Rat

Question: How can I tell if the little furry animal I found in the basement is a baby mouse or a rat? Answer: Mouse ears are very large, relative to the body. Baby rat ears are small, relatively. Baby rat tails are thicker, whereas mouse tails are thinner. For a comparison chart with several more differences, photos, and a treasure trove of information, go to: www.ratbehavior.org/RatsMice.htm.

Shirley Gregory of Dundalk takes pride in her home, but unwelcome visitors have sometimes thwarted efforts to keep her yard tidy. When she and her husband had a brick patio laid, it wasn't long until the bricks were caving into the ground. Rats had burrowed in a nearby yard and dug tunnels into Gregory's property. "I was, like, shocked - that's what a rat did," said Gregory, president of the St. Helena Community Association. "Well, more than one rat. Quite a few rats. " Gregory was one of more than 100 people who turned out Saturday morning for a community cleanup.

Rats are brazen neighbors in many a Baltimore neighborhood. A city police officer discovered just how brazen they are when one furry scavenger turned criminal and broke into a squad car. The rodent apparently gnawed on some wires and waited. It chose a less-than-perfect moment to emerge from hiding early Wednesday and climb up the back of a sergeant as his partner drove to a robbery call in South Baltimore. Thinking his colleague was playing a joke by tickling his neck, Sgt. Marc J. Camarote took a swipe with his arm. The angry rodent bit the officer on the palm and thumb of his right hand, according to a police spokesman.

Baltimore County's rat eradication program has treated more than 2,100 homes, and more efforts are planned for later this month, county officials said Thursday. Rodent infestations have become a common complaint in many county neighborhoods, and the "Rat Attack" program began in April 2012. Officials said two communities are scheduled to be treated this month: Riverview in Lansdowne, with treatment scheduled to begin the week of Feb. 11; and St. Helena in Dundalk, scheduled to begin the week of Feb. 25. The county has a 5-year, $750,000 contract with an exterminator to treat neighborhoods with rodent infestations.

Washington.--"Most people don't give a rat's patootie'' about the Iran-Contra scandal, says Virginia Senate candidate Oliver North. I'm not sure what a patootie is, but I know a rat when I smell one. Does the Republican party?So far the party leadership has taken no position on the possibility that a proven and unapologetic lawbreaker might be the GOP's Senate nominee. Republican National Committee chairman Haley Barbour has been silent. A spokesman says the committee never expresses a preference in intra-party races.

Boston. -- When you make a living telling people what you think, you expect that people will write to tell you what they think of what you think. It's a fair enough exchange except that you're often outnumbered. Writer, 1; Readers, 101, that sort of thing.So it happened with a recent column in which I dissented from Judge Jackson Kiser's opinion upholding the all-male Virginia Military Institute. He said the state-supported school could legally ban women from its hallowed, Stonewall Jackson-haunted grounds.

I GOT OUT of my cab in front of the Omni Hotel on Fayette Street and, without bothering to check in, headed straight for the bell stand. "Hey, fella," I said to the first bellman I saw, "Where's the best place to go rat fishing around here?"Bill Walters, the bellman, pondered for a moment, consulted a co-worker, and said, "Probably down on Redwood Street, after 10 at night when there aren't too many cars around. Lots of big ones there."His co-worker Ezana ("Call me Easy") Mengistad, disagreed.

HILLSIDE, N.J. -- Frank Balun, the unassuming gardener who gained worldwide attention when he was hit with animal-cruelty charges for killing a rat that menaced his tomatoes, is off the hook.Last night, Hillside Prosecutor Chris Howard begged poetic license as he moved to dismiss the charges against Mr. Balun."For although a rat died and its death (was) unceremonial, we believe that at the end of a trial, Frank's action cannot be said to be criminal."To applause from 150 people in a packed municipal courtroom, Judge Albert Parsonnet agreed.

IRVINE, Calif. -- Scientists at the University of California in Irvine have successfully transplanted the leg of one rat onto another rat without setting off an internal biological war.The experiment was performed without the use of immunosuppressive drugs or radiation normally required in transplants to prevent tissue rejection.The study has sparked a debate among immunologists, who are unsure whether it means that two immune systems worked simultaneously in the same animal, or what the results might mean for human transplants.

Baltimore might benefit from a rat census, says a City Council resolution introduced last night by Council President Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake. Three million of the reviled rodents could be burrowing in the city, but nobody knows, in part because no proper count has been done for 50 years, she said. "It never hurts for us to have updated information," she said at yesterday's weekly City Council lunch, held at the Wheelabrator Baltimore waste-to-energy complex near Westport, a plant that receives more than 21,000 tons of garbage daily.

