Rats - any good stories?

[Hurler on the Bitch]

Guy I know kept turkeys and they were tortured in the out-house by rats getting in and having a go at them... Puts down the poison and the next day the two of us just stand about the yard with the hurls. Lo and behold, every two minutes one waddles out - obviously dazed and in search of water - say goodnight Roland! We got fifteen in an hour.. However, if anyone last year was having their Christmas dinner and saw something resembling a bite in their turkey leg, well I hope this post has answered your question. I think it was a Michael Palin programme .. but in Bombay all these freelancers go out with big sticks at night and catch the rats and get paid by the bagful - That's what we were like after the day in my mate's yard - well known restaurant in Belfast bought them off us to make Brussels Pate.

[mannix]

Best story I have is about a mouse in my house, every night around the same time he would appear,walk around the kitchen and dissappear after a few minutes.I set a beautiful trap.A box about 3 foot long by 2 foot wide, turned upside down and propped up by a stick which had a piece of string attached and i had the other end in my hand.Nice tasty bit of ham and cheese left in the middle under the box.I tested it and unless he was supermouse he would be caught.
Night time comes anyway, mouse appears, there I am like a cat smirking to myself and telling the wife I am the greatest.Mouse sees bait,mouse walks to edge of box and walks around but does not go under at any time,then walks over and smells the string,sits up looks at the 2 of us on the sofa and runs away.He came back seldom after that and if I had caught him I probably would have released him in a garden a mile away from his "home".
Did anyone ever see the actual display of the cat and mouse that got stuck behing a confession box in the church.The mouse was being chased so he ran behind the box,the cat ran in after him and could not back out.After some time the cat died and the mouse did too,starvation or boredom,they never found out.Years later they were working on the building and pulled the box away from the wall to find the two bodies.They are on display somewhere but I cannot recall where.

[Ryano]

The best rat trap I've seen is the cage.



The first rat enters the cage for potato or something like that. When in, the main door closes. Then, other rats see the trapped rat in the cage eating the potato and then try to get into the cage themselves. A little one-way trap door allows other rats to enter the cage but not exit.

Leave the rat cage for a night and it will be full by the morning.

Take to whole thing to a water trough and drown the feckers.

An ould farmer who lives near me used a similar type of trap as he had an infestation of rats in his sheds. They were eating cattle feed, pissing all over his hay and a whole host of other anti social activities. Anyway he got the trap and left it for a few days in the shed where he stored his feed and then went back to find about 12 or so rats inside. Happy with this he then shut the door on the shed and left the trap full of rats for approx 4-6 weeks. When he went back most of the rats were dead and the remaining ones had cannibalised the remains. He left it again and came back a few weeks later again to find the one strongest rat remaining having killed and eaten the other through sheer hunger. This one rat he released where upon it headed for what ever hole it crawled out of (or so the theory goes) and attacked the remaining rats. Apparently once it had got the taste of rat flesh thats all it wanted afterwards.
Sounds a bit far fetched to me that the rat would attack other rats after this, but thats what the ould fella reckoned would happen when he was telling myself and my father.

[supersarsfields]

I remember when in uni in belfast. A house full of girls were having a problem with this mouse that apparently was terriorising them. So they got me and another fella to put down mouse traps for them. For a couple of days there was no joy. The bloody mouse wouldn't go near the traps. Then one morning one of the girls came down to make her breakfast. So she popped two slices of bread into the toaster and turned it on. And low and behold the sparks started to fly out of the toaster along with this squealing noise!! The mouse must have climbed down into the toaster after the crumbs at the bottom and when the toaster was turned on bang!! Took about two weeks to get the smell of burnt mouse out of the kitchen.

[armaghniac]

The worst type of rats

[tintin25]

Certainly been with a few in my time....haven't we all? 

[screenexile]

P5. We had an arts and crafts corner in the room with a load of crap lying under the table. It was towards the back of the class where me and my mate were sitting and we saw something rustling under the Arts and Crafts table. "Ahhhhh sir there's something moving under the table!". He came down and says "It's a rat" Cue mass screaming and standing on chairs by the girls. Teacher says "Right girls, outside. Lads, let's go to the hall and get the hurling sticks out!". So for hour there were about ten 9 year old lads whacking a rat around a mobile classroom. The lad who did nets for the hurling team had brought in his keeper's hurl and smashed the rat off the wall! The best day's craic I ever had at school

[full back]

P5. We had an arts and crafts corner in the room with a load of crap lying under the table. It was towards the back of the class where me and my mate were sitting and we saw something rustling under the Arts and Crafts table. "Ahhhhh sir there's something moving under the table!". He came down and says "It's a rat" Cue mass screaming and standing on chairs by the girls. Teacher says "Right girls, outside. Lads, let's go to the hall and get the hurling sticks out!". So for hour there were about ten 9 year old lads whacking a rat around a mobile classroom. The lad who did nets for the hurling team had brought in his keeper's hurl and smashed the rat off the wall! The best day's craic I ever had at school

If that happened now, the teacher would probably get reported or some parent would be claiming for their child being mentally scarred

[Balboa]

A country boy from the bleak hills of Co Antrim was in Belfast and saw a particularly attractive young lady, he could not control himself and shouted "get your rat oot"........

[bingobus]

Is it true that you can have mice or rats about the place but never both?

Years back the old fella was out the back of the pub off the main street. Was a real old building at the time with lots of sheds and old out buildings. He was in one the old store rooms when he heard a right bit of squeling and noise from the sheds roof. As he went to see what the racket was about (expecting two cats to be having a set two) he seen a massive crow trying to fly off with a rat. He couldn't manage to get a good hold of the rat and as he tried to fly off he dropped the rat down, it hit the old fella on the shoulder and ran off down the yard with the crow in hot pursuit.

[Puckoon]

The worst type of rats

wasnt too popular about there was he?

[pintsofguinness]

Is it true that you can have mice or rats about the place but never both?

Yup

[hitzelsperger]

my father oftens tells a story of his granda many years ago putting straw into a shed, he had the trousers tied at the ankles with baler twine to stop any curious visitors from climbin up the trouser leg...after a few hours workin the twine came undone but he worked on to get in for the tae, next thing he feels somethin up the trouser leg, he automatically went to grab it, got it by the throat and held it tight for about 5mins choking the wee hoor to death, needless to say the twine was never absent again!

also one lovely sunny evening in boston i stood on back terrace and spotted a rat the size of a terrier run in and out of a bin with slices of bread, id say this went on for ten minutes while the a cat sat 20 yards away watchin, too scared to even approach!!

also heard story of a child brought into A&E with a rat locked on its cheek, the mother had left the child sitting at the back door suckin on the bottle, the rat had smelt the milk and went for it took the weans cheek instead...bástard

[J70]

Is it true that you can have mice or rats about the place but never both?

Yup

For the most part. Rats kill house mice and house mice see rats as predators to be avoided, so you generally won't get them together. In some places they've been introduced to though, they coexist in the wild, although not in Ireland, where house mice generally occur very close to human habitation.

[Orior]

When I was about 8 year old, my parents discovered food going missing in the scullery. After a few nights, a slight trail started to appear, which led to the fridge in the pantry.

A rat had got in the back door and made a nest up the back of the fridge (warm and cosy).

We got the women out, and the dog in, closed the doors and poked the fecker out with a broom handle. It raced around the scullery with 5 of us at it with sticks. I smacked the dog on the snout by accident, but my Dad got the rat eventually. Scarey.