What did they have before?

[urbpan]

China Subsidy for Rat-Proof Refrigerators Feeds Appliance Boom

I feel bad for the millions of people of China who up until now had to deal with rats getting into their refrigerators. I guess they mostly didn't have refrigerators before, but now they will. I wonder what hundreds of thousands of new appliances will do to China's energy demands? On the one hand, no one wants rats in their food. On the other hand, someone is going to need some more oil and coal for their power plants.

Comments

[whatisbiscuits.livejournal.com]

China already builds on average one new coal fired power station a week. They have plenty of coal, but sadly their mines have appalling safety records, with a death toll of 2,631 miners in 2009 - down from almost 7,000 in 2002. There has already been one big accident this year: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/02/tapping-heard-china-mine-flooded

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

I would say they need some sustainable energy sources, but they're also damming all of their major rivers and wreaking havoc that way.

[shadowofadoubt.livejournal.com]

I really need a rat-proof dishwasher. rats have eaten my last 2 dishwashers.

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

You need to find a model without exposed rubber hoses.

[dragonwrites.livejournal.com]

I've been reading /Eaarth/ by Bill McKibben and the phrase "China's energy demands" now strikes fear into my heart.

[by-steph.livejournal.com]

We have a horrible rat problem at Wildlife Rescue. When birds die in the night, the rats have figure out that if they pull the cage floor tray out, the bird is then close enough to the bars that they can eat it. Twice now, birds have been discovered hollowed out by the rats overnight. Blech. There are rat traps on every surface. Rat poison everywhere. Spray foam was used to seal up their holes in the dry wall, but they chewed back through it. The air conditioning was turned on one morning and a rat came running out of a vent.

I can't imagine these conditions in my own kitchen so I don't begrudge them rat-proof refrigerators at all. Now, they could do without the ginormous televisions, but I could also do without international vacations each year.

[(Anonymous)]

The only thing that works is hardware cloth (quarter inch metal mesh). Once they have an established food source it's almost impossible to keep them out. They can chew through plywood or drywall in a night. Fresh concrete is not an obstacle. I just bought ten rolls of hardware cloth to fix up a chicken coop. Good luck.

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Punk livejournal signed me out of my own account.

[ndozo.livejournal.com]

Do cats control rats?

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Not well. Some studies suggest that pest rodents INCREASE in the presence of cats because cats preferentially prey on competing native rodents. I have seen photos of cats and rats feeding on garbage together in alleys.