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The stuff of nightmares on the streets of Allston

Kerry posts video of a rat army demolishing a trash bag in Allston Rat City, reports he was forced to flee when some of the rats noticed him and charged him.

Only complaint: He should have used this as the background music.

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Comments

...Bad.

Like from some horrifying Thriller.

Those rats should Beat It.

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MJ's version is ok, but http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTKNahASSDI is better for nightmare fuel

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Best rat video of the day.

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I like the casting of R.Lee Emrey as an audience member. He played the drill instructor in "Full Metal Jacket". Those f'ing varmint cong rats should all be shot. What is there major malfunction?

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This was a promotional video for the remake of Willard that Crispin Glover did back around 2003. R. Lee Ermey played Willard's tyrannical boss in the remake. Wasn't a bad film as far as remakes go.

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If this video is at all representative of rat activity in Allston, then Allston has a major problem.

Mandating rat-proof trash cans is a start (it helped in Cambridge).

A flat sand shovel paired with a wood chipper also has some appeal.

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Someone puts trash out in plastic bags in the middle of the city - at night - and he's surprised to see rats show up?

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Most (if not all) of those were mice and not rats.

Google Map of the sidewalk exactly where that was happening.

The place next to Ringer Park doesn't look like it's kept in that great of a shape and the park provides tons of places for rodents like that to live.

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Those are...waaaaay too big to be mice. Way too big.

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Most of them are too small to be rats, and don't have the "haunches" of a rat. Towards the end there quite a few more rats than mice, but it definitely starts out with mice. I've seen bigger mice.

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I've kept pet rats on occasion, and they have a pretty broad range of sizes. Those are a bit small, but definitely in the rat range. Mice are much smaller, and probably wouldn't even show up on a video of that quality.

And to think, I used to live just down the street from that warren! Yuck!

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Yes, those are definitely rats - I agree that some of them are on the small side, especially for wild Norway rats, but they could easily be young adults. My parents kept a lot of snakes and raised both mice and rats as food animals, and I've worked in animal labs as well (and am also unfortunately familiar with the local wild population, though I've never seen swarms like that in my area of Allston, thank the gods.)

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Too big to be mice, unless they're mutants. Those are nasty, filthy rats.

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I've lived behind a back bay restaurant for 16 years. I vote rats - small rats - but definitely rats. Way too big for mice. According to my friend in the restaurant biz there's a pecking order - if you have cockroaches you don't have mice (mice eat cockroaches), if you have mice you don't have rats (rats eat mice), if you have rats, you have ISD closing you down-at least eventually.

Typically somehow the mice make their way to the rooftops and live in the upper floors. The rats rarely come upstairs (although it happens) there's too much good stuff like trash in kitchen bags on the curbs and wide open restaurant dumpsters.

The best solution is actually not to kill them-it's a losing battle for the most part. 1) remove food sources - not always possible with restaurants around 2) close off access within 100 feet of food sources-rats don't travel well with a big roll in their mouth - also not possible but very effective in places like alleys etc. We haven't cured the problem - but significantly minimized it by identifying access points and closing them off (holes in buildings/windows), around tree roots etc. Gardens need regular attention - in a pinch these things will tunnel and eat just about anything.

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I lived at 70 Allston St at the beginning of this decade. The yellow house with the person walking in front of it is the place. I saw the occasional rat back then but nothing like that video. I recall the long house across the street changed hands a few times, and I imagine the area itself might have declined since then. There were more older owners around us and rarely were parties/noise a problem.

The park was in decent shape, too. I played softball and tennis there regularly. Is that area around Ringer decent anymore? (Aside from the bad rat problem that is...)

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Nighttime, the rats are probably the least of your problems. A lot of delinquents use the back areas of Ringer to hang out, smoke, drink, and be obnoxious at night. The park during the day is pretty well used, but there have been problems at the park too, including a lot of vandalism.

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...to drive the rats out of Allston.

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... or Samuel L. Jackson.

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"I have had it with these monkey-fightin' rats in this Monday-to-Friday trash"?

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"it's just a lobster"

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It's illegal in Boston to put trash on the curb in a kitchen bag, and this is exactly why.

Those were pretty clearly mice. But, in the spirit of hysteria, I believe the appropriate soundtrack is GBH's "City Baby Attacked by Rats."

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he couldn't get a flashlight out there??? I'd believe they were rats. This IS the city - there are going to be rats. Using proper bags instead of those flimsy ones. Since you know there are rats - putting trash out the morning-of will help. Did vermin make those holes or is that from trash pickers looking for bottles? Since this is near a park, did anyone call parks/ISD to get the area baited??

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