Rats to Visit Queen?

[aka_10003]

I’ve heard that many in the UK objected to building the tunnel conecting them to France out of fear of European rats crossing over.

Is that a real problem? Did they find a way to stop the French rats from rushing to taste the British cuisine?

[cdhostage]

Ha! I’m sure that the entrances are heavily gujarded with laser rat fryers.

[Colophon]

Is that a real problem? Did they find a way to stop the French rats from rushing to taste the British cuisine?

I think you may have misheard. What the British actually said was “Rats! Now the French will start coming over”.

As it turns out, they haven’t. I think they realised that they’re on the better side of La Manche already. It’s actually the Brits that flood over to France to pick up le cheap booze at the hypermarché.

As for vermin control, this debate from the House of Commons touches on the problems and what has been done to stop animals coming through.

Mr. Morley: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what assessment he has made of the relative risk of rabies infection entering Britain from (a) free-living animals entering via the channel tunnel and (b) animals entering by other means; and whether he has commissioned a risk assessment. [20711]

Mrs. Browning: Measures are in place to prevent rabies infection entering Great Britain either from (a) animals entering the channel tunnel or (b) animals entering by other means.

(A) The controls in place to prevent animals from entering the channel tunnel include fencing, video recording, routine surveillance by service personnel, deterrent lighting, and routine baiting for small animals.

Electrified grids have been installed in each of the tunnels as an additional deterrence to animals. However, due to technical difficulties, these are not currently operational. I met the chairman of Eurotunnel this morning to discuss this. He assured me that Eurotunnel is working urgently on devising a technical solution capable of being implemented very rapidly.

The environment in the channel tunnel is extremely hostile and would not sustain any animal life because of the train movement–the air vortex created by a train in the tunnel is likely to kill any animal the size of a dog or fox–and because of arrangements designed to ensure that the tunnel is not a source of food.

(B) The legislation on rabies quarantine is in place to prevent rabies infection entering by other means.

You have to remember that the tunnel is over 30 miles long, which is a long way for rats to travel. Furthermore, there would be very little food available in the tunnel - it’s not like subway tunnels where people are free to drop litter, food etc - people just speed through on sealed trains.

[chukhung]

*Originally posted by r_k *
**Furthermore, there would be very little food available in the tunnel - it’s not like subway tunnels where people are free to drop litter, food etc - people just speed through on sealed trains. **

Is the Channel Tunnel used strictly for passengers? In the Midwest of the U.S., it’s quite common at this time of the year to see spilled grain beside the railroad tracks. For example, I found this in a recent news article about the pigeon problem in the Whitefish train station in Montana.

[Executive director of the Stumptown Historical Society, Jill] Evans said the building may never be completely rid of the birds because they feed on grain from passing railroad cars.

[Colophon]

Hmm, hadn’t thought about the freight issue. Yes, the tunnel is used a lot for freight. Don’t know what their regualtions are for sealing containers, though. All the same, I doubt if there’s many grain wagons rolling through.