By continuing you agree to eChinacities's Privacy Policy .
Sign up with Google
Sign up with Facebook
Q: Rat (Rattus norvegicus)
I live in a normal (not affluent, not poor) suburban area of a southern T1 city. I ride my bike most evenings along the smallish lanes in residential areas. You know what I mean, the 'back lanes', not the main streets. Anyway, every 40 meters or so there seems to be another garbage pile on the street corner. Every time I ride past I spook the rats foraging in the garbage pile. Well, I can't help but notice how many rats there are in this suburban area, an average of 5 will run out from the garbage pile and one can only guess at how many are really in the immediate area.
That brings me to my question: Do rats pose a health threat to the human population any longer? I believe most agree they were instrumental in the spread of the bubonic plague which among other instances was part of the Black Death pandemic in medieval Europe resulting in a loss of up to 200 million people. So, how about 21st century? Do they pose a potential health hazard to a massed urban population?
10 years 7 weeks ago in Health & Safety - China
I'm not sure about the 'threat to the human', buTT.... in China you can munch on grilled ones, if you like. There's only one Q in BBC article from last May: 'Where does it come from?'
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22467484
Whatever known diseases rats have are documented. The problem is what's not known. There are cures for known rat diseases but we still don't know what else is present. We didn't know about avian flu until it happened. All of a sudden there are so many variants of it and people are dying because no cure has been discovered. The frightening thing is that there isn't a cure for any virus infection, not even the common flu. So far, scientist have only come up with vaccines to prevent it. So until the next rat plague, we won't know.
Rats are bad news. In most civilized countries are you not required to report rat sightings in residential and commercial built up areas ? Perhaps this is just the memory of the plague still haunting the collective memory of the people, but I do think they are spreading dissease.
In my hood there are two kinds or trashpiles, those with rats running around and those with cats running around.
A thumb up for using the word "norvegicus"
diverdude1:
haha,, thx for the thumbs up... not even sure I am using the correct species identifier,,, but, I'm no expert on rodents,, thank goodness. :-)
speaking of seeing them in urban areas I once seen one on the fourth floor hallway in my old apartment building in GZ.. That kinda tripped me out !
Scandinavian:
I've seen some that are the size of cats, most are "normal" 15-25cm body length, but a couple of times they are scary big. I wouldn't want to be a cat chasing those.
As I remember the Norway Rat, replaced the Black Rat (Rattus Rattus) in Europe leading to the end of the black death. China has both I think.
It's the chickens that make me worried.
The rats here are big enough to swallow chickens whole. So the rats get my vote of thanks for containing the next unknown epidemic.
Unfortunately, when the bosses of China read a report from the WHO about the dangers of chickens, they read it wrong and eradicated the da bao ji of Donguan.
Well they should considering we both are mammals grown in different conditions. We are grown & adapted to live in "clean" conditions so we are weaker or more sensible to changes to dirt.
Rats grow sometimes in the dirtiest conditions, they live for eating and tasting whatever, sometimes even eat themselves, a piece of shit or whatever. Their immunology is way better than ours.
They never receive a vaccination like we do with dogs or cats, then the result is you get a bigger chance to get infected by something weird when bitten by a rat.
btw I fu**ing enjoyed so much killing some of them at a friends apt with the sticky traps, once I got them is kinda shocking the way they scream when you come near to kill them. At least each one of them was killed with a simple a hard hit on the head which destroyed the skull. Fast, easy and as quick as possible death.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yersinia_pestis
"It has now been shown that these plagues probably originated in rodent populations in China." 
And I thought the Mongol Hordes caused the most European deaths from Asia... I have a newfound fear and respect for the infamous Chinese cough & spit. Well done, killer!
diverdude1:
yeah,,,,, I think they actually blame the fleas,,, right? the fleas just hitched a ride on the rats.... well,, I think that is how they (scientists) explain it...
coineineagh:
maybe the chinese are doing a good thing by keeping rats well fed, so their healthy, thick, oily furs won't catch fleas. next time i see a rat-infested dumpster, i'll remind myself that it's better than encountering a single flea-ridden rat... if only the west had known the mystical, ancient Chinese secret to preventing plagues. It's probably on par with the hygiene of other traditional remedies! :-D
Sooooo many rats in China.
Coming from the UK (not London) I never really saw them. Bit of a shock when I got to China....numerous....big....fearless.
Seen them running in & out of shops & restaurants 
People just didn't seem to notice them or care...
Got sick of them at my school....going out onto the balcony for a cig & immediately 2-3 big buggers hightail it out of the bins and away.
But worse was the little shit who used to come into our apartment.
It was in a nice garden, not too much rubbish about and we were 5 floors up!
Used to get in via the balcony, god knows how?......seen it come in myself.
The worst was the time the bugger ran across the sofa while I was on it and disappeared into the kitchen to hide under the fridge. That really pissed me off...
My GF said she never saw the thing in the apartment and because I am a RAT it means they are friendly to me....huh?
But since people do just chuck their rubbish out of the window here, I guess its not much of a shocker that there are so many around
Can you actually buy old fashioned rat traps in China? Never saw them.....
