" King Rat of 2007 " ~ Shall We Go For It?

[Guest The Shaman]

Theres some damn fine banter on this thread at the moment, but I must admit to my naivity when it comes to rats and ratting.

 

Are these filthy sly sneaky little buggers, thats rats not Albanians, as common as the scaremongerers would have us believe, I mean I've seen adverts screaming doom and gloom saying that wherever you are in the UK there is a rat within 10 feet. I looked and looked on lake Windemere but never spotted one windsufing, snorkeling, yachting or skiing . Joke aside are they that rife now?

[Simoman 110]

Well ditchy I've only had a couple of rats this year and they were only average, i'll see if any monsters turn up on a ratting trip next month. The rat in my photo was one of over a 100 that we caught in a few hours, a large number of the rats were above average size with some real monsters, they were decimating the farms corn and maybe the corn diet helped them grow??

Edited January 12, 2007 by Simoman

[Guest Ditch_Shitter]

Simo; Interestingly mate, in my experiance, most 'rural' rats eat grain as a staple diet. They remain normal, 'healthy' rats as a result. I'd be expecting to find the big ones around piggeries and other 'stock concerns myself. Ones with constant access to what I've come to refer to as 'Beef Beefer' (or, I suppose, 'Pig Porker' or 'Fowl Fattener') feeds. The sort of 'steroid' stuff they give to meat stock. As, I believe it was Millet, said; If it makes livestock bigger .....

 

Moll; That's an ideal photo, thanks He may not be a monster, just a good, average rat. But it demonstrates clearly what we're looking for in a shot. Well positioned and clear. Everyone can read that tape. Now we just want some more of the same, twelve inches and up

 

Shaman; I'll be back here later. Bring ye a live link to the 2006 industry report, mate. I have a copy but haven't got round to reading this one yet - interest being a bit dulled by the fact that it only covers uk. But it'll tel ye all ye want to know - and more! - about uk's burgeoning and seemingly ever growing rat (and House Mouse) populations!

[Guest Ditch_Shitter]

Shaman; Here ye go, mate: Rodent Report (UK) 2006 ~ PDF. 'Enjoy'

[Guest The Shaman]

Shaman; Here ye go, mate: Rodent Report (UK) 2006 ~ PDF. 'Enjoy'

 

 

Cheers DS, I've saved it to my Hard drive and shall have a good old scan through it. My mate Dan (Dandyman) goes ratting all the time, and it's got me curious.

 

[YORKIBOY 4]

Ive killed a lot of rats over the years but the true monster rats have always come from a small free range pig pig farm i work with my terriers what fattens the pigs up deffinetly fattens the long tales up

[donky7 9]

almost on par with molly's...........

 

[Guest Ditch_Shitter]

Donkers; I'd personally guage that one there to be a 9" Max, mate. That if ye poked his chin up to give us the fullest body stretch? Moll's was 10", body, of anyone's money, surely to god?

 

Now, here we are, one month in and all we have to show is a pair of well below what the litrature says is a fair sized rat!

 

Interesting. I'd suggest it's that habitual Poisoners like myself just don't see that many dead'ns. But then, the Terrier people see what ever's there. So it's not like we Master Baiters can claim the big boys all slink off and die deep or something. What ever's down there will bolt to a ferret, spade or smoker in the end. Or indeed fall to a wire for someone like P&G or Duckers. They can't just Keep slipping past us, these Huge Rats.

 

'First day of Spring' has come, peeps. Let's see what we can come up with as the land grows richer and the rats have an even easier time of it, eh?

 

And don't forget, everyone; A small Tape in ye pocket ~ or at least a plastic bag to fetch that Whopper home in!

 

Who's gonna show us the first, undisputable, taped measured and photographed, chin up and lain close along the Stanley 11" Bodied rat?

[Ossie 11]

another idea on the measurement of the rats...

if you measure the rat with it's nose at the beginning of the tape, it makes it easier to read, as you don't have to look along the tape from where the tail starts to where the arse is & do the maths.

oh, and how about adding "longest tail" to the categories? just a thought!

i think me & my bro will be down at his chicken farm with the terriers & a couple of air rifles pretty soon. bet there's some friggin huge rats there... i mean, the size of the chickens! if they're not slaughtered at 8 weeks they grow up the size of turkeys. so it figures, if there's rats eating the same stuff, and not dying after 8 weeks...

