Rats

[jambo]

Have you had any trouble with these lovely little fellas?

We had some in our roof space a couple of months back.

Couldn't stand dealing with the little blighters, so we got a pest control chap in.

He left poison for them and came back a few days later to take away the bodies.

I've read somewhere that if you're in a British city you're only ever an average of 5 or 10 yards away from a rat. What are things like in NZ?

[Sam B]

I think that statistic about prevalence of rats is largely an urban myth anyway - http://www.snopes.com/critters/wild/rats.asp

Yes there are rats in NZ too, brought here by early white settlers.

They certainly seem as prevalent around us, judging by the amount of dead ones (and occasional live ones) that my cats bring in. We live very rurally, and I think they mainly live around our chickens and in our wood shed.

There are also kiore - a Pacific rat thought to be introduced by Maori.

They mainly live in the native bush and are smaller and a bit cuter.

My cats are fairly indiscriminate and like to catch them all.

We were once woken up at 3am by a loud crashing noise from the ensuite - the cat had caught the most enormous black rat and was chasing it around the bathroom.

I opened the window and shut the door, and after 10 more minutes of crashing noises, it must have escaped through the window.

[jambo]

Another myth busted. Cats sound good Sam. I didn't like the idea of poison.

These little pooches look perfect to me.

(This was on a Martin Clunes program. Don't watch this if you don't want to see rats being killed.)