Recent News and Articles on the Keywords: rats + and + start  Related to the article below (Last Update: 8/5/2008)

River RATS begin new tradition Cedar Valley Daily Times, IA - But for all involved, the first-ever Cedar River RATS (Running Around Tidying Streams) clean-up day was an inspiring start to what group members hope and ... Lightning turns Rams into gym rats St. Louis Post-Dispatch,  United States - The players were on the field, but about 10 minutes before the scheduled 4 pm start, lightning began to strike nearby and they headed for Concordia ... Wheel to Walk campaign rolls into NOTL St. Catharines Standard, Canada - Rathbone and Jiang have successfully regenerated nerves in chronically injured spinal cords of rats. The accomplishment enabled the rats to walk again ... Moviehole Frank Miller's Goddamn Batman Moviehole, Australia - Aug 2, 2008 It's pretty obvious that these guys are the bad cops - the sleazy, dirty rats that typically infest Miller's stories. Bruce disappears in typical fashion ... Scientist A Head Start Scientist, UK - Aug 1, 2008 As the semester progressed, I became more involved with her lab, starting as a volunteer washing lab dishes, handling rats, and learning special rat ... Rats Eating Ping-Pong Balls Show Olympic Jitters for Beijing Bloomberg - Jul 29, 2008 Competitors rued the absence of any toilets at the start of a marathon practice in Tiananmen Square in April. ``For an athlete, that's quite important,'' ... No rat poison for informal settlements Independent Online, South Africa - Jul 28, 2008 He said his department had met with the group this week and were working with them to help jump-start several clean-ups. Litter, old cars and other rubble ... Windsor Water Rats appeal for help to BOE Windsor Journal, CT - Aug 1, 2008 But they were pushed back to a 5:30 pm start time because, Jepsen said, Parciak wants a half hour for the pool and locker room to be cleared out before WWRX ... Too Much, Too Soon RedOrbit, TX - By Bednar, Joseph 'No pain, no gain' may be a catchy slogan for gym rats, but to physical therapists, it makes no sense. "Many people don't have an ... Interview: Simon Crowe of The Boomtown Rats This Is Lancashire, UK - Aug 1, 2008 THE Rats are back ? but let's get one thing straight from the start: Bob Geldof isn't coming along for the ride. ?We asked but Bob politely declined. ...

Fall and winter is the time when mice and rats start getting cold and need to find a warm, dry place to nest. Fortunately, these growth-challenged rodents don't get their own cute 9-inch-high swinging door, or the rear door opened personally when they yelp or scratch like many of my domesticated contemporaries. Like us felines and those dreaded sloppy dogs (sloppy and dogs is repetitive, I realize), you can find my favorite little gray creatures in many homes; dare I say, the majority of homes.

The best hunting practice is to sniff out their little, um, well, the items they leave behind. If you are a big-game hunter chasing down rats, you'll be looking for a pellet about three-quarters of an inch in length. Mouse pellets are one-eighth to one-quarter inch in length. Both types are black in color.

You'll find these pellets most often in low-traffic areas around the home such as attics, crawl spaces, storage rooms and garages. Another clue is the smell of that particular type of waste product that doesn't come in pellet form.

These little whip-tailed scavengers love to burrow into insulation to keep warm, so batt insulation that is hanging or blown-in insulation with visible burrow holes usually means they

are, or have been, present. Other frequent nesting areas these skulking-beady-eyed-hantavirus carriers love are piles of debris, boxes and firewood. The good news is that when I spot vermin during daylight hours I am assured there are many others in the area. They're nocturnal, so the best hunting obviously is during the night.

How do the little disease-borne creeps get in and what attracts them? Mice can get through any hole or unscreened area as small as a nickel. Rats can squeeze down to the diameter of a half-dollar coin. Entry points can be at gaps between the foundation and framing, underneath and around the edge of the garage door, gaps and loose screens at crawl space and attic vents, holes around plumbing pipes (both inside and out), loose-fitting windows, and any number of other places the dastardly devils may find. They have also been known to chew and dig their way in. Pet food left out, unwashed bottles and cans for recycling, open containers with garbage, food or water are all attractive nuisances for the little terrors.

The damage caused by these garbage-eating scoundrels is monstrous compared with the minor amount of clawed and thrashed furniture or that lovable little hairball I might leave on the carpet. To put the damage in perspective, the Food and Drug Administration says rodent fecal matter contaminates 10 percent of U.S. grain crop worth about $4 billion every year. That is CATastrophic! You can sure re-cover a lot of furniture for that kind of money. We obviously need more cats for national economic security.

These rodents also can chew through electrical wiring and have caused several fires this way. Do not sweep up rodent droppings without wetting them first. Dust from the droppings has been known to spread the infamous and sometimes deadly hantavirus, which is here in Washington state, not just in the southwest U.S. Other diseases known to be spread by the little ground-bound vultures include salmonella, leptospirosis, trichinosis, and The Plague. I tell you my occasional hairballs look downright cute and cuddly by comparison.

Here are a few fun facts about these scurrying, disease-bearing morsels, courtesy of my competitors at D-Con:

Rats can bear eight to 12 offspring every three weeks.

The teeth of rats are harder than iron and exert 24,000 pounds of pressure per square inch.

Rats can swim as much as a half mile and can tread water for three days.

Fear of mice is the third most common fear of Americans, behind public speaking and the dentist.

A rat can jump up 36 inches vertically and jump down 50 feet without serious injury.

Rats do not carry rabies, contrary to popular belief.

A pair of breeding mice can produce 15,000 descendants in one year and two mice leave 36,000 droppings in that same year.

Happy hunting!