The art of 'war'

Nick Ridley tells of his admiration at seeing teams of terriers in full flow on ratting missions

- Nick Ridley

There is no doubt that the brown rat is one of nature’s success stories. It is equally at home in the biggest of cities or the most rural parts of the countryside. It will take advantage of any food source and it is the carrier of some potentially deadly infections such as Weil’s disease and murine typhus, as well as salmonella, parasites, viruses and worms.

Rattus norvegicus has been a resident in the UK since the early 18th century and has now almost completely displaced its smaller cousin Rattus rattus, the black rat, in the UK.

It is said that wherever you live you are only ever a few feet away from a rat. They breed all year and a female is able to reproduce from six weeks, having up to six litters in a year with an average of eight pups. It doesn’t take long for numbers to get out of hand.

Control

Methods of control are varied – shooting, trapping, poisoning and hunting with dogs. Rats are one of the few mammals that can still be hunted legally by dogs, and to many it is the most humane way of dealing with the pest; an excited shake by a hot-blooded terrier and the rat dies instantly. This way there is no chance of secondary poisoning, no chance of injury from a misplaced shot; it either gets away or it’s caught and dies. I have never owned a terrier but over the years I have had the chance to watch some very good ones ply their trade.