Hi

I just found a 1-1.5 inch diameter hole in the soil of the back border
close to where the creature I saw the other day disappeared - it must
have been down this hole because it's a recent thing, it wasn't there a
week or so ago AFAIK.

Is this a rat living here? I didn't know rats lived in holes in the
earth? It was a palish brown/beige colour and looked that kind of size,
couldn't see much detail it was gone too fast, and I didn't see the
length of its tail although it was a proper tail and not a stubby one, I
think, but I couldn't see if it was pink or furry.

Lynda

"Lynda Thornton" wrote in message
...
Hi

I just found a 1-1.5 inch diameter hole in the soil of the back border
close to where the creature I saw the other day disappeared - it must
have been down this hole because it's a recent thing, it wasn't there a
week or so ago AFAIK.

Is this a rat living here? I didn't know rats lived in holes in the
earth? It was a palish brown/beige colour and looked that kind of size,
couldn't see much detail it was gone too fast, and I didn't see the
length of its tail although it was a proper tail and not a stubby one, I
think, but I couldn't see if it was pink or furry.

Lynda
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/wildfact...iles/273.shtml

"Lynda Thornton" wrote in message
...
Hi

I just found a 1-1.5 inch diameter hole in the soil of the back
border
close to where the creature I saw the other day disappeared - it
must
have been down this hole because it's a recent thing, it wasn't
there a
week or so ago AFAIK.

Is this a rat living here? I didn't know rats lived in holes in the
earth? It was a palish brown/beige colour and looked that kind of
size,
couldn't see much detail it was gone too fast, and I didn't see the
length of its tail although it was a proper tail and not a stubby
one, I
think, but I couldn't see if it was pink or furry.

Lynda

Hi Lynda,

I live in the country and we have hundreds of these holes in the grass
and sometimes in the flowerbeds. I've seen field mice run into them
and also toads seem to live in them. They don't appear to do any
harm and we've never interfered with them, i.e. tried to poison them.
The dogs sometimes give the holes a good sniffing, but have never
caught anything. I just think they are part of country living and
leave them alone. If the number of holes are anything to go by, we'd
never succeed in getting rid of them anyway!

HTH
Iris McCanna

YES thats a rats hole ........with luck your local council has a free Rat
service ......dont wait deal with it


"Lynda Thornton" wrote in message
...
Hi

I just found a 1-1.5 inch diameter hole in the soil of the back border
close to where the creature I saw the other day disappeared - it must
have been down this hole because it's a recent thing, it wasn't there a
week or so ago AFAIK.

Is this a rat living here? I didn't know rats lived in holes in the
earth? It was a palish brown/beige colour and looked that kind of size,
couldn't see much detail it was gone too fast, and I didn't see the
length of its tail although it was a proper tail and not a stubby one, I
think, but I couldn't see if it was pink or furry.

Lynda

bnd777 wrote:
YES thats a rats hole ........with luck your local council has a
free
Rat service ......dont wait deal with it


One and a half inch rat hole?
Never.
Your average brown rat is up to 18 inches long 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).

More likely to be a bank vole - which are unlikely to invade your
home. Bank voles are about 3 to 4 inch body length plus 2 to 3 inch
tail.

Don't panic.

--
ned

"ned" wrote in news:ba685e$pb2jm$1@ID-
115413.news.dfncis.de:
One and a half inch rat hole?
Never.
Your average brown rat is up to 18 inches long 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).

More likely to be a bank vole - which are unlikely to invade your
home. Bank voles are about 3 to 4 inch body length plus 2 to 3 inch
tail.

It could be mice....
We had a couple of small holes in the back just after we got rid of a load
of rats....
When we called the pest control guy back after fears they may merely moved
to the garden...He said that it won't be rats but rather mice..

He then said that there would be no problems with them and we should leave
it alone....

Well the holes under our fence and our neighbours were only 1 1/2 to 2
inches in diameter and that was all the Rat man needed to confirm rats and
put down his poison boxes

"Rick McGreal" wrote in message
...
"ned" wrote in news:ba685e$pb2jm$1@ID-
115413.news.dfncis.de:
One and a half inch rat hole?
Never.
Your average brown rat is up to 18 inches long 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).

More likely to be a bank vole - which are unlikely to invade your
home. Bank voles are about 3 to 4 inch body length plus 2 to 3 inch
tail.

It could be mice....
We had a couple of small holes in the back just after we got rid of a load
of rats....
When we called the pest control guy back after fears they may merely moved
to the garden...He said that it won't be rats but rather mice..

He then said that there would be no problems with them and we should leave
it alone....

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.

"Dave Liquorice" wrote in
ill.network:

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.

The rat that came to my garden made holes that were about 3 inches. It was
definitely him - I saw him at it. Mind you, it was a mega-rat - about the
same size as my rabbits. They aren't all that huge, luckily.

Victoria

"Dave Liquorice" wrote in
ill.network:

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.

The rat that came to my garden made holes that were about 3 inches. It was
definitely him - I saw him at it. Mind you, it was a mega-rat - about the
same size as my rabbits. They aren't all that huge, luckily.

Victoria

"Dave Liquorice" wrote in
ill.network:

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.

The rat that came to my garden made holes that were about 3 inches. It was
definitely him - I saw him at it. Mind you, it was a mega-rat - about the
same size as my rabbits. They aren't all that huge, luckily.

Victoria

"Dave Liquorice" wrote in
ill.network:

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.

The rat that came to my garden made holes that were about 3 inches. It was
definitely him - I saw him at it. Mind you, it was a mega-rat - about the
same size as my rabbits. They aren't all that huge, luckily.

Victoria

"Dave Liquorice" wrote in
ill.network:

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.

The rat that came to my garden made holes that were about 3 inches. It was
definitely him - I saw him at it. Mind you, it was a mega-rat - about the
same size as my rabbits. They aren't all that huge, luckily.

Victoria

Victoria Clare wrote:
"Dave Liquorice" wrote in
ill.network:

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.

The rat that came to my garden made holes that were about 3 inches.
It was definitely him - I saw him at it. Mind you, it was a
mega-rat
- about the same size as my rabbits. They aren't all that huge,
luckily.

Thank you for that second opinion Victoria.
Despite Dave Liquorice's authoritive statement, my rats indulge
themselves with 3 inch holes as well. Maybe our rats are just well
adjusted.
Mind blowing though I find it, it might well be that when needs must,
a rat could squeeze through a 1.5 inch hole, but what intelligent rat
in its right mind is going to displace its cranial plates when it can
simply make its hole a bit bigger in open ground?
The largest specimen that I have measured was 10" head/body, 8" tail.
But, I understand that they can get up to 11.5" head/body, 9" tail.
Now that must be one to steer well clear of.

--
ned

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

)snipt)
An adult mouse will get through a 1/2" dia hole no problem, 3/8" will
slow it down but will still get through...

A pest-control expert on TV recently said (of mice getting into houses) if a
biro would go through a gap, a mouse could.
I've seen young mice feeding with mum on our bird feeders and can accept
that.

He also mentioned the skull thing.