Monday 17 October 2011

Of Rats and Men



Gardener clearing leaves last autumn


The compost heaps need turning. Gardener is still on sick leave, and there's nobody else whom I would trust with my compost heaps.  He empties them, shovelful after shovelful, takes out all the bits which haven't finished composting;  all the nasty white roots, which are just waiting to pounce and turn into perennial weeds, end up in a special little pile. They are either donated to the Municipal Composter or burnt. The compost is put back into the neighbouring bin for further 'cooking' or, if ready for use, put into bags which can easily be transported from bed to bed.



my compost bins


Leaving the compost bins undisturbed this autumn, means that they will provide a cosy and warm refuge for mice and rats. I don't mind mice but rats scare me. It is said that you are never more than six feet from a rat in the UK. Some estimates also say that there are 50 to 60 million rats in the country, almost as many as there are people. They are nasty creatures, which carry diseases.

In our previous garden the compost heap was much smaller; I wasn't nearly as passionate about the gorgeous, dry, friable, blackish-brown treasure trove then as I am now. We made a pretence of turning it in a very haphazard manner. We'd only just acquired a large garden, had joined the local gardening society and tried to do what the experts advised.

On one occasion Beloved found a small cache of little pinky-white, naked creatures, with tiny limbs, about half way down in the heap. "Oh, how sad," said he, "look, I've disturbed a birds' nest. Shall I put the muck back?" He has a very kind heart. Anything small and vulnerable immediately brings out his caring and protective side.

I took a look. "A birds' nest? Halfway down a compost heap? Not-bloody-likely."

All of you who might now think less of me for swearing, let me reassure you: 'not-bloody-likely' is only a mild expletive and always used in this combination, or so I'm told by native English speakers.

"That's a rat's nest. Get rid of it," I screeched.

Beloved chucked them on the grass, where they squirmed for a second or two, then lay still. I couldn't bear to stay around; we went away and let the birds clear them away. Not a trace remained.

A long time ago, a rat took up residence in the pipes running through the cellar of the house where I lived in Germany. A ratcatcher was called to dispose of it, a man with a dog, a large Alsatian. I have no idea if poison was used as freely then as it is now; in those days, in the countryside, the ratcatcher was the proper authority to approach.

I remember standing in the cellar silently, hiding behind my Papa whilst not wanting to miss a thing. I had been told to stand absolutely still. For a long time nothing happened. The dog sat quietly, ears pricked, on a very short leash, the man himself frozen, like a statue.

After what seemed an eternity, but was probably no more than thirty minutes, the man whispered :"he's here". I strained to see what he had seen, shivering in anticipation. I saw nothing. And then, in the blink of an eye, a large black shadow darted along the upper pipe, and appeared to jump straight into the dog's open maw. Dog and rat moved as one, there was the sound of bone crunching, the dog swallowed and silence returned. The actual kill was over in seconds. Even now, so many years later, I can see the rat taking a flying leap and the trajectory somehow ending up in exactly the spot where the dog was waiting.

"He was a big one", the man said, when my father paid him.

54 comments:

  1. This story gave me chills. Huge rats, nothing is more scary to me.

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  2. My father was a miller, and there were often rats around the place. I used to encounter them sometimes at night, their eyes flashing in the torchlight. Dad used to swear they could eat through concrete, and would even show me the evidence to prove his point: mauled and ravaged chunks of the stuff beneath his beloved engine house.

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  3. Whenever I've gone to the Renaissance Fair here, the rat catcher is one of the most interesting characters roaming the grounds. But, I never knew 'til now just how the rat catching worked. Like you, my kindness towards all creatures great and small has its limits. Right about where the rats come in. I had to fetch two of them that drowned in the small pond in my rock garden. They were carried to the woods on the end of a rake. Are they just misunderstood? I'll never know. But, thank you for sharing your childhood story. It must have been quite a sight for you to behold, half hidden behind your pa. It conjures quite a scene.

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  4. For years we had Jack Russells, great ratting dogs. I'd never thought of a big dog dispatching rats - how wonderful.

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  5. Ewwww! Going to talk hubby into turning the compost bin today!

