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Rats! At The Citadel? Nothing new apparently, but the reaction pitting #OldGaurd vs. #NewGaurd is epic. And, the Community page 'El Cid Memes' on Facebook posts, "The Memeings will continue until Morale Improves!"
Some listener solutions to rid the military college of its apparent rodent problems are pretty wild too! Scott called in, listening via the iHeartRadio App in neighboring North Carolina, and joked they should hold a 'Rat Fishing Tourney'.
Take a listen to the call here!
We checked his Baltimore Area Rat Fishing claim, and according to this YouTube video from Nov 27, 2006, B.A.R.F. is a real thing, with fees, licenses, and trophies!
B.A.R.F., Baltimore Area Rat Fishing explores the strange world of a group of rat fishermen holding their annual rat fishing tournament hosted at the Yellow Rose bar in Baltimore. Just 45 miles away in a dirty alley in Adams Morgan, Washington D.C., Eric the host of this video attempts a little rat fishing with sometimes hilarious results. Nothing better than a Saturday night with a case of beer, your favorite girlfriend, some bacon, peanut butter and a hook.
Sam says, "Do a search for 'Rat Fishing 101' on YouTube. That's the real stuff!"
Then there's this! HBO did a series last summer of a vigilante group of New Yorkers who hunt rats at night!
Rats aren't only a part of New York City’s underground - they're an inseparable part of its pop culture. There’s Master Splinter from the Ninja Turtles, Pizza Rat, and even Cannibal Rat. But for every celebrity rat, there’s another 250,000 to 2 million anonymous rodents living in the city - and the city health department is fighting to bring down.
The battle can be deadly. Last year, three people in a Bronx city block contracted leptospirosis through rat urine. Only two survived.
To combat the problem, Mayor Bill de Blasio launched a $32 million initiative to rid New York of its signature rodents, concentrating on hyper-infested areas that the city describes as "rat reservoirs."
Multiple city agencies are currently focusing their efforts around public housing buildings, where they plan to replace dirt basement floors, block passageways and amp up trapping, baiting and poisoning efforts.They also apply dry ice to the rats’ burrow systems, effectively suffocating them as the carbon dioxide gets released while the ice melts.
But if all else fails, a small group of dedicated rat hunters are ready to step in.
When dusk settles, Richard Reynolds and his vigilante rat hunters known as “The Ryders Alley Trencher-Fed Society” - or R.A.T.S for short - roam lower Manhattan’s streets and dumpsters, keeping their dogs’ instincts sharp and the hunting tradition alive.
In the three decades Richard has been hunting rats with his dogs, he says he must have killed thousands of rats. But he doesn’t really keep track.
I don't know what the answer is but 'fishing' for rats is apparently safer for the birds, who could eat poisoned rats, and die says Kay Hyman from the Charleston Animal Society, "It's important to understand, they are a part of our ecosystem. If you're going to kill a rat by using poison, then more than likely, you might be killing a raptor as well - which means our beautiful hawks, our eagles. It's so important to trap and re-release. I'd much prefer that over poisoning rats. "