'Super Rats!'

[blitzen]

Gawd....As if false widow spiders weren't enough, now we've got 'Super Rats!'

 

 

http://www.news.com.au/technology/science/poisonresistant-super-rats-spreading-across-the-uk/story-fnjwkt0b-1226754751124

 

Edited November 7, 2013 by Blitzen

[Snowangel-MK]

We better get ready for the next plague then .....anyone know a pied piper ?

[mike Meehan]

An example of evolution in action - some survive the poisons, maybe because they do not ingest sufficient for a fatal dose but develop some immunity which carries over to succeeding generation - the trouble is they breed so fast that before you know it we have poison resistant rats - it doesn't stop there because we are getting the same thing happening with bacteria which become immune to certain antibiotics - then viruses continue to mutate so our vaccines can become ineffective - it's a constant battle.

[mike Meehan]

Of course they've evolved...in ye olde days they scavenged on the odd scrap, some left overs and of course whatever else they found in the big bad natural world. Now they've got a whole myriad of takeaways, fast-food eateries et al to put grub on their plates

Fitness centres for rats anyone?

I didn't know that that they had evolved to be so sophisticated that they now eat off plates - will they be using knives and forks next?

Edited November 8, 2013 by mike Meehan

[mike Meehan]

Yes and driving cars opening little boutiques, usual stuff..

Sorry, I forgot about Toad's mate (

[jonboy]

I see we are talking about Tory MP's again

[Snowkissed]

Our local Rat Man (the council's Environmental Health officer) told my husband and I that he attended a conference in London last year where he was told about some rats in London, who were suffering from a disease which affected their brain. The virus is making the rats become vicious and they have been known to gang up on cats and bite them. The virus is then transferred to the cats, which then die. I thought he was joking, but he said that this was true. The reason he told me this was that I witnessed two rats corner our cat and try to bite her. It was my intervention which saved the situation and our cat was unharmed. The lovely 'Rat Man' managed to get rid of the rats very quickly with poison. Funnily enough, our cat only catches frogs and butterflies now. Have to add, that she doesn't kill anything but brings them to me as a present.

Edited November 8, 2013 by Snowkissed

[Jax]

Yes and driving cars opening little boutiques, usual stuff..

 

 

Sorry, I forgot about Toad's mate (

Ratty was a water vole though...

 

...there again there are "The Rat's of Nimh" ?

[Mokidugway]

Sounds like something out of whitechapel !.