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Rats! Rats! Rats!

From Twitter by: Emma Court @emmarcourt

NYC is limiting the hours when trash is taken out because of issues with rats, and it's genuinely hard to pick a favorite quote from today's presser
Pick your fighter:

"There are many rivers that are feeding the sea of rodents in the city, and today we're damming one of them"
"The biggest swing you can take in cleaning up our streets is shutting down the all night, all-you-can-eat rat buffet"
"Rats will hate this announcement" (!!!)
"The rats don't run this city, we do"
"This is not Ratatouille. Rats are not our friends"

And finally, from Department of Sanitation Commissioner Jessica Tisch:
"New Yorkers will not have to fear as many rats hiding in late night shadows."
 
From Twitter by: Emma Court @emmarcourt

NYC is limiting the hours when trash is taken out because of issues with rats, and it's genuinely hard to pick a favorite quote from today's presser
Pick your fighter:

"There are many rivers that are feeding the sea of rodents in the city, and today we're damming one of them"
"The biggest swing you can take in cleaning up our streets is shutting down the all night, all-you-can-eat rat buffet"
"Rats will hate this announcement" (!!!)
"The rats don't run this city, we do"
"This is not Ratatouille. Rats are not our friends"

And finally, from Department of Sanitation Commissioner Jessica Tisch:
"New Yorkers will not have to fear as many rats hiding in late night shadows."
Although to be fair rats run pretty much everywhere. if it isn't cockroaches that take over it will be rats. Or ants.
 
Hmmmm. Judge Chaudhary and the police may have a good scam going here.

Police in India have blamed rats for destroying nearly 200kg (440lb) of cannabis seized from dealers and kept in police stations.

"Rats are tiny animals and they have no fear of the police. It's difficult to protect the drug from them," a court in Uttar Pradesh state has said. The court had asked the police to produce the stash as evidence in cases of drug peddling. The judge cited three cases in which marijuana was destroyed by rodents. Judge Sanjay Chaudhary said in an order that when the court asked the police to produce the seized drug as evidence, it was told that 195kg of cannabis had been "destroyed" by rats. In another case involving 386kg of the drug, the police filed a report saying "some" of the cannabis was "eaten up by the rats".

Judge Chaudhary said some 700kg of marijuana seized by the police was lying in police stations in Mathura district and that "all of it was under danger of infestation by rats". He said the police had no expertise in dealing with the matter as the rats were "too small". The only way to protect the seized goods from "such fearless mice", he added, was to auction the drugs to research labs and medicine firms, with the proceeds going to the government.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-63739836
 
Rats? Or could they be 'rats', who actually smoke that stuff?

rat-weed2.jpg

maximus otter
 
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Ratcatcher General!

The New York City Office of the Mayor is seeking a Director of Rodent Mitigation to deal with the city's brutal rat problem. Sounds like serious business even though the job posting mentions some comedic (?) qualifications:

Do you have what it takes to do the impossible? A virulent vehemence for vermin? A background in
urban planning, project management, or government? And most importantly, the drive, determination
and killer instinct needed to fight the real enemy – New York City's relentless rat population?
If so, your dream job awaits: New York's Citywide Director of Rodent Mitigation.
The Citywide Director of Rodent Mitigation is a high-visibility, high-impact leadership role with one of
the most important tasks in city government – keeping the city's rats in check and on notice. Despite
their successful public engagement strategy and cheeky social media presence, rats are not our friends –
they are enemies that must be vanquished by the combined forces of our city government. Rodents
spread disease, damage homes and wiring, and even attempt to control the movements of kitchen
staffers in an effort to take over human jobs. Cunning, voracious, and prolific, New York City's rats are
legendary for their survival skills, but they don't run this city – we do. ...

https://boingboing.net/2022/12/01/n...-mitigation-to-deal-with-the-rat-problem.html
 
Vid at link.

Rats that are claimed to be "as big as cats" are feared to be causing the erosion of cliffs at a tourist hotspot.

Footage of the rodents shows them scuttling around Castle Beach in Tenby as waves crash against the rocks below.

Residents said the problem had been been getting worse in recent months.

Pembrokeshire council urged people not to feed birds or drop food, and said specialist staff were examining the cliffs where the rats are thought to be nesting.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-64823629
 
They should do what they do on the railways when rabbits and rats get too prolific and the burrows threaten to undermine the track. They pump the burrows full of cement. Sounds a bit horrific but it works. For rabbit burrows they do it at night time and for rats it's done during the day.
 
They should do what they do on the railways when rabbits and rats get too prolific and the burrows threaten to undermine the track. They pump the burrows full of cement. Sounds a bit horrific but it works. For rabbit burrows they do it at night time and for rats it's done during the day.

Or employ JRTs.
 
Might be Weil's disease.

At least five people have died in north-west Tanzania from an unidentified illness, officials say.

Seven cases have so far been reported in Kagera region and the authorities have dispatched a team of doctors to diagnose the disease.

Health authorities in the East African country have described the illness as strange.

Its symptoms include fever, headaches, fatigue and nosebleeds, according to the government's chief medical officer Tumaini Nagu.

"The government formed a regional team of professionals under the Rapid Response Team who are investigating this unknown disease," Prof Nagu said on Thursday evening.

She asked residents in the area to remain calm and avoid contact with infected people.

In July last year, more than 20 cases with similar symptoms were reported in the southern Lindi region. Three people died from the outbreak.

Investigations later identified the disease as leptospirosis, also known as Weil's disease.

https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world...13fdc7ff51f554d28c1768&pinned_post_type=share
 
https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/12/politics/new-york-city-rat-czar-kathleen-corradi/index.html

New York City appoints its first-ever ‘rat czar’​

By Sydney Kashiwagi, CNN

The search for New York City’s first-ever “rat czar” has come to an end.

