Graves Park Rats

[bassett one 450]

went there the other day myself and the wife,a nice warm day,UNTIL out popped 2 rats and then 2 more a bit further on,chatting to locals and they said it was awfull,due to children/adults feeding ducks and the rose garden was really bad,wont be going back until its sorted,terrified of  the disease they the rats carry as it can kill you,so sad ,i always think of the days when we had a boating pond and they did school canoe lessons and kids fished the pond and did line fishing and put there catch in the other pond as the boating pond was no fishing,icecreams,teas ect in the rose garden,hope SCC sort it,until i will avoid.

[Beechwood_S6 101]

All part of the ecosystem 

[Jim Hardie 527]

They’ve been a problem for a while. I saw some in the rose garden about three years ago.

[Jen17 10]

now in Hillsborough Park too

[gamezone07 23]

I had a rat walk(been poisoned by upstairs rat poison) in my living room, last week, crawled off to die somewhere.

[tlangdon12 13]

You cannot eradicate rats from somewhere like Graves Park. They have always been there, and they always will be there.

 

There is very little risk caused to humans who are walking in the park. A baby playing on the grass would be at risk if it put it's hands in it's mouth after touching the grass, but this risk can be managed by putting the baby down on a blanket to play. It really isn't a problem.

[melv 16]

I was up there a couple of weeks ago. The parks department have put notices up advising people not to feed the ducks. 

1. Bread is bad for waterfowl.

2. It encourages rats.

3. We'll see if people take any notice....

[medusa 16]

30 minutes ago, melv said:

I was up there a couple of weeks ago. The parks department have put notices up advising people not to feed the ducks. 

1. Bread is bad for waterfowl.

2. It encourages rats.

3. We'll see if people take any notice....

The problem with stopping feeding bread to the waterfowl has already been illustrated, with the number of birds simply starving to death once the bread stopped.  There is insufficient natural food for the number of birds in municipal parks, and the birds have had several generations of learning that food will be thrown to them by visitors so they have got less and less able to forage fully over the years anyway.

 

The advice not to feed bread has been rescinded because it is better than nothing, and very few people replaced the bread with more appropriate foods like peas, halved grapes or whatever, so the birds just starved.

Anyway, there are rats everywhere.  If you don't see them then they're doing a very good job at being out of your eye line, but they're still there.  We don't see them here most of the time, yet one of my cats seems to be able to find enough of them to bring several of them in a week (after he's killed them).  You are within 10 feet of a rat at pretty much every moment of your life.

[katekate 15]

The rat problem in Graves Park is no worse than it was ten years ago.  I used to go back then with my two children and it was crawling with them.  When I have visited over the past couple of years and I've been a few times recently, we have spotted quite a few on the children's play area as well as in the other places mentioned on here.  There was even one on the bottom of the slide!  As for them not being a risk I think they are as children are playing in that play area on a daily basis.  They are sitting in the sand pit and touching other play equipment that the rats have been on.   I won't be going back there anytime  soon, it's disgusting.  Yes they are everywhere but as i said Graves Park has been like this for over ten years, if SCC weren't bothered then I can't see them doing much now.

[gamezone07 23]

On 20/09/2020 at 11:44, medusa said:

The problem with stopping feeding bread to the waterfowl has already been illustrated, with the number of birds simply starving to death once the bread stopped.  There is insufficient natural food for the number of birds in municipal parks, and the birds have had several generations of learning that food will be thrown to them by visitors so they have got less and less able to forage fully over the years anyway.

 

The advice not to feed bread has been rescinded because it is better than nothing, and very few people replaced the bread with more appropriate foods like peas, halved grapes or whatever, so the birds just starved.

Anyway, there are rats everywhere.  If you don't see them then they're doing a very good job at being out of your eye line, but they're still there.  We don't see them here most of the time, yet one of my cats seems to be able to find enough of them to bring several of them in a week (after he's killed them).  You are within 10 feet of a rat at pretty much every moment of your life.

Nice

[bassett one 450]

i wont be going back,it really up set my wife,didnt have this problem years ago,it needs sorting,but rats in the play area and cafe area is a disgrace and needs sorting before someone dies,most likely a child,come on SCC sort it asap please.

[Rockers rule 673]

Are we seeing a resurgence of the rat population?

or are we seeing more rats because with various restrictions due to Cori v there aren't as many people about 

and the rats are having to travel further to find food?

Less left over takeaways in town centres because of more takeaways being delivered? 

Are they getting braver in more residential areas through necessity?

No I'm not on their side, just seems strange it is relatively recently that a resurgence of the Beasties has come about. 

 

We more or less played in Graves park every day or in many of the woods around Bocking lane and can never remember seeing a rat as kids.

 

Keep safe.