Tehran Battles Plague of 'Mutant' Giant Rats with Army Snipers

International Business Times ^ | February 20, 2013 | Umberto Bacchi:

[DogByte6RER]

Tehran Battles Plague of 'Mutant' Giant Rats with Army Snipers

Tehran, the capital of Iran, is battling an invasion of "genetically mutated" giant rats.

Iran has sent in sniper teams to clear Tehran's streets from the massive rodents weighting up to five kilos plaguing 26 district of the Iranian capital, the city's environmental agency said.

"They seem to have had a genetic mutation, probably as a result of radiations and the chemical used on them," Ismail Kahram, Teheran city council environment adviser and university professor Ismail Kahram told Qudsonline.ir.

"They are now bigger and look different. These are changes that normally take millions of years of evolution. They have jumped from 60 grams to five kilos, and cats are now smaller than them."

The "mutated rats" have been running rampant in the capital, as cats are scared off by their giant size and traditional poison appear to have no effect on them.

To stop them storming of restaurants' backyards and scavenging public waste containers, the council has deployed ten snipers teams armed with infra-red sighted rifles.

"We use chemical poisons to kill the rats during the day and the snipers at night, so it has become a 24/7 war," the head of the environment agency, Mohammad Hadi Heydarzadeh, said.

Rats' carcasses are burnt or buried in lime.

So far 2,205 rats have been shot dead, but the war is far to be won and the council is planning to bring the snipers team up to 40.

[GeronL]

Sounds like an idea for a new browser game

[Carriage Hill]

That a big ‘un!

[null and void]

Rodents Of Unusual Size? I don’t think they exist.

[NonLinear]

I, um, may have, and let me emphasize MAY have, misplaced a pair of possum on my last visit.

I am still looking for Freddy and Martha, but this makes me think I may have located them...

Do the rats look anything like this picture of Freddy?

[Chode]

"Silva: Do you like my island? My grandmother had an island. We could circle the whole place in an hour. Then one day, we went back to the island to see it infested with rats. They came from a sunken ship and fed on coconut. But my grandmother came up with a solution. She buried oil drums and hinged the lid with coconut for bait. In about three months, all the rats were trapped. So what do you do? Do you drown them? Burn them?

You leave them alone. As soon, they begin to eat each other.

And when there are two left, you let them go back into the the trees.

But they will not eat coconut anymore.

Now they will only eat rat.

You have changed their nature."

[Carriage Hill]

Aren’t there some rodents which they hunt and eat, somewhere in the south? I can’t pin down the fairly common name, darnit.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

A picture is worth a thousand words. This is the gist of it:

A Better Mouse Trap

[null and void]

Cuy.

[Chode]

nutria, but they don't eat garbage...

[SaraJohnson]

LOL, you can’t make the Mooseslimes characters up for the best horror movies.

[Carriage Hill]

That’s them! Thanks; I was having a brain fart. They’re mostly herbivores, aren’t they?

[Ditter]

Thanks Sam that looks great! What size bucket do you think you would need to catch rats?

[Chode]

yes they are... so eating them is no problem

[Slings and Arrows]

Let me guess: The Mossad's behind it.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks DogByte6RER.

Tehran Battles Plague of 'Mutant' Giant Rats with Army Snipers

And how the Giant Rats teamed up with Army Snipers, we'll never know! /rimshot

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks!

[SunkenCiv]

Hmm. Instead of drowning (which could take hours, they can dogpaddle for quite a while, I’ve seen that done, mouse in the house got into my tub water, which I’d left undrained after a long soak because it was winter, and it reuses the heat) the water could be left out in favor of acid, the critters would be dead in seconds. In the article, the writer speculated that the photo shown had antifreeze, which is poisonous (quick death) but also keeps the carcasses from rotting and smelling, and won’t freeze in an unheated space (for example, my garage).

[SunkenCiv]

:’)

[SatinDoll]

Uh, and then your dog or cat drinks the anti-freeze as a chaser to eating the poisoned rodent(s).

My vet bill for one of my pets who licked up anti-freeze on our driveway came to over $3000. The animal while at the vet’s was basically drunk the whole time on alcohol - the vet said this would prevent the metabolising of the poison in the antifreeze.

So, four days for the drunk pet equaled BIG BUCKS.

We now use Sierra in our vehicles in case of leaks.

Instead of using antifreeze in the bucket rat trap, I’ll use 190 proof Everclear in water.