Anything mice can do, rats can do bigger.
Rats even go for bigger screams, especially around Halloween. H.P. Lovecraft’s story “The Rats in the Walls” describes the “verminous slithering of ravenous, gigantic rats.” No wonder rats are as much a part of Halloween as candy corn, complete to this year’s selection of rubber and battery-powered rats for the holiday.
“Watch your friends scream themselves silly when they discover this Twitching Rat in a Trap decoration,” The Spirit Halloween store’s website describes a snappy choice.
Halloween is when people pay to see rats at their worst in such places as Fear Factory 501 in Jacksonville, open tonight and Oct. 29-Nov.2.
“We here feel everyone’s fear of rats comes from seeing them devour rotting flesh with their long, sharp teeth,” haunted house organizer Corey Carter says. “You should come out and see it for yourself.”
Mice are mice, not small rats. But house mice and home-invading Norway rats can look so much alike - especially to an individual screeching from atop a chair - how is a person with musophobia (fear of both these rodents) supposed to tell the difference?
A mouse is “a small, slender rodent,” ordinarily weighing no more than an ounce, according to Wildlife Damage Management. A rat is “a stocky, burrowing rodent,” weighing about a pound.
The mouse has a pointier nose - the rat, bigger back feet.
The mouse has roundish, Mickey Mouse ears - the rat, smaller ears that more resemble the slicked-back hair style of a gangster in a Jimmy Cagney movie.
“Come out and take it, ya dirty, yellah-bellied rat,” tough-guy Cagney snarled in Taxi (1932), “or I’ll give it to ya through the door.”
The better way to give it to a rat is generally the same advice that goes for trapping a mouse, but with a bigger trap.
HomeStyle, Pages 35 on 10/26/2013