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  6. Oh, me too. Don't care for rats. Fortunately I've never encountered the really big ones, just small ones. At the city house I had a vinenthat grew up on the outside of the house and around one window. One night I was working in that room and my attention was attracted to the window by movement. A small rat was catching and eating bus attracted by the light. The next day I pulled all that vine down and found a rats nest in it. And boy, did it stink.

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  7. I hate rats! Unfortunately, compost heaps, chicken feed and warm out buildings will attract them. Sometimes at night when I put the chickens to bed I'll see one scuttle down the side of the coop.

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  8. We still have a couple of chaps, hereabouts, who go rat-catching with terriers.

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  9. 'It is said that you are never more than six feet from a rat in the UK.'

    Or a deejay.

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  10. So agree, hate rats! We have a home on the water down in Florida and at night, I have caught the sight of them. Hate em!
    Loved your story!

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  11. I wonder what is so repellent about rats (yes, I am repelled by them) I saw a big fat one rushing out of sight by our dustbin. I blame those compost buckets the council makes us have, althoguh I suppose they're a good thing and objectively speaking worth seeing a few rats for.

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  12. I can see being repelled by rats. Vicious when cornered, diseases that are deadly to humans are carried by them, and they eat stuff WE WANT. It is sad to kill any creature, but when it is on OUR turf, well, we are also living creatures. We protect our marked territory. And we DO MARK our territory, and rats don't care! I would not kill a marsh rat's nest in the wild, but just don't come and put a nest on my compost!

    I think it makes sense, even if it is not comfortable to look at that part of us.

    And, Friko, thank YOU so much for visiting and following my site. I am always a little nervous that my writing might depress, even when I don't FEEL depressed at all any more.

    YEs, and now I HAVE to follow you! Not because you followed me, but because I like your blog! A lot.

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  13. Rats give me the creeps. But every so often, when I go out to the compost bins I hear scurrying and I KNOW what that means. So I scuttle back to the house.

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  14. eepp! you gave me chills there at the end....yuck! ineed to go get some coffee to warm up...

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  15. I wonder how the dog keeps from getting bitten by the rat. The dog must be terribly fast at putting that to an end.

    On a more lovely note, your garden looks beautiful in the fall air and it is good to see Gardner making it ready for winter.

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  16. We have what are known as "tree rats" here, because they live in trees, eat fruit and have white bellies like squirrels. Also like squirrels, they aren't as timid toward humans as their darker cousins, and that can be freaky. At this time of year, when it turns a little colder, the tree rats start looking to nest in houses. I hate killing them, but I hate them invading my home even more.

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  17. I love your compost bins. I have some at the house in Helena that I designed and they gave me black gold.I didn't know bloody-likely was a swear or quasi swear word.

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  18. Great compost bins. I must be the only reader here who loves rats! I have had two pet rats in the past "tip toe" and "barney". They were the most loving and cuddly pets I have ever had. Of course they were domestic rats, but they seem to have made me not afraid of any rat. Even the wild ones are not aggressive, they just run away. They do carry nasty diseases with them unfortunately. I felt sad when I read about the little pink ones :-(
    Di
    x

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  19. RATS! My daughter has a pet hairless rat. I asked her how can she live with that thing in her house.
    She said because her chihuahua is in love with it.

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  20. Oh rats!! we have an ongoing battle with them. I hate to call the exterminator, but what else can I do? I used to see them scampering about the back yard. They avoid that now, or else they have all been cleared out by our guy. Which do you think I should believe?

    Good story Friko. Good luck. My granddaughter Rita helped me do some compost work last Saturday. They she turns to me and says, gardening is a nice hobby isn't it Grandma? Oh yes, I love it.

    I hope Gardener returns soon. I'd say you need help. Dianne

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  21. Watching a good ratting dog in action is quite a split-second whirl. The terrier-mutt I had as a child was quick enough to outmaneuver them. Football and hockey are like watching paint dry in comparison (not that I watch ratting, football, hockey, or anything else up to and including singing contests). As always a pleasant prose break - thanks for it. I'm glad you didn't shade the darker moments (hmm, that sentence is an awful thing, but I shall leave it).

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  22. Gardener is worth his weight in gold even if he does mistake baby rats for baby birds.