[Guest Ditch_Shitter]

if you measure the rat with it's nose at the beginning of the tape, it makes it easier to read, as you don't have to look along the tape from where the tail starts to where the arse is & do the maths.

 

 

That's the sort of notion that gets me kicking my own arse all around the place! Damn but that makes sense! Thankyou!

 

Ok, peeps; You heard the girl: Rats Facing Left, Please. Nose To Start Of Tape ~ Stretch Out (within Reason) At Will!

 

Nice one, Ossie!

 

 

(If ye only knew how much tooing and froing it took me to guage the measurements between just those two ....! )

 

Actually, once we've chewed this thing over to the point of 'Fool Proofness', I'll probably kick it off again and just put the rules up. Now we've largely got over the 'jokes' I'd like to see a few more rats and a load less asides :whistle:

[Ossie 11]

That's the sort of notion that gets me kicking my own arse all around the place! Damn but that makes sense! Thankyou!

Ok, peeps; You heard the girl: Rats Facing Left, Please. Nose To Start Of Tape ~ Stretch Out (within Reason) At Will!

Nice one, Ossie!

(If ye only knew how much tooing and froing it took me to guage the measurements between just those two ....! )

no worries, always ready with an idea . took me a while to figure out how big the rat in the last pic was! i reckon about 9" too.

i'll have to keep an eye out on what the kitten drags in. it's only been mice this week. is a cat-caught rat eligable? might start chucking some pig feed on my compost heap... :whistle:

 

another interesting rat-thing... the rat king:

Rat King

Edited February 2, 2007 by Ossie

[Guest Ditch_Shitter]

Ossie; As long as it's a 'natural', wild living rat? I don't care if it walks into somebodys garden, coughs and dies

 

It's just that, having grown up around and fasinated by rats, I reckon I've probably heard as many as most of the stories about " HUGE Rats " and even the names attatched to them. Everything from " Sewer " to " King Solomen " rats. Yet they're 'all' just Rattus norvegicus (Norvegicus edited in to correct where I'd earlier put " rattus " Earler, as in I wrote this original post at 04:58, after being up all night. Error pointed out bt Mole Trapper) They're known to Science and to not a few of us lot.

 

Yet still the Bu ..... pardon me; 'Storys' persist! I've heard about the 'Mutant Rats' of one dockside, said to be the size of f*cking terriers! Grown huge off some or other radioactive shit that blah, de blah, de blah. So much as raise an eyebrow and the guy would get all airyated. Well fine. Now all I'm asking is Bring us these rats!

 

We're The People, surely? We have the ways, the means and the digital cameras. We See Rats. Now let's get our shit together and Show Each Other the proof positive of some Whoppers. F*ck Plummer and his annecdotal storys. I want photographs with Stanley tapes. I don't give a damn how they die. Let's just see some Evidence

Edited March 3, 2007 by Ditch_Shitter

[juckler123 707]

Biggest rats round our way were in the empty chicken broiler sheds they used to leave em empty for about two months a time full of chicken snap god they were big buggers sadly with the government inspections no rats at all now in the sheds

[Guest foxtrack]

Ossie; As long as it's a 'natural', wild living rat? I don't care if it walks into somebodys garden, coughs and dies

 

It's just that, having grown up around and fasinated by rats, I reckon I've probably heard as many as most of the stories about " HUGE Rats " and even the names attatched to them. Everything from " Sewer " to " King Solomen " rats. Yet they're 'all' just Rattus rattus. They're known to Science and to not a few of us lot.

 

Yet still the Bu ..... pardon me; 'Storys' persist! I've heard about the 'Mutant Rats' of one dockside, said to be the size of f*cking terriers! Grown huge off some or other radioactive shit that blah, de blah, de blah. So much as raise an eyebrow and the guy would get all airyated. Well fine. Now all I'm asking is Bring us these rats!

 

We're The People, surely? We have the ways, the means and the digital cameras. We See Rats. Now let's get our shit together and Show Each Other the proof positive of some Whoppers. F*ck Plummer and his annecdotal storys. I want photographs with Stanley tapes. I don't give a damn how they die. Let's just see some Evidence

£10 on reddog

[OldTrapCollector 376]

Here we go then D-S - the first one to break the 11 inch barrier

 

 

 

It was caught as one of 213 rats caught on a farm in Yorkshire yesterday by a good mate of mine and the Ryedale Rat Pack consisting of 6 dogs and four lads.

 

Here's some of the haul

 

 

 

The hunt is on for a foot long monster . . .

 

OTC