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Child Item

How hard is it to kill a rat!!

Clytus

Well....to cut a long story short....couple of the lads in work discovered evidence of a rat in the mens toilet. I closed the toilets...and set 3 large rat traps with peanut butter as bait.

Anyway...left it all day..and got back from a few meetings at about 4.30

I went into the toilets to check the traps...and there sittting in the shower tray was the largest rat Iv ever seen ( I have pics). It was a monster!!!

I went out to get another lad...and armed with a shovel and spade we headed back into the toilet. Anyway...I tried to basically stab the rat with the shovel..but it just "lept" about 2 feet into the air and went behind the waste pipes. The other lad saw it and gave it a whack of the spade.....that just pissed it off!!!....it came running out AT ME!!!...so I belted the thing full force with the shovel....it was still alive to my shock. It took another five full force blows to kill it....and to make certain the other lad snapped its neck with a blow of the spade.

I tell you what.....I never knew how hard those bastids were. 5 smacks of a shovel to kill it.

Giant Rat:

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faceman

Ask this guy

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

griffdaddy

There's a mouse in my room at the moment, comes down from the tiniest little crack next to where the fridge is and runs out under the door, he always stops and looks at me on his way out as well, weird little fúcker. I was gonna throw one of my CAT boots at him and squash him, but i felt bad cause he was looking at me so innocently....then i stopped smoking grass for a while and realised it was a trick, he just wants me for my crumbs and warm walls! Next time i see him he's in for it baby, you just watch!

Mr. CooL ICE

ScumLord wrote: »

Why on earth would you lick a golf ball?

Foreplay

echosound

They're hard to kill alright, tenacious little yokes.
Had an experience where one of my mother's cats managed to catch one and drag it up to the patio, but got tired of trying to kill it and left it running round in circles as one of it's back legs was broken. My mother is terrified of mice and rats so was yelping her head off from the safety of the kitchen table, I was out visiting, and I was trying to figure out how to put it out of it's misery, doing that "uhoh, uhoh, what do I do" dance.
Meanwhile, my gran who lives next door heard the commotion, and came thundering across the back garden, shovel in hand,rolled up her sleeves (the woman is 2 years shy of 90) and proceeded to batter it to death, eventually resorting to literally cutting it in half with the sharp end, as the thing was like the terminator of the rat world, just would not die.
Panic over, with rat splattered all over the entire patio, we turn round to see 5 people standing stock still in horror at the top of our drive. Friends of my mothers had decided to call to visit for the very first time to the house, and to this day they are terrified of my gran. Nice first impression to make.

kerrysgold

Zillah wrote: »

What the HELL?

You just beat a small animal to death with a freakin shovel.

You bloody psycho.

Agreed. :mad:

marcsignal

Zillah wrote: »

What the HELL?

You just beat a small animal to death with a freakin shovel.

You bloody psycho.

Ok, true, but this small animal has more biting power, proportionately, than a Great White Shark

Lands Leaving

marcsignal wrote: »

Ok, true, but this small animal has more biting power, proportionately, than a Great White Shark

Thats kind of impressive, maybe we should set these rats to work cutting through steel or something.

dodgyme

marcsignal wrote: »

Ha Ha Ha ! Brilliant

I remember in Rentokil years ago I had to treat this meat packing place in Ringsend (Now Gone), but the Rats were all HUGE from growing up on a diet of red meat. No exageration (sp?) but the largest one we found dead during the course of treating the place, was just under 18inches long, nose to end of tail, and this f*cker had bigger shoulders than most well fed cats.

The production area could only be treated at night, as we were mainly laying bait, which would be hosed away at the end of the day shift.
We had to drive the van into the production area, and turn on the main beams, because most of the lighting didn't work properly, as a result of the Rats chewing through the wiring.

Everywhere you shined a torch, there were dozens of little pairs of eyes peering at you.

There was one walk in fridge that was panelled with corrugated aluminium inside, and the rats simply chewed away the corners and lived in the areoboard insulation of the fridge, which was about 50cms thick, between the aluminium and the walls. I took us about one month to rid the place of rats. You usually only find about 1/3 of the rats dead that are occuping the place, most die from poison in areas you can't get to, like under floors etc, and some corpses are eaten by other Rats. In this place we found over 400 dead after baiting for a month.