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  23. So hard knowing the Gardener's hands won't work their magic until next season...

    Rats...living in the country, we occasionally catch one in a trap set up in the pole building. Our little shelties are not much into hunting unless they spy a rabbit & I think they would sooner play with it than anything.

    That was quite an impressive Alsatian...and so true - we want to see - maybe - but also seek the protection of someone close to us.

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  24. Rats give me the creeps, too! When my parents died in 1980, their trash-ridden house (they were incurable packrats) was absolutely infested with rats! It was horrible cleaning it out. Finally, my brother hit on an absolutely flawless rat bait: Fig Newtons! He baited the traps with Fig Newtons and the house was soon rat-free. If I live the rest of my life without seeing a rat again, that will be totally fine with me!

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  25. Several years ago I saw one of my (now departed) dogs catch and kill a rat in the field. It was a fascinating and horrifying sight, but it happened SO FAST! One snap of jaws and a violent shake, and done.
    Another time, when we were walking with (also now departed) BeauBear poodle, he found a nest of nearly embryonic mice. Forever after the field where he found them (and did whatever he did with them . . . we walked on) was known to us as Veal Mouse Field.

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  26. We have so many feral cats and native animals down here in OZ that the rats and mice don't survive too long :-).

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  27. What a memory and so graphically shared! Loved this peek at a different time and method of dealing with a rural rodent.

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  28. My cousins, a couple of years older than me were allowed only one pet. A white rat. Who went everywhere with them. It had red eyes and I was terrified of it.
    I saw rats in the wild by the ocean also growing up and in memory they were huge and greasy and smelly. With red eyes.
    I don't envy you this at all.
    Get well Gardener!!
    XO
    WWW

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  29. Oh my, that rat story gave me the shivers! I don't think I would like to live around them at all!

    I've always thought mice were kind of cute, but those are the cute little things!

    Hope your gardener is on the mend soon.

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  30. Oh Friko, what an image this story brings to mind. I guess that a dog catching a rat and devouring it is as good a way to go as any. Better, and more merciful, than Warfarin, a rat poison developed during WWII, by a company just a stone's throw from where I grew up.

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  31. Ack! I hate rats. I remember getting up in the dark one morning to feed our sheep (was in high school then), opening the feedbin, and watching a long snaky pink tail disappear through a hole in the far side...definitely could have used your rat catcher!
    Hope your gardener is better soon.

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  32. Im sure there are many rats here in the city, but Ive never seen one. Now mice we do have, its getting cold at night and they start coming in. Last night my good cat Hunter came flying up from the basement, 360 at the front door, did a header into the bottom of the china cabinet and then self satisfingly trotted away with a tiny grey tail hanging out of his mouth. Wouldnt stay still so I could see what he did with it, and havent found any little gross bits so who knows. But what a good boy at 14 to still take care of the house.

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  33. oh, welch spannend schaurige Geschichte...! In unserem Dorf scheint es keine Ratten zu geben, aber sehr viele Mäuse, hauptsächlich in den Feldern und den unbewohnten Häusern. Ana ist ein Mäusekiller und es tut mir immer sehr leid, wenn sie wieder eine gefangen hat, aber was soll man tun?!
    Dir einen wunderbaren Tag und hoffentlich ist Gardener bald wieder gesund!
    Renée

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  34. Perhaps I could send some of my cats to you to help keep the numbers down?

    Isabel x

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  35. Ewwwww! Dogs eating rats...rats leaving their babies behind...all very yucky but so part of outdoor life!! Ha!!
    We have field mice here as well and probably rats too. I keep a neighborhood cat fed just for the purpose!!
    Hugs
    SueAnn

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  36. friko i'm not a rat fan either. i just read "the tale of despereaux" to my class. it's a "kid's book" but it has deep resonance for any adult who cares to read it. rats figure prominently. steven

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  37. Oh Friko, I have had my own rat catching experience and so wish I'd had a valiant Alsatian at my side!

    xo

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  38. Oh creeps! Some rats have taken up residence in, or under, our pigsty. Could do with an Alsatian. Labradors are worthless in this case.

