Infestation

[John Arton]

We have most likely sailed on ships that were subject to infestation of some sort or another such as cockroaches, rats etc. Worst case I had was copra beetle infestation that required us to live ashore in Orange, Texas, for 3 days whilst the ship was gas fumigated prior to being allowed to load a cargo of bagged rice.
Any infestation will obviously cause some considerable expense for the ships owner to get rid of the infestation, along with the cost of any delay and/or damage to cargo caused by the infestation.
Reading my local paper there is a short article in it that states that in the U.K. we are paying £8000 per week to rid the House of Commons of a breed of rats that are impervious to modern rat poisons having built an immunity to them.
Now I can clear the House of Commons for nothing, saving us taxpayers a fortune...how.
I am going to start a movement that at the next General Election none of us vote so therefore no M.P.' s will be elected and hence no rats in the House of Commons... great eh!!!
OH bugger me, just read the whole article and found that it refers to the 4 legged with a tail variety of rat and not the two legged variety that we are constantly reading about.
Oh well back to the drawing board and fridge for a coldie top up.
rgds
JA

[robpage]

After many years in the Food Industry , the best way of Rat control was an Air Rifle and a torch . Starlings which were a pest we had a better system , a wonderful quiet disposal method , a Sparrowhawk

[j.sabourn]

Rob was there any fixed period of time ashore for rat inspections ? Like at sea the De-Ratification cert. lasted 6 months and had to be produced when entering the ship in, in most ports. However was quite often out of date, and was mostly places like the States and such who made a big issue of it. Some ports you got an inspector down to look for rat droppings and sometimes were fumigated. only ever saw this on cargo vessels. However must have been on tankers and other vessel types also. I suppose ashore it would of been an inspection on short notice. Cheers John sabourn

[robpage]

The Local EHO ( Environmental Health Officer ) from the local council did an annual inspection with two or three weeks notice . The supermarkets inspected often , and sometimes unannounced , the most vigilant was Tesco , they were not fun to deal with . The important part was to have a Pest Control Contract in place , and the Pest Control Company inspected every month and produced a report . They would if it was needed up the bait /poison boxes , and apply improved controls as required . The starlings carried a nasty bacteria on the beak and used to peck the old fashioned foil sealed milk bottles .Campylobacter jejuni is a species of bacteria commonly found in animal feces. It is a curved, helical-shaped, non-spore forming, Gram-negative, microaerophilic bacteria. It is one of the most common causes of human gastroenteritis in the world The Sparrow hawk encouraged them to relocate or die . Rats are in the drainage system everywhere , and can get through the tiniest of holes , Poison bait meant a dead rat to be found , they are a bit smelly !! shooting wasa quick and the dead rat was easily found and binned .

[cappy]

rob in the first little unit I had it was above a well known jewish bakers in leeds ....to go up the stairs early had to bang hard so the rats would scatter never ate jewish bread or thise bagels again ...had only 4 girls working for me at that stage and they were petrified to come up the old stairs.....never had any council or others appear nor did the bakery

[Keith Tindell]

My son has taken a photo of a rat on his bird feed table, he was going to get an air rifle to shoot it, i persuaded him to try the poison method. Shooting would be fine, but how many hours are you going to lie in wait?, there wont be just the one. I used a poison tube with a sight tube, keep baiting until the sight tube remains full. The result so far is good, filled the trap 4 times, and now the sight tube is steady, regards KT

[Captain Kong]

I get Rats in my garden every winterm, I have a big lake at the side and these are water rats, they are lovely and clean and vary in colours.
In Spring they disappear back into the Lake.
Now SHE insists I kill them, I know what it is like to be nearly killed on several occasions, but fortunately have been saved at the last minute, so I am very reluctant to do this as appreciate life.
They do no harm. So eventually after a load of ear ache I bought two traps. Placed the bread and cheese in there, next morning there was a tiny field mouse in there, looked so sad, I nearly wept. I had killed it. But after more ear ache I had to arm the traps again, this time I got a beatiful brown and white rat, it was spotlessl;y clean but dead.
I was going to bury him in the garden , `NO IN THE BIN`. so in a plastic bag in the bin he went.
I hid the traps after that and reported there were no more rats.
I honestly did not enjoy killing them, they were doing no harm just sheltering for the winter.
I am just a big softy.
Cheers
Brian.

[alf corbyn]

never saw a rat on a ship, only on the dock. shooting rats is more fun than poison

[j.sabourn]

Always plenty on Grain Ships Alf. This putting on ratguards on the ropes and springs wasn't to stop the rats coming on board, it was the port health that insisted with heavy fines for non compliance, and was to stop the rats going ashore. The fallacy about painting the bottom half of the gangway white which was supposed to stop rats crossing, I always took with a pinch of salt. On stowing the after ropes on sailing on one ship a couple of rats had started nesting there, they jumped straight over the side, there were a couple of feeble jokes about rats leaving a sinking ship but it was obvious a lot of us are still superstisious about such things. John Sabourn

[Bob Hollis]

I get Rats in my garden every winterm, I have a big lake at the side and these are water rats, they are lovely and clean and vary in colours.
In Spring they disappear back into the Lake.
Now SHE insists I kill them, I know what it is like to be nearly killed on several occasions, but fortunately have been saved at the last minute, so I am very reluctant to do this as appreciate life.
They do no harm. So eventually after a load of ear ache I bought two traps. Placed the bread and cheese in there, next morning there was a tiny field mouse in there, looked so sad, I nearly wept. I had killed it. But after more ear ache I had to arm the traps again, this time I got a beatiful brown and white rat, it was spotlessl;y clean but dead.
I was going to bury him in the garden , `NO IN THE BIN`. so in a plastic bag in the bin he went.
I hid the traps after that and reported there were no more rats.
I honestly did not enjoy killing them, they were doing no harm just sheltering for the winter.
I am just a big softy.
Cheers
Brian.

Is this it Brian. We always called them water rats bu it seems they are Voles??