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Comments
Not surprising, went for a
Not surprising, went for a jog down Haviland 2 days ago and saw probably 5-6 rats running around just on the st, can't even imagine how many more are in the actual buildings around there.
Peterborough
http://www.bostontipster.com
There are more rats
There are more rats everywhere in Boston this year. I have seen rats for the first time EVER in my neighborhood. The neighbors who have been around for 50 plus years confirm that they have never seen them either. The city needs to step up rat control efforts everywhere.
what attracts them?
Food and water
eliminate both and you'll eliminate the rats
Exactly
If people would enclose their fucking trash correctly, there'd be fewer rats. Hey, ISD, enforce codes. Oh, and mayor's office or whoever, do something to crack down on slumlords.
Hemenway St*
Channel 5 spelled it wrong.
Typical. Back in the early
Typical. Back in the early 1970s, there was a minor riot on Hemenway street. The Phoenix published a photo from the scene - a wall was spray painted 'Free Hemingway Street!' Right on, my revolutionary brother.
welcome to boston
send ISD into the other 500+ buildings in that area and let me know what you find........welcome to boston peeps
They grow mutants down there
The biggest, scariest rat I've ever seen was on Hemenway.
Shudder
Scariest, maybe. Biggest?
Scariest, maybe. Biggest? They all grow to the same size, no bigger. There are no giant rats.
R.O.U.S.?
Rodents of unusual size? I don't think they exist.
There can't be....
There can't be only a few of us that got this reference.
That whistling sound
If the original reply to me was a Princess Bride reference, yes, I missed it completely. My head is hung in shame.
Yes, biggest
All creatures show some variation of size. Now, I'm not exposed to lots of rats, so admittedly, my sample size is limited. This would explain why I said this was the biggest rat I've ever seen.
I used to live on Westland,
I used to live on Westland, and I can confirm that there are some giant f'ing rats in the area. They're HUGE. And FAT. Ugh. Once my husband and I were walking by the Symphony whole foods after they closed, and happened to look in at the big cardboard box of watermelons that had been hauled inside for the night. Just in time to see one lucky rat amble out of the box and into the store.
Bleah
Well there's a mental picture that's going to stay with me all day...
People who actually work with
People who actually work with rats will tell you that everyone claims to have seen huge rats, but when they catch or kill them, they always max out at the same size. So unless you've only seen midget rats in the past, it's extremely unlikely these particular rats were any different from others you've seen.
All the new construction
All the new construction sites in the area is stirring them up to the surface. The building going up on Mass Ave at Berklee and the new building going up on Brookline Ave are a couple of the major culprits. There are more around North Station too because of the new building going up. Disturb the nests and they scatter...
Still the slumlords who own
Still the slumlords who own the buildings should be doing something about it, it shouldn't take students calling the city and complaining endlessly until somebody finally comes out. Should be significantly higher fines for landlords who allow properties to get that bad.
Peterborough
http://www.bostontipster.com
I have empathy
for landlords sometimes, because they cannot 100% control the actions of other legal adults. However, every building I've lived in had an inadequate number of trash cans and recycling bins, such that on the last 1-2 days before pickup they were overflowing with the lids open. Whether the building is super clean and well-managed, or gross and disgusting, the trash still overflows before trash day.
It's too bad that the
It's too bad that the students are likely not informed about the laws being dramatically in their favor. If I were working at the area colleges, I'd make sure something like this was in every single orientation packet.
http://www.bostontenant.org/dev/index.php/pages/pa...
These rats
Were all living in that nasty Chinese buffet and McDonald's that Berklee tore down.
Global Warming
More likely it's simply that they didn't die off in the usual numbers during our mild winter this year.
I lived in 24 Haviland Street for many years
Anyone that has been around that alleyway at night knows how many rats there are. That staircase next to Buried Treasures is the nest.
This is clearly the perfect
This is clearly the perfect opportunity to see if rat kings exist
Rats
I saw two dead ones on the Bowdoin St side of the State House last month.
Raccoons are even freakier
You should see the infestation of raccoons out in JP. Those are much scarier than rats, since they're BIG! And they have claws! I encountered a group of five of those critters crossing Centre Street the other night around 11 pm. They paused, looked at me, and scuttled off into someone's yard. This is the third time I've seen a group of three or more raccoons out scavenging in the neighborhood.
Teenage Racoon Punks
They are often seen in groups this time of year because their mamas cut them loose, and they stick with their siblings to forage for a while before splitting up when winter approaches. They are used to being together, so they work together to topple garbage cans and sniff out food.
We heard our cat going batshit crazy at the back slider one night a few years back, and switched on the light to see five nearly identically-sized raccoons looking like an audience watching the cat go nuts.
Giant rats?
If it looks like this, it is an Opossum:
This is a big rat:
Easy enough, in the dark and from a distance, to misidentify them - but possums are way bigger than rats.