[Beekeeper]

For me Rats are totally disgusting creatures, if anyone has had the wonderful experience of working in a loft as i have, the ceiling of rooms below being totally covered in rat faeces it is not at all nice, the smell is enough to make you feel sick, all the time i was working there i had to wear a special mask to reduce the smell to an acceptable level, apart from the illnesses they carry and the damage they do.

As an electrician, i was called into the house of a good friend who had a rat problem, the first thing he knew about them was when water started coming through their utility room ceiling, the rats had eaten the pipes to the water tanks, also all the wiring from the mains gear (consumer units) to the main of the house was ruined.

On another occasion, a house which had recently been rewired by an local electrical business who's boss is a good friend, had a call to say the house was on fire, it turned out to be rats, one had chewed through a cooker cable which electrocuted the rat but also set fire to him, which in turn set fire to the house, the house needed months of work of rebuilding, all because of one rat.

Another disgusting thing about rats is that they defacate in their own nests, i had to remove a large nest from a loft space last year as it was where downlights were being installed, the nest filled the space between two joists and was around 2 ft long, a pile of straw, chewed paper and bits of carpet etc and about 4 bucket loads of faeces.

Although rats are firmly established in our country and breeding probably out of control now due to the amount of buildings now sat on our once green and pleasant land, i think i am right in saying thay they are not native to our country but were brought here as unwelcome passengers on ships during the days of exploration of the world.


Ian