Island residents have raised public health concerns about the number of rats that seem to have taken over Big Mead Pond in Shanklin in recent weeks, with dead rodents now floating in the water.
Rats can spread a number of diseases including Weil’s and TB so they can pose a genuine health risk to those visiting the area. Situated next to a large open space, the area is currently being frequently used by those getting exercise whilst adhering to social distancing rules.
An Island Echo reader, who didn’t want to be named, got in touch in mid-March to say:
“They [the rats] seem to have taken over, setting up camp.
“With everything else that gets fenced off by the Isle of Wight Council and Island Roads as dangerous perhaps similar or signs around the pond should be put in place”.
It seems that the problem hasn’t eased some 3 weeks later with another Island Echo reader this week saying:
“The council really need to sort out the infestation of rats at the pond as they are starting to die and are now floating in the pond!”
A spokesperson for the Isle of Wight Council has today told Island Echo:
“The pond at Big Mead has seasonal problems with rats that is associated with people feeding the wildfowl. Given that nobody should currently be visiting the pond to feed the birds, we would expect that this problem will soon resolve itself, nevertheless we have engaged a pest control contractor to visit the site and take any necessary action.
“Feeding birds is not an essential activity and we would remind everybody to stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives”.
Now, this is most odd. Bert and I came back from our shopping trip to Tescos in Ryde, and we past that pond with the duck on it at Harding shute Ashey.
I said to Bert to stop and I would throw in a slice or two for those ducks on the pond as people aren’t getting out and about to feed them much, and they will have little ones to feed soon.
I took some bread over to the pond and stood on the wooden bit near the pond. There was honestly about twenty rats on that little island in the middle of the pond, and a lot around the edges. This was in the morning on a sunny day. Some rats plopped into the water and swam, none were scared by me or Bert.
I don’t know why there are so many presently. Bert said as people not out feeding the ducks then the rats are hungry and coming out to get any food they can, and he said they will eat the baby ducks and the eggs soon as they are laid.
So cant someone go and shoot these horrid disease carrying pests, as in nicer times little kids go there and feed ducks, and the rats will spread serious illnesses as if we haven’t got enough now to worry about.
They aren’t bothered by people at all, and they need to be killed off before they infect some child with horrid diseases.
So surprised to read about the other pond having same problem, Bert says it because people not feeding them so much so they desperate when they smells some food and comes out even in day time. That’s what he says.
It is generally considered that it can be harmful tor ducks to be fed bread. It is not a natural food for them. And I think people are more at risk at catching a nasty virus from other humans than from rats!
It is usually something that humans are doing that attracts the rats in the first place. They are anyway part of the ecological system and very intelligent animals. Just because most humans have been socially conditioned to hate them doesn’t change that, and not only are rats very intelligent but certainly seem to be more intelligent than many of the human vermin around littering our streets.
Rats have been around for as long as man has and you do not hear of humans dying in thousands because of rats, they are dying in thousands now though, all over the world, because of something man has done!
And maybe the reason there are dead rats around at Big Mead could be because some idiot has put poison down because they saw some and thought they’d “sort them out”, never minding endangering any other wildlife in the area.
It’s just a shame that Chris Packham is not running our country and then the world may be a nicer place!
Haven’t you been taught history? About that bubonic plague that wiped out much of Europe then? We got taught all about that. Rats and their flees it was caused by. Also a dustman in Ryde in the 60’s died by leg bit by rat, up Elmfield Marloghbourgh rd, he had won the pools only a short while before too.
Then there’s wheels disease rats carry.
You worry over a duck eating bread, what they have done for years, you wants to get your priorities right, never mind chris packman, anyone who wants to care for birds don’t buy no cat either and Bert agrees.
I think you are just a bit of a joker really, right? Anyhows: “Black Death was caused by humans not rats, says study”
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/black-death-what-cause-humans-rats-fleas-deaths-bubonic-plague-a8162006.html
It’s not rat mr Fawlty it’s hamster.
Dead rodents taking over…oh no! Only on the IOW folks
I wouldn’t agree that it is a seasonal problem, I contacted the local council regarding this in November, it was still as bad when I was there again last week.
There are always rats around, people are conditioned by society to hate them and yet they are more intelligent than many of the human vermin around and people are more at risk of catching some nasty disease from other humans than from rats.
There used to be rats living in my friend’s garden before he got a cat and I used to sit out there and throw food down and they used to gingerly come up to me and take a little and I was amazed at how gracious they behaved to one another, not fighting over scraps like I imagined they would have done.
We never caught any nasty germs from them but caught plenty from being on public transport and in supermarkets from people coughing and sneezing their germs out into the air with not a thought to who might get infected.
Discount the great plague then?
That’s the only thing anyone can ever think to come up with. Don’t you think there should have been a lot more by now, seeing as there are always rats around everywhere? And in the plague it was human lack of basic hygiene that caused it, a bit like today really with the mistreatment of wild life in Chinese markets.
They needs my jack russel dogs, they’d sort em out.
That’d be hunting with dogs.
Yep send it in, my mates brothers had them around farm when we were younger, no rats, or they didn’t live long,
It seems odd that they are dead, unless there has been some idiot there putting poison down, so endangering all other wildlife in the process.
Rats can swim so hardly likely they have just drowned.
Vermin is shanklin