I really loved that job tbh, some of the things you saw, and places you ended up working were brilliant. Big power stations, Production Plants, Factories, snobby restaurants, hotels, embassies, fair dews to the Rats, they didn't discriminate.

I hate rats but by god the rentokill job sounds very interesting - great stories.

marcsignal

dodgyme wrote: »

I hate rats but by god the rentokill job sounds very interesting - great stories.

Yeah, it really was intereting work, but can remember being petrified or the first few weeks, as they bring to to some of their worst cases to ease you into the job.

I was never bitten thank god, but sometimes when the Rats are 'stoned out of it' on the bait (usually Bromadiolone or Alphachlorolose) it can be very funny, because it takes 48hours to kill them, for safety reasons, and during this period, they tend to wander out into the middle of a Restaurant in broad daylight, with hilarious results

Treated a few well known hotels for cockroaches in the 90's too YUCK !! and treating Wasps Nests could be a bit of a hairy experience:eek:

ok off topic but,

The one area of the job I really didn't like doing was Bird Control, because you always unintentionally killed a small amount of other birds in the process what were not part your original task.

In 1990 we got a big contract from the ESB in Poolbeg to kill off hundreds of Pigeons that were living around the complex. They were flying into warehouses and storage areas on site and crapping all over stock, forklift trucks, workers etc.

The process takes about a (working) week (5 days). You begin, by throwing / scattering ordinary grain on top of every flat roof in the complex at about 5am every morning, starting Monday. This consqeuently, after a few days, attracts every pigeon within a half mile radius of the area. They are waiting for you to arrive in the morning by the 4th day, and gorge themselves on the grain.

On day 5, you poison the grain with Alphachlorolose Technical Powder, in a small cement mixer, which drugs them into a comatic state within 10 minutes of eating it. So you lay the poisoned grain, and go have breakfast in the ESB canteen.

About 30 minutes later, on this occasion, we emerged from the canteed to see hundreds of drugged birds lying all over the whole complex.
It was literally like something out of a Hitchcock movie, or some Apocolyptic scene.

These drugged birds have to be collected manually, by walking, or driving all over the whole site, and put into thick black plastic bags (about 50 birds per bag). You then have to gas them, using, believe it or not, Zyklon B crystals (Hydrogen Cyanide), the same chemical used in the Concentration Camps. You mask up, with a full respirator, hold the bags open and dump a handful of crystals into each bag.
Theres a bit of flapping around at first, but all is quiet after a minute or so.

The corpses are then burnt the next day.

Not a nice part of the job, I never liked doing it. In fact, whenever I met a girl in the pub, I often avoided saying what I did for a living.

ROCKMAN

How hard is it to kill a rat!!

with a pillow its quiet difficult

but

with a shotgun its very easy

Zillah

marcsignal wrote: »

The one area of the job I really didn't like doing was Bird Control, because you always unintentionally killed a small amount of other birds in the process what were not part your original task.

Thats nightmarish. I can't imagine the mentality of a person who could bring themselves to gas thousands of birds piled into bags for a living.

stanlystanly1

Golfers don't lick their golf balls... they put their 'tees' in their mouth and that's how they catch weil's disease

marcsignal

Zillah wrote: »

Thats nightmarish. I can't imagine the mentality of a person who could bring themselves to gas thousands of birds piled into bags for a living.

You usually don't end up doing Bird Control, until you are about a year on the job, for a few reasons. Mainly because, the Chemicals/Poisons you are using are far more dangerous, than those used for Rats or Mice, so you need more training. After working in the field for a year, dealing with Rats and Mice exclusively, it tends to dehumanise you to some degree.

If I'd been brought on a Bird Cull in my first few weeks working there, I'd definitely have left the job, no question about it. I think part of the psychology is that they start you off on the Nasty / Unpleasant creatures first, (Rats, Mice, Cockroaches, etc) and after dealing with them for a year or so, it all just becomes part of the job, I guess. I was initially working for Rentokil, as I said, but in my last year working in Pest Control, I was with a company called Terminix, and there were two Girls working with me doing exactly the same job.

