Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Zed]

Gord wrote on the catching diseases thread:

[whatthefunk]

Didn't anyone tell you? Kimchi not only cures diseases, but it also kills rats. Science can't explain it, but Im sure you could easily find a Korean who could...

[Zed]

Perhaps they just rounded them up, put them in a room and turned on a fan. Good night .......

[Tiger Beer]

True.. good point.. I miss the rats of New York City.. had one crawling around my one-window room as well.. and who knows how many in each subway stations..

Maybe theres a way to import them here? I miss them..

[whatthefunk]

Excellent idea!
But you do make a good point. You would expect some rats around with all the trash and open air food stalls, but you really don't. I saw a mouse once, but it was in the country, so I guess it doesn't count.

[Zed]

I think I've only seen 2 rats in 2.5 years here. And I don't recall seeing any mice.

[prince1900]

What they don't have in quantity they make up for in quality... I saw the biggest rat in my life near Insadong. It was the size of a football...I swear. It nearly knocked me down on it's way to wherever it was going. But I think that the number of stray cats running around has something to do with the low numbers. Just a thought...

[Hyalucent]

The multitudes of starving cats around each apartment building are likely one good reason why the rat population is kept low, as prince1900 said.

I'm in the same boat as Zed. I've been here 3 years and seen two rats. One was a tough-looking S.O.B. in Hyehwa and the other was a rather cute, comedic fellow who was sitting next to the cages at the local pet store, teasing the guinea pigs.

[crazylemongirl]

I've been here almost 9 months and have seen over a dozen. However the fact that most of those I have spotted have been in the vicinty of the same waterdrainage grate thingy mean it could be just the same one. It was huge.

There are rats around, but I think the cats are helping us out here.

[Son Deureo!]

Now that you mention it, I've only seen rats in one place. ChungDong Market, in Bucheon. I saw them there pretty often, though.

[endofthewor1d]

[indiercj]

I think the lack of rats at least on street level(who knows how many they are underground) as to do with the type of housing they adopted and the low rate of vacant lots or basement/rooftop spaces in major cities.

I remember checking out mouse traps that we put near the outdoor trash collector in OUR OWN YARD every morning. In the early 80s, single family housing with it's own yard was the norm in Seoul. Eventually rats and mice were easily spotted at home and on the streets. But now with more than 60% of all housing consist of either high rise "appartment" or "villas" with no green. I miss those cutties but I can't blame them I won't have a baby in such a desolate environment myself.

I live in a typical 13 stories A-Pa-Teh in Seoul. We have one big basement in the building. The basement is currently rent out to a small company located nearby who use it as a storage facillity. They even seem to be doing manufacturing form time to time. There is more than one person working at the basement nearly all the time, so i can imagime how difficult it would be for our poor mickey to use it as home. The basement of the next building is used as a local aerobic gym for the residents! I also see too many people live on the rooftop(Ok Tab Bang).

No yards, no basements, no rooftops, no rats.

[camel96]

I think they were chased out by the cockroaches.

[hojucandy]

plenty of rats round ansan.

[kylehawkins2000]

I've seen really large rats scurrying around on the tracks in the subway on a few occassions.