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  39. Unfortunately, rats are partial to compost heaps and woodpiles. We've recently had to persuade a rather large contingent to move away from here. We'd noticed the birdseed in the feeders and the suet and nectar feeders were being liberally emptied at night, so my husband set up a field video recorder. We caught the little blighters on camera, which made it easier for us to define the best way forward.

    Your compost bins look so professional! I'd love to have one or two like that, but we don't have the space in our garden.

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  40. Hi Friko .. excellent discourse on composting .. we need more people to do it - sorry that Gardener is still on sick leave .. Good luck with it all .. cheers Hilary

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  41. I am charmed by all sorts of animals & usually get along even with the ones I am "warned" about, but rats & ferrets turn my stomach. No bad incident, just creep me. That dog/rat story will stay with me forevermore. ~Mary

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  42. I enjoy it when the rats build a nest under my ground level deck as, no sooner do they appear than so do the owls and rat snakes. Doesn't take them long to clean it out. But the rats always come back although, I must say, I haven't seen any lately.

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  43. I can't let B see this photo of your [very impressive!] bins b/c she wants a compost bin to put in our backyard. But I don't want one, b/c I'm afraid of the rats.

    Wait, on the other hand, maybe if I DO show her your posting ...

    P.S. Congrats. on 500!

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  44. A rat story – hum – not the kind of story to give you a fuzzy feeling. I think we had a rat outside in the driveway several years ago. One day I could not start my car. After it had been towed away the mechanic told me that a rat had eating the wires close to the anti-freeze. I thought that it would have killed the rat. But two days after the car was back it happened again. I bought some powder which is supposed to scare rats and other of their types away – it is supposed to smell like their natural enemies (don’t know who they are though.) I never had the problem again. I would not like to keep too much out – we already have too many squirrels, raccoons and opossums which get as big as little dogs.

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  45. I've only seen a rat once, and that was in Boston at the railway station when I son pointed it out to me. I hate those things, and fear ever seeing one up close. I had no idea they were so prevalent in Britain.

    Now, after reading this, I'm a bit worried about my two compost piles. I think my husband will be doing the turning from now on.

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  46. "It is said that you are never more than six feet from a rat in the UK." Maybe I'll rethink making any travel plans to visit England!

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  47. Unloved, unappreciated, clever things are rats. But I wouldn't want to live next door to one, either. You were altogether too descriptive with the dog story and now the sound of bones crunching is vying for space in my imagination. Ugh.

    PS You don't need to acknowledge this comment. You have too many already.

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  48. Not-bloody-likely doesn't even count as swearing. Great ratty stories.

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  49. Y U C K !

    But C O O L.

    I have oh so much to learn about compost. We have so much land here that we just chuck our vegetative remains. But Don does still have chicken poo from a year ago, which is rich, wonderful stuff. You can stick your arm down a foot in his garden soil.

    I'm in awe that you have a gardener.

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  50. A rat is one of the creatures I can't have warm thoughts. Luckily I haven't seen rats where I live now.
    Instead, I see cockroaches once in a while. I'm scared as they can fly! I think a measure for termites have been effective also for cockroaches. What should I do when I find a rat? I wonder having cats or dogs or both would be effective to rid my house of rats?

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  51. You sure ratted out the vermin
    and rightfully so. Rats freak most
    of us out. I once had a job in a
    machine shop, and in was right
    next to a river, and some docks.
    Wharf rats are huge. I had to feed
    the guard dogs there. The dry dog
    food was kept up on a shelf. Picking
    it up on night, it rustled. A rat's face
    poked out a hole directly across from
    my face. I screamed like a little girl,
    and threw the dry dog food fifty feet.
    Cost me my job, and sparks nightmares.

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  52. Ah, good to see Gardener back, even if not fully yet.

    I'm glad to say we've not in all the years of composting yet had a rat (knock wood). They are so unappealing--we have seen them in the city many a time.

    Now, as for the compost heap. I had no idea what this was, but when we started our first garden, the first book the Mate (whose father was the groundskeeper of Lydiard Park in Swindon for many years; the avenue of trees he planted is still there, and he started the walled garden which is now a hugely valued civic park), bought was "The Incredible Heap."

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  53. That's a very disturbing mental image. I'm not surprised you remember it so well. I wouldn't be fond of having rats nearby either.

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