• Museums of Sydney - rat catchers, rats
Prompted by treading in a large whack of dogshit this morning which I only truly sensed when I’d wiped my shoes on the doormat and saw it, then tiptoed on the boot with the fouled heel raised and went to the back of the house where I hosed it off, I bring you some observations about the history and facts of rats, garbage and compost.
When I renovated my terrace house in Chippendale in 1978 each time I came on the mostly demolished building site rats scurried away across the whole site.
Rats often ran to and from Chippendale’s Carlton Brewery beer-making site where, since it was sold, high rise flats and cafes have been built, and rats are still to be seen, fed there by council garbage, cafes, drains, food waste.
Every construction site worker I have spoken to in the 45 years since coming to Chippendale, sees rats on their site.
• Corner Cleveland Lane and Tracey Lane, Chippendale, 8 am, Friday 24 March 2023 - Council garbage
I took the photo above last Friday, 24 March of a laneway in Chippendale; council, cafe and home garbage like this feeds, and has always fed, rats.
Cafes and households here and across cities leave their food waste in plastic bags on the streets. Food dripping out of plastic bags bulge or sit on the turned up garbage bin lids.
Brisbane City Council’s proactive approach
Brisbane Council takes a proactive approach to rats and there’s handy advice on its website:
“Pest rats
The two types of pest rats most commonly found in Brisbane are the large brown sewer rat (Rattus norvegicus), and the smaller grey or black climbing rat (Rattus rattus). Both of these types of rats can carry disease. The sewer rat nests and burrows under buildings and is usually found in commercial farms rather than suburban areas. Climbing rats are likely to be found nesting in homes.”
And
“Permanent control of rats
To permanently control rats on your property and stop them breeding, implement the following tips:
• repair any breakage or holes in wall linings and roof cavities immediately
• restrict rats running up building pipes by placing metal gauze over the ends
• trim overhanging tree branches near your roof so rats can’t use them to get onto your roof.
. . .
• if you have a compost bin, consider burying it at least 30 cm below the ground”
Sydney, cities, COVID and rats
Rats are everywhere in cities, including my city of Sydney. There’s no proactive rat approach here.
In Sydney, as elsewhere, they’re in theatres, cafes, offices, cafes, streets, parks and mostly where buildings are more densely located:
“Here in Sydney we have fond memories of the arthouse Roma Cinema in George Street, built directly above the city’s underground train tunnels. It was not the subterranean rumble of the red rattlers that disturbed moviegoers, but the rats that roamed the aisles in search of tasty candy bar morsels. One such rat was so daring and dextrous that he became a favourite of regular patrons. Known to all as ‘Jaffa Boy’, the massive rodent would actually chase Jaffas down the aisles, pursuing the rolling red balls with an almost addictive fervour. Once he had captured the Jaffa, with all the footwork of a mini Diego Maradona, he would crack it apart, devouring the sweet chocolate center in a frenzied display of manic gnawing.”
During the COVID lockdown in Sydney rats left denser city areas and moved into the suburbs. As Prof Peter Banks, a rodent expert from the University of Sydney, said;
“They have moved into the suburbs, closer to residential now,” he said. “We are having a big spike in residential rodent control.
“It’s got colder quicker this year as well. It is coming on to winter where they need somewhere warm to sleep. They usually get into roof voids in people’s houses, because they can climb up brick walls or they can leap from overhanging trees above peoples’ houses. They can leap about three or four foot.”
However, Banks said that people should not worry about hordes of rats in their homes, as the overall rat population would have dropped under lockdown.
“Rats are probably the big losers from Covid-19,” he said. “The rat population would have been knocked down a lot. It will probably be a pretty typical winter. There are not going to be waves of rats running across the suburbs trying to get into people’s houses. But people will be seeing them in houses now, because that is the only place where there is food. If we leave bins out , they will thrive off that.”
Compost and rats
Chippendale rats are not fed by the compost bins in the footpath gardens here and which Sydney City Council has inspired by its leading policies on gardening. As I explained above, what I’ve seen since coming here in 1978, rats were here long before footpath compost bins were installed in the footpath gardens 2000s.
Street compost bins here reduce the amount of food available for rats by diverting overflowing food waste from the council garbage bins to the compost bins.
• Perforated metal barrier below at base of compost bin
The variously designed and installed compost bins in the footpath gardens of Chippendale are chosen and installed to make sure rats cannot feed off the food waste in them. We exclude rats this way:
• where the compost bins have no base the bins are placed on perforated metal sheets to prevent rats getting in from below - photo above shows one example;
• where possible put the compost bin in a raised bed garden which has a metal base and metal sides, and use rat-proof plastic crates with heavy timber lids to get a strong seal between the lid and the plastic crates;
• regular - at least once a week - compost maintenance by four people of the 15 compost options to avoid odour and to quicken the compost breakdown of the food waste.
Solutions
In addition to the other solutions described, here are two more:
“Peppermint oil
Rats hate the smell of peppermint oil, so it’s an effective way to drive them away. Moisten some cotton balls with 100 per cent pure peppermint oil and place them in various spots around the garden, including the garage and shed. Reapply the oil a couple of times a week.
Catnip
Get some catnip from a garden centre and plant it in several spots around the garden. Be strategic with your planting and look for signs of rat activity like nests and pellet droppings.”
Rats, sewage and ways of not seeing
The way some of us ‘see’ rats is like the way some of us ‘see’ our own excreta. We don’t.
We don’t see rats or excreta, don’t understand. We shriek first, understand second (if ever). Our way of seeing how we truly live is summed up here:
“Toilets in modern water closets rise up from the floor like white water lilies. The architect does all he can to make the body forget how paltry it is, and to make man ignore what happens to his intestinal wastes after the water from the tank flushes them down the drain. Even though the sewer pipelines reach far into our houses with their tentacles, they are carefully hidden from view, and we are happily ignorant of the invisible Venice of shit underlying our bathrooms, bedrooms, dance halls, and parliaments.”
The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera, 1984
Michael