The only thing colder and stiffer than the crowd bundled up near a Washington fountain early Saturday morning was a woodchuck standing on its hind legs on a small wooden platform. Potomac Phil, you see, is stuffed. Or more precisely, taxidermied. When you can't get your hands on the real thing on Groundhog Day, you make do with what you have - dead or alive. At the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore , the forecasting task was assigned to Pteri, an Abyssinian ground hornbill bird, and Hobbes, a leopard.

"Rats! They fought the dogs and killed the cats, and bit the babies in the cradles ... " Baltimore County's rat problems may not be as hair-raising as those above in Robert Browning's poem "The Pied Piper of Hamelin," but the disease-spreading vermin are an enduring presence in the yards and alleys of many neighborhoods. The county's response to rodent infestation is Rid Rat, a complaint-driven program that gathers data from phone calls (on a phone line dedicated to rat problems)

Rats, blighted properties and absentee landlords were among the concerns southwest Baltimore County residents shared Wednesday with County Executive Kevin Kamenetz at his first community forum. At the event in Lansdowne, Kamenetz emphasized the county's fiscal management, saying that the county is "weathering these tough times better than most. " He pointed to consolidation of public agencies and a focus on the most essential services. The county has its smallest workforce in 25 years, and it has not raised property or income taxes for decades.

About 18 years ago, a group of guys began working out together every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at the Owings Mills Jewish Community Center. As the years have proceeded, the group has grown some and also lost some members, but the reasons its members meet remain constant: They do it to stay healthy, but also because The Rat Pack, as they're known, is about friendship and sharing life's good times and tough moments. Who they are: Bernie Cohen, whom other members say is the "CEO" of the group, is also the unofficial historian.

April 16--YORK, Pa. -- As one visitor put it, it seemed like "every Dell rat in the county" came to see the renovations made to the former teen hangout on Starcross Road in Spring Garden Township. About 200 people came during the two-day event to see the changes made to the 4,000-square-foot home and 3-acre lot, which is now on the market for $399,000. Among the visitors was Margaret Elizabeth Brown Schneider, whose father built the house in 1913, shortly after she was born. Schneider will turn 100 on Wednesday and is considered the "oldest living Dell rat. " Walking past the new, stainless-steel appliances and granite countertops in the kitchen Sunday, Schneider's daughter, Kathy Clunk, whispered in her ear. "Could you imagine if your father could see this?"

In the alleys behind row homes in the Baltimore County neighborhood of Colgate, leaders of the local improvement association can see the telltale signs of the creatures they say have invaded their community. Trash cans with no lids - the rats always find those. Garbage piled behind chain-link fences - feasts for the rodents. They've even made a home in what some call "Rat Mountain," a big mound of burrows in one front yard. "Pretty much every household has been affected by it," said Dave Hyland, president of the Colgate Improvement Association.

Ronald Cuffie chuckled at the thought of Baltimoreans lining up this weekend to see Ratatouille, the new animated film about a rat in Paris who's an expert chef. Surely some of the city's moviegoers are responsible for the 25,000 service requests made each year to the city's "Rat Rubout" program, which removes the repulsive vermin from infested neighborhoods. "In the movies, rats are likable characters," said Cuffie, director of the city's vector control initiative. "In real life, people want to drop a brick on them."

Before the sun sets, rat No. 1 appears. Brown and beady-eyed, it skulks out of a ramshackle shed and onto a concrete trough. In the waning daylight, it drinks and washes in the rainwater, oblivious to the car that's pulled up a few feet away.Greg Gurri Glass surveys the scene from his 5-year-old Chevy and smiles. The steel mesh traps aren't even unloaded yet, and already the rats are out. His job tonight will be easier."This is a pretty amazing place when the sun goes down," he says, walking through the Reservoir Hill alley.

Rats are brazen neighbors in many a Baltimore neighborhood. A city police officer discovered just how brazen they are when one furry scavenger turned criminal and broke into a squad car. The rodent apparently gnawed on some wires and waited. It chose a less-than-perfect moment to emerge from hiding early Wednesday and climb up the back of a sergeant as his partner drove to a robbery call in South Baltimore. Thinking his colleague was playing a joke by tickling his neck, Sgt. Marc J. Camarote took a swipe with his arm. The angry rodent bit the officer on the palm and thumb of his right hand, according to a police spokesman.

At first glance, the EPA's proposed ban on consumers using fast-acting rat poisons seems like good news for rats, mice, dogs, cats, children and the countless other beings who suffer and die after ingesting rodent poisons every year ("Backyard debate: To bait or not to bait," June 11). But sadly, the slower acting poisons, including those that require animals to consume multiple doses, will still cause animals who ingest them to suffer prolonged and agonizing deaths. As your editorial points out, poisoning rats isn't an effective means of rodent control because surviving rats will have a baby boom and rats from surrounding areas will move in to fill the void left by those who were killed.