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Video shows how rats get inside your toilet (and it’s just as horrible as you’d imagine)
08.17.2015
03:45 pm
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I’ve heard stories about sewer rats magically appearing in people’s toilet bowls but I never really understood exactly how the rats were able to pull off this feat. Didn’t they need oxygen to breathe while crawling through the plumbing? Are rats good swimmers?

Too many questions and never any solid answers. Until now!


 
Thanks to the kind folks at National Geographic, we FINALLY have definitive proof of how sewer rats are able to pull off their Houdini-esque toilet stunt. It’s actually quite mesmerizing to watch, people who suffer from musophobia need not click play.

 
Via Gothamist

Posted by Tara McGinley
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08.17.2015
03:45 pm
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Adorable/creepy child converts his dead rat into into an adorable/creepy ‘ratcopter’
09.12.2014
06:09 pm
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We all mourn the loss of a loved one in our own time and in our own way, but rarely does the death of a pet inspire such… aerial commemorations. After his pet rat, Ratjetoe was diagnosed with cancer and put to sleep, 13-year-old Pepijn Bruins was absolutely devastated. Then he remembered a tribute that he thought might befit his varmit friend. In 2012, an artist named Bart Jansen collaborated with radio control helicopter flyer Arjen Beltman to turn Jansen’s taxidermied cat Orville into an Orvillecopter.

Pepijn consulted his father and reached out to the duo, who were more than happy to oblige, with Beltman saying, “when I heard how upset he was, I just knew I had to help.” The technical difference between a lightweight ratcopter and a more wind-resistant catcopter proved a challenge of design, but with dedication and innovation, Ratjetoe was reborn and now soars like a glorious bird, a fitting memorial for a dear departed friend. Check out the Ratjetoe copter below, and try not to think of the terror a flying rat could inspire in an unsuspecting passer-by.
 

 
Via artnet

Posted by Amber Frost
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09.12.2014
06:09 pm
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David Lynch’s scary public service announcement about NYC’s rat infestation
01.27.2014
10:34 am
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I’m not really afraid of rats. But while I personally tend to abide by a pretty “live and let live” code where vermin are concerned (as long as the creature in question keeps out of my apartment), New York City has an absolutely insane density of rats. It’s not as bad as in years past, but it’s a rare subway ride when I don’t see at least one varmint happily waddling over the tracks, and I cede to that. We’re in actual underground tunnels—rats are simply the wildlife with whom we must share that subterranean space.

Above ground however, they begin to become a health hazard, and while the city tends to favor the idiotic approach of lacing every garbage-filled and/or overgrown area with poison (poison that presents its own health hazards), the best way to deal with rats is to create an inhospitable environment. Mowing empty lots and removing debris would certainly fix a lot of the problem, but all of that is futile if you’re just going to throw your delicious edible garbage in the street. And that’s where David Lynch comes in.

In what is quite possibly the coolest anti-littering public service announcement ever, Lynch gives viewers a phantasmagoria of rat horror. Frederick Elmes (the cinematographer for both Wild at Heart and Night on Earth) was director of photography on this 1991 anti-rat opus, and it’s a pretty masterful little bit of messaging—the rats are mere beasts, but littering assholes, THEY are the true monsters!
 

Posted by Amber Frost
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01.27.2014
10:34 am
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Mutant, poison-eating ‘Super Rats’...coming soon
11.06.2013
09:05 am
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Mutant “super rats,” which cannot be killed by regular poisons are spreading across the UK, according to researchers and pest control experts.

Just like those creatures in James Herbert’s classic pulp horror novel, The Rats, these super rodents eat toxic pellets “like feed,” and have spread as far as Kent, the West Country and Sussex.

In an interview with Metro newspaper, Richard Moseley of the British Pest Control Association said:

“Normal rats are being killed off by poison, so these resistant species are taking their place—it’s only natural that their numbers are expanding. But they’re being found further afield than previously anticipated. They eat poison like feed; you might as well be leaving out grain for them.”

There are an estimated 10.5million rats in the UK. Rats can breed rapidly and have a gestation period of 21-days, one female can have as many as 14 “pups” at a time. It is believed that some breeding pairs can produce as many as 800 young in just two years.

While poison resistant rats have been observed in the UK for over 50 years, researchers from the University of Huddersfield have claimed these mutant rats are spreading rapidly. Last year, researchers discovered that up to 70% of rats tested in some counties were resistant to poison.

Dr. Dougie Clarke told Metro that a naturally occurring mutation of genes was most likely responsible for these “Super Rats.”

“It’s now a big problem in some areas of the south of England. The only solution is stronger poisons.

“There are concerns about poisoning secondary animals and birds but, if it’s carefully controlled it can be kept to an absolute minimum.”

Rats are considered a major health risk to the public, if their populations are left unchecked. However, Jeff Knott from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds said:

“We cannot afford to lock ourselves into a toxic arms race we can never win, as wildlife will be the loser.”

Mutant giant rats are also a problem in Iran, Central Europe and New York, but now that Mr Herbert’s once fictional “super” Rats are spreading across the UK, how long before Guy N. Smith’s giant Crabs and Shaun Hutson’s mutant Slugs make their appearance?
 

 
Via the ‘Metro

Posted by Paul Gallagher
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11.06.2013
09:05 am
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Dianne Rochenski: Manhattan’s Crazy Rat Lady
10.12.2010
11:46 am
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Where oh where do I begin with this one?! It’s totally out-there, folks. I’m still a little shocked by what I just watched. Oh my!

Oh rats! Manhattan woman’s pets are rodents that the whole city hates

(via TDW)

Posted by Tara McGinley
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10.12.2010
11:46 am
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