Haven't worked in the field for about 12 years, I left in the mid 90's. One of the reasons I did so, was that I was becoming nervous about the cumlitave affect of handling dangerous chemicals, and I did notice a few things that gave me the jitters. Because you were handling 'anti blood clotting agents' for example, they seeped through your skin, it was practically impossible to avoid. Consequently, whenever you cut yourself shaving, after about a year on the job, it would bleed for hours on end.

Strangely, you might say, I can't abide cruelty to animals now. When I hear stories about kids doing cruel things to cats and dogs on Halloween, for example, it makes my blood boil.

ExoduS 18.11

Forky wrote: »

Kittens are a lot easier.

baby seals are twice as easy.. no claws either.

Pj!

ExoduS 18.11 wrote: »

baby seals are twice as easy.. no claws either.

Yeah but where do you get baby seals? Get tons of kittens in the freebie section of the buyandsell every week.

Happy days!!

MagicMarker

Am i the only one who wouldn't give a **** if i saw a rat in work? Let alone try and kill it? That's my employers problem, not mine.

Clytus

MagicMarker wrote: »

Am i the only one who wouldn't give a **** if i saw a rat in work? Let alone try and kill it? That's my employers problem, not mine.

Did you look at the picture??.Now imagine you had a job to do in the toilet...ya swan in...drop your dacks...settle in...and this fella wonders out in front of you!!...what are you gonna do?? 99% of people are gonna sh*t themselves ( I purposly used that phrase). Now as a responsible employer theres NO WAY on earth I was going to leave that thing on site.

Still have no idea what it could have been eating...

FranchisePlayer

Lands Leaving wrote: »

Thats kind of impressive, maybe we should set these rats to work cutting through steel or something.

Not being a smart arse I believe they can chew through concrete if need be:eek::eek:

Bob in Belfast

I once killed a rat by dropping a breeze block on it.

pubpub

a couple of months ago Gerry Ryan was on about rats, only caught the last bit of it but a guy rang in and he had a rat problem and someone told him that a way to get rid of them is to catch two live rats and put them in a container without food leave for a couple of days and go back and you should have one rat left i.e rat 1 killed rat 2, catch another rat and put him in with rat 1 and leave for couple of days, when you go back you should have the same rat left and he is now a cannibal rat - release this rat and he now has a taste for his ratty brothers and will kill them. The guy on the radio swore that this solved his rat problem.

Very skeptical myself but sounds fascinating, if it worked!

towel401

pubpub wrote: »

a couple of months ago Gerry Ryan was on about rats, only caught the last bit of it but a guy rang in and he had a rat problem and someone told him that a way to get rid of them is to catch two live rats and put them in a container without food leave for a couple of days and go back and you should have one rat left i.e rat 1 killed rat 2, catch another rat and put him in with rat 1 and leave for couple of days, when you go back you should have the same rat left and he is now a cannibal rat - release this rat and he now has a taste for his ratty brothers and will kill them. The guy on the radio swore that this solved his rat problem.

Very skeptical myself but sounds fascinating, if it worked!

that would be awsoem. someone should make a youtoob video of it

Theresalwaysone

This is a great thread.

[Deleted User]

pubpub wrote: »

a couple of months ago Gerry Ryan was on about rats, only caught the last bit of it but a guy rang in and he had a rat problem and someone told him that a way to get rid of them is to catch two live rats and put them in a container without food leave for a couple of days and go back and you should have one rat left i.e rat 1 killed rat 2, catch another rat and put him in with rat 1 and leave for couple of days, when you go back you should have the same rat left and he is now a cannibal rat - release this rat and he now has a taste for his ratty brothers and will kill them. The guy on the radio swore that this solved his rat problem.

