Coming to a fishery near you ?

[Fred Bonney]

Take your rubbish and unused bait home

http://http://uk.news.yahoo.com/giant-rat-caught-killed-grandad-174504562.html

 

[Gav Barbus]

Does not look like a copyu to me ,saw one in a museum on the broads were they were eating all the beet so were hunted out .
That would certainly put me off fishing full stop if I woke to one of them in my bivvy.

 

[sam vimes]

Doesn't look like a Coypu to me either. As he's doing the equivalent of the anglers "long arm" fish photo, it might not even be quite as big a rat as the pics suggest.

 

[Paul Boote]

My mind supplied me with a word in an instant - bandicoot. Seen them. They're HUGE.


From a online quickie search: "Bandicoot rat, giant rat of southern Asia, unrelated to true bandicoots. It is an agricultural pest in the grain crops and gardens of India and Sri Lanka and is known for the piglike grunts it emits when attacked. Bandicoot rats are classified in the phylum Chordata, subphylum Vertebrata, class Mammalia, order Rodentia, family Muridae."


Stowaway in a sack of rice or chillies...?

 

[Fred Bonney]

Nah, not a coypu.
Still big Sam!!

I have to say the shot of the dead fire was an inspiring bit of news directing!!

 

[sam vimes]

Still big Sam!!

Well, you certainly wouldn't want it running around your feet. The thought of it running round a bivvy fills me with thoughts of pointy ended, stainless steel vengeance.

 

[agamemnon]

james herbert springs to mind

 

[Merv Harrison]

I live in the countryside, and rats are certainly getting bigger, i've already seen some real 'Grandads'.

But if that was a rat, I doubt he'd be able to get round to it, (even if having young), and be able to batter it, suggests something slower, having seen a Coypu on the Trent, they'r much more ponderous.

 

[sam vimes]

But if that was a rat, I doubt he'd be able to get round to it, (even if having young), and be able to batter it, suggests something slower, having seen a Coypu on the Trent, they'r much more ponderous.

Rather than it being a coypu, I'd suggest that it being half dead from ingesting warfarin might be a more likely. That could explain the sluggishness and even a bit of the abnormal size too.

 

[alan whittington]

Its that northern indian food,slows everthing down.

 

[Merv Harrison]

Rather than it being a coypu, I'd suggest that it being half dead from ingesting warfarin might be a more likely. That could explain the sluggishness and even a bit of the abnormal size too.

I may well be wrong Sam, but I believe that rats are now immune to Warfarin, but as you say, if they/it has ingested poison that may well account for it's torpidity.

---------- Post added at 18:57 ---------- Previous post was at 18:51 ----------

Just found this while Googling 'Giant Rats in Britain'.............Coming to a fishery near you Fred

Gnaws II: Giant rat caught in Lincoln | The Sun |News

 

[sam vimes]

I may well be wrong Sam, but I believe that rats are now immune to Warfarin, but as you say, if they/it has ingested poison that may well account for it's torpidity.

Merv,
all depends upon how much Warfarin has been used in the location. I've yet to see any rat that'll be totally unaffected by Warfarin. However, it's true enough that some are more resistant and may not be killed by it.
Lead injections are much more effective!

 

[barbelboi]

I wasn't going to comment on this but.............Warfarin is a first generation anti-coagulant that was pretty much superseded by second generation a/c's in the late 70's. There are many reasons why warfarin is not used these days by professional pest control companies (I do not include some local authorities in this category) and why difenacoum, brodifacoum, etc. is. The end result is the main reason.
Jerry

 

[sam vimes]

I wasn't going to comment on this but.............Warfarin is a first generation anti-coagulant that was pretty much superseded by second generation a/c's in the late 70's. There are many reasons why warfarin is not used these days by professional pest control companies (I do not include some local authorities in this category) and why difenacoum, brodifacoum, etc. is. The end result is the main reason.
Jerry

Jerry,
don't forget those delightful wooly back farming types that buy in bulk and stockpile for years. However, I accept the point on warfarin. I wasn't strictly meaning warfarin, rather that type of poison. Using warfarin in a similar way to using "Hoover" for all domestic vacuum cleaners. Besides, I've never learned and couldn't spell the others without looking!

 

[barbelboi]

Jerry,
don't forget those delightful wooly back farming types that buy in bulk and stockpile for years. However, I accept the point on warfarin. I wasn't strictly meaning warfarin, rather that type of poison. Using warfarin in a similar way to using "Hoover" for all domestic vacuum cleaners. Besides, I've never learned and couldn't spell the others without looking!

Sam, apart from being a freelance surveyor during most my working life I was also a member of the BPCA for some 37 years.........Short laboratory feeding tests were carried out with the anticoagulants warfarin, difenacoum, and brodifacoum on a number of European rodent species: Clethrionomys glareolus, Microtus agrestis, M. arvalis, Apodemus flavicollis, A. sylvaticus, Mus musculus, Rattus rattus and R. norvegicus. It was found that the toxicity to all species was highest with brodifacoum and lowest with warfarin, and that only 0.005% brodifacoum would give a complete mortality in most species after one day's feeding. The potential of this compound for the control of microtine field rodents is suggested.
Jerry

 

[sam vimes]

Sam, apart from being a freelance surveyor during most my working life I was also a member of the BPCA for some 37 years.........Short laboratory feeding tests were carried out with the anticoagulants warfarin, difenacoum, and brodifacoum on a number of European rodent species: Clethrionomys glareolus, Microtus agrestis, M. arvalis, Apodemus flavicollis, A. sylvaticus, Mus musculus, Rattus rattus and R. norvegicus. It was found that the toxicity to all species was highest with brodifacoum and lowest with warfarin, and that only 0.005% brodifacoum would give a complete mortality in most species after one day's feeding. The potential of this compound for the control of microtine field rodents is suggested.
Jerry

I wouldn't doubt it for one moment. I do suspect that a lot of farmers have relatively large stockpiles of older generations of poisons kicking about. I've known plenty moan that their own poisoning activities no longer seem effective. It's got me quite a bit of shooting over the years. I hate it when they get the pro pest controllers in. Luckily, many are far too tight to do so. One of the better examples in our area is a farm that's in the middle of a village. Because of that, the council pest control bods keep it under control. I've not seen a rat there in the past twenty years since they got involved. Good for them, and the close residents, not so good for me.

 

[barbelboi]

I wouldn't doubt it for one moment. I do suspect that a lot of farmers have relatively large stockpiles of older generations of poisons kicking about. I've known plenty moan that their own poisoning activities no longer seem effective. It's got me quite a bit of shooting over the years. I hate it when they get the pro pest controllers in. Luckily, many are far too tight to do so. One of the better examples in our area is a farm that's in the middle of a village. Because of that, the council pest control bods keep it under control. I've not seen a rat there in the past twenty years since they got involved. Good for them, and the close residents, not so good for me.

Sam, it's the same old story, like the pharmaceutical companies spin, it's not the 5p it costs to make this pill - it's the millions of hours of research, etc. etc. that bumps up the cost. The main issue with pesticides is that they are predominately all man made now so each compound is fully realized and conforms to the H&S requirements of all the American states (the biggest market) before conforming to the EU H&S regs.mg:
Jerry