43pm

Nothing to fear:

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

Donald Trump · 25-09-2021 11:43pm

There's always rats nidgey

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

Meeoow · 25-09-2021 11:45pm

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 · 25-09-2021 11:46pm

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

bb1234567 · 26-09-2021 12:20am

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 · 26-09-2021 1:47am

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 · 26-09-2021 1:54am

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

Homelander · 26-09-2021 2:31am

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....

26-09-2021 2:48am

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 · 26-09-2021 3:38am

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 · 26-09-2021 3:54am

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

topmanamillion · 26-09-2021 5:43am

"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 · 26-09-2021 7:42am

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 · 26-09-2021 9:27am

Terrified, only creature which makes me freeze in fear

I see sheep · 26-09-2021 9:30am

dudley72 · 26-09-2021 9:45am

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 · 26-09-2021 10:49am

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 · 26-09-2021 10:54am

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 · 26-09-2021 11:02am

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 😉

26-09-2021 11:23am

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 · 26-09-2021 12:35pm

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.

26-09-2021 1:10pm

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.

26-09-2021 1:13pm

"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 · 26-09-2021 1:21pm

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

Trap needs more electricity.

Are you afraid of rats?

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