# Coronavirus Ratpocalypse **URL:** \ **Category:** The Quarantine Zone\ **Tags:** covid-quarantine\ **Created:** [April 14, 2020, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-ratpocalypse/851759 "2020-04-14T12:24:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2020, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-ratpocalypse/851759/1 "2020-04-14T12:24:31Z")
The massive reduction in restaurant activity has resulted in a corresponding massive reduction in the availability of food scraps for rats. [And they’re getting desperate.](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/starving-angry-cannibalistic-america-s-rats-are-getting-desperate-amid-n1180611) :eek: ---
**Author:** ![RioRico](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f04885/32.png) [@RioRico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RioRico)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2020, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-ratpocalypse/851759/2 "2020-04-14T23:03:06Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > The massive reduction in restaurant activity has resulted in a corresponding massive reduction in the availability of food scraps for rats. > > [And they’re getting desperate.](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/starving-angry-cannibalistic-america-s-rats-are-getting-desperate-amid-n1180611) :eek: And the New Orleans mayor says they’re a threat to the many homeless. That’s short term. Longer term, will we see a Darwinian winnowing of the weak, with surviving rats being the stronger, more aggressive? Are armies of super-rats the next global calamity? ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2020, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-ratpocalypse/851759/3 "2020-04-14T23:07:01Z")
Fans of the show Wings know that shooting rats at the dump on Nantucket used to be a favorite pastime for the locals. One day the island decided it was time to clean up the dump and they buried everything. The rats didn’t give up, now the rest of the island is infested with them. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2020, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-ratpocalypse/851759/4 "2020-04-14T23:14:30Z")
[It is happening in Japan, too](https://soranews24.com/2020/04/13/shibuya-rats-appear-on-streets-as-people-stay-home-during-coronavirus-outbreak%e3%80%90pics-video%e3%80%91/), where apparently the rats have a corvid crisis. ---
**Author:** ![Alley\_Dweller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alley_dweller/32/430_2.png) [@Alley\_Dweller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alley_Dweller)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2020, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-ratpocalypse/851759/5 "2020-04-14T23:24:03Z")
> [@RioRico](#): > > And the New Orleans mayor says they’re a threat to the many homeless. That’s short term. Longer term, will we see a Darwinian winnowing of the weak, with surviving rats being the stronger, more aggressive? Are armies of super-rats the next global calamity? Won’t the smaller, skinnier rats that require less food to survive be the winners? ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2020, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-ratpocalypse/851759/6 "2020-04-14T23:49:08Z")
Sounds like a good outcome to me. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2020, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-ratpocalypse/851759/7 "2020-04-14T23:50:37Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > [It is happening in Japan, too](https://soranews24.com/2020/04/13/shibuya-rats-appear-on-streets-as-people-stay-home-during-coronavirus-outbreak%e3%80%90pics-video%e3%80%91/), where apparently the rats have a corvid crisis. _Megarat vs. Giant Raven_? Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2020, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-ratpocalypse/851759/8 "2020-04-15T00:03:39Z")
Crap. ---
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2020, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-ratpocalypse/851759/9 "2020-04-15T00:17:26Z")
I remember seeing a movie withSylvester Stallone that had a solution to this crisis: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wdld7SqnIxE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wdld7SqnIxE) ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2020, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-ratpocalypse/851759/10 "2020-04-15T02:40:42Z")
In Wales, the sheep have come down from the hills to see what is going on. Some town in Japan has deer sleeping on the lawns. This is like that. Only in New York, and with rats. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2020, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-ratpocalypse/851759/11 "2020-04-15T03:05:28Z")
My sister and brother-in-law have to watch out for bears as my brother-in-law gets in his transport to do another cross-border run. They live maybe 200 metres from the Edge of Town, the field where the suburb ends. Of course, they had to do that before the pandemic, as well. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2020, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-ratpocalypse/851759/12 "2020-04-15T04:01:13Z")
Wirh Smithfield closed, I’m thinking a trap, some cornmeal to feed them for a few days, a pointy stick, briquettes and the older edition of _The Joy of Cooking_ with the illustrations of how to prepare squirrels and such. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2020, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-ratpocalypse/851759/13 "2020-04-15T04:13:34Z")
I have decided if I ever need to change my name (either here or in real life) my new name _will_ be Coronavirus Ratpocalypse. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2020, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-ratpocalypse/851759/14 "2020-04-15T04:32:42Z")
How far can Virus Rats run? Need to know kinda fast. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2020, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-ratpocalypse/851759/15 "2020-04-15T13:06:39Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > The massive reduction in restaurant activity has resulted in a corresponding massive reduction in the availability of food scraps for rats. > > [And they’re getting desperate.](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/starving-angry-cannibalistic-america-s-rats-are-getting-desperate-amid-n1180611) :eek: And no [Willard](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8Gn98fbeMs) to control them, even for a short time. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-ratpocalypse/851759/16 "2020-04-16T11:45:26Z")
[_Capitol Critters_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitol_Critters) [is real](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8223685/Rat-scurries-Donald-Trump-coronavirus-briefing-Rose-Garden.html)! ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-ratpocalypse/851759/17 "2020-04-16T12:13:04Z")
Rangers in Yosemite National Park are reporting that [the wildlife is having the run of the place](https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/bears-yosemite-national-park-coronavirus-trnd/index.html) now that park visitors are scarce. > [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](#): > > Some town in Japan has deer sleeping on the lawns. To be fair, there are a least a couple of places in Japan where the local deer population has become so accustomed to people that they’re a tourist attraction ([Nara is perhaps the most famous](https://youtu.be/UWbGy76tHDA?t=139)); that’s a thing that predated the pandemic. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-ratpocalypse/851759/18 "2020-04-16T16:49:48Z")
I once had a professor list out the 10 plagues of Egypt. If you look at them with a reasonably open mind and an understanding of how historical events would have been documented at the time (there were no real prohibitions against historians making history interesting), they actually start looking a lot like a rational cascade of events: unusually big red algae bloom has some effect creating a highly favorable habitat for breeding frogs, the massive numbers of frogs die off leading to a feast for scavengers and flies, the livestock get sick from the algae water & festering frog corpses, etc… It’d be fun to take a look at the world today and write a biblical saga about it. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-ratpocalypse/851759/19 "2020-04-16T16:55:10Z")
Not just rats. Around here, possums, deer, raccoons, and even turkeys are coming out of wherever they’ve been hiding. “Here” is a city with no forests, so I have no idea where these critters have been hiding. It was really odd to see three turkeys ambling down the sidewalk in front of my house about a week ago. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2020, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-ratpocalypse/851759/20 "2020-04-21T20:14:11Z")
Maybe this is why I suddenly have mice. And they’re trap shy, and quite bold. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-ratpocalypse/851759.md?page=2)