# Will rats eat the soles of your feet while you sleep? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 29, 2010, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-rats-eat-the-soles-of-your-feet-while-you-sleep/541228 "2010-05-29T21:40:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![No\_Wikipedia\_Cites](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@No\_Wikipedia\_Cites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/No_Wikipedia_Cites)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2010, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-rats-eat-the-soles-of-your-feet-while-you-sleep/541228/1 "2010-05-29T21:40:51Z")
In _THe other side of Heaven_ the missionary sleeps with his feet uncovered and wakes up with his feet covered in his own blood; the rats nibbled it good. Is this true? Will rats do this? Why not eat other parts (like the face)? And if they do, why doesn’t the person wake up in pain? ---
**Author:** ![Rhodes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhodes/32/273_2.png) [@Rhodes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhodes)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2010, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-rats-eat-the-soles-of-your-feet-while-you-sleep/541228/2 "2010-05-29T21:49:47Z")
I lived in Polynesia for a while. Never heard of rats eating feet. A giant centipede nibbled on my back while I was sleeping, and rats nibbled on my rice bags, but that’s not the same. The movie was otherwise a great portrayal of experiences a Mormon missionary would have in Polynesia. ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2010, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-rats-eat-the-soles-of-your-feet-while-you-sleep/541228/3 "2010-05-29T22:18:18Z")
I think the bigger question is whether you will sleep while rats eat the soles of your feet. There was a grisly episode with a neighbor who’s quadriplegic, though. Her dog ate part of her foot while she was in bed. The noise woke her up, and she lay there for some time till the visiting nurse came, not even knowing for sure what was going on. ---
**Author:** ![yorick73](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/b5a626/32.png) [@yorick73](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yorick73)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2010, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-rats-eat-the-soles-of-your-feet-while-you-sleep/541228/4 "2010-05-30T00:25:14Z")
Here are two stories about rats eating a baby’s toes and another baby’s face. [http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2009/07/22/2009-07-22\_rats\_chew\_off\_toes\_of\_6weekold\_ohio\_baby\_in\_trailer\_home\_.html](http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2009/07/22/2009-07-22_rats_chew_off_toes_of_6weekold_ohio_baby_in_trailer_home_.html) [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,255328,00.html](http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,255328,00.html) ---
**Author:** ![flodnak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/838e76/32.png) [@flodnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flodnak)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2010, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-rats-eat-the-soles-of-your-feet-while-you-sleep/541228/5 "2010-05-30T08:28:46Z")
In general, rats are cautious creatures. If there is enough food around, they will take what requires the least effort and exposure on their parts. They will hunt if they have to, in fact they’re good hunters of small prey. But rats have to be _really_ hungry to attack something significantly larger than they are. They are not vicious, blood-thirsty killers. They’re just excellent survivors and will eat what they have to. Notice that in the stories **yorick73** linked to, the victims were babies. There’s a reason for that: small babies can’t fight back or get away. Rat bites hurt, and any target who _can_ get away or kill the rat will do so. I don’t know if rats are more likely to bite feet than other body parts, but if they do, it’s probably because they smell interesting. Well, interesting if you’re a rat. Slightly off-topic, but I’m frustrated that the first linked article used a photo of what is clearly a pet rat, and asked a poll question about pet rats, in an article about wild rats! These weren’t pet rats gone wrong that attacked the unfortunate babies, they were wild city rats. Same species, radically different behavior patterns. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2010, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-rats-eat-the-soles-of-your-feet-while-you-sleep/541228/6 "2010-05-30T13:32:17Z")
A rat bit my finger once as I slept, but, before I could react in my groggy state, it had already run away, as if it realized “Hey, that’s not food.” ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2010, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-rats-eat-the-soles-of-your-feet-while-you-sleep/541228/7 "2010-05-30T13:38:29Z")
Will cockroaches eat you eyebrows while you sleep? This seems to be a popular belief in Latin America. ---
**Author:** ![Mississippienne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d2c977/32.png) [@Mississippienne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mississippienne)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2010, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-rats-eat-the-soles-of-your-feet-while-you-sleep/541228/8 "2010-05-30T18:34:50Z")
A friend-of-a-friend is a Vietnam veteran, and told me that when he was in Vietnam, he and some buddies would take turns sleeping outside in the cooler air. One night he woke up to find a rat sitting on his chest! Didn’t gnaw off anything of his, though. ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2010, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-rats-eat-the-soles-of-your-feet-while-you-sleep/541228/9 "2010-05-30T18:47:35Z")
> [@Rhodes](#): > > I lived in Polynesia for a while. Never heard of rats eating feet. A giant centipede nibbled on my back while I was sleeping, and rats nibbled on my rice bags, but that’s not the same. > > The movie was otherwise a great portrayal of experiences a Mormon missionary would have in Polynesia. I never heard “them” called \*rice bags \*before.😉 ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2010, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-rats-eat-the-soles-of-your-feet-while-you-sleep/541228/10 "2010-05-30T19:00:21Z")
Never going on vacation in those places ever… ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2010, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-rats-eat-the-soles-of-your-feet-while-you-sleep/541228/11 "2010-05-31T02:11:08Z")
The cat my parents are adopting had been hit by a car and had a badly damaged leg that, in the time between getting hit and being found, _some_ animal had begun to eat. The leg had to be amputated. The vets couldn’t say what kind of animal did it, but rats were at the top of the list of suspects. Said cat also had a BB gun pellet in its neck, causing a rather large abscess (since removed and treated). He’s probably down to about 3 lives by now…! ---
**Author:** ![sunshineliz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@sunshineliz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sunshineliz)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2013, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-rats-eat-the-soles-of-your-feet-while-you-sleep/541228/12 "2013-07-12T00:15:37Z")
Yes, it really did happen to John Groberg. But the soles didn’t split open until he stood up. > **[The Other Side of Heaven (2001) - Trivia - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0250371/trivia/)** > > The Other Side of Heaven (2001) - Trivia on IMDb: Cameos, Mistakes, Spoilers and more... Why it didn’t wake him up, I have no idea. I can guess that because there is so much callous skin on the soles, that the rats didn’t eat far enough to hit nerves, and just made the skin so thin that it ruptured when he stood.