On Sat, 17 May 2003 22:04:43 +0100, ned wrote:

One and a half inch rat hole?
Never.

Sorry wrong.

Your average brown rat is up to 18 inches long

50% of which is tail.

and would never squeeze down a hole that size. Rat holes are more
likely to be 60 - 90mm diameter (that's 2.5 to 3.5 inches).

The only thing that limits the size of hole a rat (or mouse) can
squeeze through is the size of its skull and even that isn't fixed for
a given animal. The plates making it up are not fused together and can
be dislocated to make the skull even smaller.

An adult mouse will get through a 1/2" dia hole no problem, 3/8" will
slow it down but will still get through. Rats no problem at an inch,
3/4" is starting to get tight.

A hole a rat has made for itself will be around 1 1/2" dia, for a
mouse 3/4" dia or there abouts.

--
Cheers
Dave. Remove "spam" for valid email.