Hello Michael,
Warning!
If the inland rodents are as invasively hungry as our North Queensland
species can be, it may be wise to keep your car
doors closed and engine bonnet open...
We made the mistake of leaving our station-wagon rear door open whilst on a
weekend camp at Broadwater State Forest (near
Ingham) some years back. A Giant White-tailed Rat got in, built a cosy nest in
behind the internal panel forward of the door
hinge on the front passenger side and had hitched a quiet ride home to
Townsville with us...
It ate a bit of plastic and rubber and luckily no serious damage to the
electrical wiring. Our pet dog eventually killed it
2 days later after it appeared to have tried to share the dog's bone. The dog
didn't eat the rat but left it lying dead,
drenched in saliva only a couple of metres from her usual feeding point. Our
auto electrician discovered the rat's nest in
the car only recently.
Another time we were at Murray Falls (near Tully) camping. We owned a V8
back then and were lucky to escape with only 4
spark-plug leads in tact. These rats seem to like eating plastic and rubber
components on vehicles. We have since learnt
that when camped in any NQ rainforest, keeping your parked car bonnet open day
and night is the best deterrent from rats
moving into a safe and secure feeding area such as is under the cover of a
bonnet.
I've also found smaller rodents cooked under my bonnet from camps in drier,
western areas of Queensland.
Good birding and Good luck !
Len Ezzy
Mount Louisa, Townsville, Queensland, AUSTRALIA
-----Original Message-----
From:
On Behalf Of michael wood
Sent: Tuesday, 9 August 2011 9:51 AM
To:
Subject: Rats in the Corner Country?
Hello All
With all things going to plan, I soon plan to be travelling north up through
the Birdsville Track and and then on to Mt. Isa.
My only concern is the rats. Has anyone had any recent bad experiences with
inland rats in that region? Are they, along with
mice, in such numbers that they might start chewing upon just about anything? I
plan to be sleeping on the ground in my swag
for the few days through that area and the idea of them gnawing at my toes
whilst trying to sleep does not fill me with joy.
Regards,Michael
===============================
To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to:
http://birding-aus.org
===============================
===============================
To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to:
http://birding-aus.org
===============================
|