Very skeptical myself but sounds fascinating, if it worked!

istr, that another caller sait that you hang a caught rat near the rats nest, the other rats hear it scream and decide this is not a good place to be and leave. (or something like that)

eroo

Belfafter wrote: »

Many years ago I was getting my car left in to the garage for m.o.t and was at the place first thing in the morning.
The guy opened up and then shouted to the other workers who were just arriving.
There were 3 big brown rats scurrying around "the pit"- the sorta concrete trench they work underneath your car from.
Somebody had left their lunch the day before down there and the rats jumped down but couldnt get up the shher walls or the ladder.
Yer man tries to impress us all by dispatching them with quick downward movements with a bit of timber:)
First go and he misses and .00007 of a second later 3 big brown ones ran up that bit of timber,his arm,his shoulder then leaping 10 feet and out the garage door.
Had it been in the days of the video phone it would be a very famous incident by now if nothing else for the truly horrific look on yer mans face a split second after the last 1 ran up his arm.:p

bet he felt like some plank

marcsignal

pubpub wrote: »

a couple of months ago Gerry Ryan was on about rats, only caught the last bit of it but a guy rang in and he had a rat problem and someone told him that a way to get rid of them is to catch two live rats and put them in a container without food leave for a couple of days and go back and you should have one rat left i.e rat 1 killed rat 2, catch another rat and put him in with rat 1 and leave for couple of days, when you go back you should have the same rat left and he is now a cannibal rat - release this rat and he now has a taste for his ratty brothers and will kill them. The guy on the radio swore that this solved his rat problem.

Very skeptical myself but sounds fascinating, if it worked!

Couldn't say for sure if that works, but they definitely eat each other if there is a shortage of food around. I've seen that myself in the Ringsend meat plant I was treating(now gone). The company moved all stock up to another premises while we were baiting the place, so that they would eat the bait.

We'd frequently find corpses of poisoned Rats that were then eaten by other Rats.
Some poisons will only kill whatever Rat eats it (Chronic Rodentecides), but other poisons will kill whatever Rat eats it, and then, whatever Rat eats the poisoned Rat (Acute Rodentecides). We deliberately used Acute Rodentecides in this place, so as to kill 2 Rats with the one stone, so to speak:D.

Underneath Poolbeg, and the old Ringsend Power Stations there is a maze of tunnels housing high voltage cables running all over the complex. These tunnels are only about 6ft tall and about 5ft wide (See Attached Image)
When we were baiting these tunnels as a routine exercise, you'd only have a big torch with you for lighting, and as you walked through, you could hear the scatter and squeaking of rats running into the ducting to either side of you to get away, and youd hear them coming out again behind you as you passed by. :eek:

It sounds a lot creepier, as line of work than it is really, if your doing your job properly, the only Rats you regularlly come up against, are dead ones.

Wertz

That cable tunnel pic is like something out of Alien. You wouldn't get me down there for love or money.

Quick question on the poolbeg bird cull; if the pigeons (or any collaterally damged birds) are left alone after the drugged feed, do they recover? If so was it only pigeons that were bagged for dosing with prussic acid? Or was it more a case of just shoving anything with feathers into the sack?

marcsignal

Wertz wrote: »

That cable tunnel pic is like something out of Alien. You wouldn't get me down there for love or money.

Quick question on the poolbeg bird cull; if the pigeons (or any collaterally damged birds) are left alone after the drugged feed, do they recover? If so was it only pigeons that were bagged for dosing with prussic acid?

Yeah, the Alphachlorolose is just a narcotic that rapidly lowers their body temprature, and puts them to sleep, so you can then collect them all, to finish them off with the Zyklon. So you collect, and place any collaterally damged birds (good phrase;)) in a warm area, like a boiler room or something, and there is a very good chance they will recover. It would also take a much bigger dose of the same poison, to kill those particular birds at any future time.

dodgyme

to marcsignal.

Just on the topic you were on earlier, I have heard that the only poisons sold (to the public atleast) these days will kill a rat but not say an owl who eats the rat. Now I know the application of this rule may not cover all area e.g the ringsend place or confined tunnels etc, but may you can enlighten me as the how things are done now if you know.

ExoduS 18.11

Forky wrote: »

Yeah but where do you get baby seals? Get tons of kittens in the freebie section of the buyandsell every week.

Happy days!!

the zoo... hard getting into the place after hours.. so i see my attempt to get in as the work.. and the baby seals my reward.