Kathleen Corradi has been hired as the city’s director of rodent mitigation, Mayor Eric Adams announced Wednesday.

Corradi will coordinate city agencies such as the Departments of Health and Mental Hygiene, Parks and Recreation, and Sanitation and find “innovative ways to cut off rats’ food sources” and use “new technologies to detect and exterminate rat populations,” Adams’ office said in a news release Wednesday. She will earn a salary of $155,000 a year, he said at a news conference with reporters.

The city also announced the creation of a “Harlem Rat Exclusion Zone” that covers much of the northern half of Manhattan, where $3.5 million will be spent to improve and increase inspections, use equipment such as bait and traps, and harden floors at some public housing to prevent rat burrowing.

“Rat mitigation is more than a quality-of-life issue for New Yorkers,” Corradi, who previously served as the Queens director of space planning for the city’s Department of Education, said in the announcement. “Rats are a symptom of systemic issues, including sanitation, health, housing, and economic justice. As the first director of rodent mitigation, I’m excited to bring a science- and systems-based approach to fight rats. New York may be famous for the Pizza Rat, but rats, and the conditions that help them thrive will no longer be tolerated – no more dirty curbs, unmanaged spaces, or brazen burrowing.”

As Adams put it: “The rats are going to hate Kathy, but we’re excited to have her leading this important effort.”

The city had unique criteria in mind during the candidate search, looking for someone who is “highly motivated and somewhat bloodthirsty,” with both “stamina and stagecraft.” Not to mention a “swashbuckling attitude, crafty humor, and general aura of badassery.”

Rodents pose a serious public health challenge for the city: They can contaminate food and spread diseases like leptospirosis, according to the NYC Department of Health website.

It’s unclear exactly how many rats call New York City home. An oft-repeated urban legend tells us that the city has more rats than people (or over 8 million). But a 2014 study led by statistician Jonathan Auerbach and based on rat sightings reported to the NYC hotline estimated that there were only around 2 million rats in the city.
 
Large rat scuttling down the gutter on the A1 this afternoon. Lots of people & traffic about, several people watching it. Presume it went down a drain. They’re often to be seen on canals etc but on a main road in broad daylight not so much.
 
Brother woke up on Thursday night with his bedroom under 3 inches of water - rats had gnawed through the external wall and then through the plastic water pipe. The very same thing happened last year and it took weeks for everything to dry out (inc stacks of FTs) and the damp smell to disappear. Hopefully the landlord will see fit to install copper pipes this time round.
 
Brother woke up on Thursday night with his bedroom under 3 inches of water - rats had gnawed through the external wall and then through the plastic water pipe. The very same thing happened last year and it took weeks for everything to dry out (inc stacks of FTs) and the damp smell to disappear. Hopefully the landlord will see fit to install copper pipes this time round.
They gnawed through the wall? Wow.
 
Ratatouille we will call them Basil one and two
 
Time for new games in the Colosseum; get midgets to fight the larger rats.

Authorities in Rome are taking action to tackle an infestation of rats around the Colosseum.

Tourists have posted videos on social media showing the rodents roaming close to the ancient amphitheatre.

The city's head of refuse collection, Sabrina Alfonsi, said there had been an "extraordinary intervention" over the weekend by workers clearing rubbish and placing traps. Ms Alfonsi said the rats were attracted to piles of litter left by tourists. Recent heatwaves had compounded the problem, with large amounts of plastic bottles discarded around the monument, she added. The situation was now under control, she said, but the operation will continue next week with workers cleaning up the green areas surrounding the Colosseum and the drains where the rats are common.

Officials say there are about seven million rats in Rome, about two-and-a-half for every city resident.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-66632230
 
Time for new games in the Colosseum; get midgets to fight the larger rats.

Authorities in Rome are taking action to tackle an infestation of rats around the Colosseum.

Tourists have posted videos on social media showing the rodents roaming close to the ancient amphitheatre.

The city's head of refuse collection, Sabrina Alfonsi, said there had been an "extraordinary intervention" over the weekend by workers clearing rubbish and placing traps. Ms Alfonsi said the rats were attracted to piles of litter left by tourists. Recent heatwaves had compounded the problem, with large amounts of plastic bottles discarded around the monument, she added. The situation was now under control, she said, but the operation will continue next week with workers cleaning up the green areas surrounding the Colosseum and the drains where the rats are common.

Officials say there are about seven million rats in Rome, about two-and-a-half for every city resident.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-66632230
Wait! The rats are eating plastic bottles?

Shoulnt they be encouraged?
 
Vid at link.

New York City rat takes road trip to wedding​

Kevin Coop, a Brooklyn resident, accidentally took a special plus one to a wedding he was attending in upstate New York.

The rat surfaced almost three hours into the drive, shocking other guests upon his arrival. It had disappeared by the time Coop drove back home.

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/67023823
 
I actually like rats,rattus and norvegicus,outside penn station in NYC at midnight a few months back I stood watching quite a few coming out of the drain covers,I don’t feel freaked out by them at all.Years ago I went to Rajasthan solely to visit the Rat Temple in deshnoke.
 
I actually like rats,rattus and norvegicus,outside penn station in NYC at midnight a few months back I stood watching quite a few coming out of the drain covers,I don’t feel freaked out by them at all.Years ago I went to Rajasthan solely to visit the Rat Temple in deshnoke.
I like rats too although when he keeps turning up to dig hell out of the garden it gets a bit annoying. Buckets and buckets of soil I've had to remove over the last few years.
 
I like rats too although when he keeps turning up to dig hell out of the garden it gets a bit annoying. Buckets and buckets of soil I've had to remove over the last few years.
Don’t get me wrong,while I find them fascinating I would have no compunction in killing one around the house or garden.
 
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