Nano Rats advice please

[Danny McG]

I've a WIP and this psycho ship commander has inadvertently time warped to pre singularity Earth (now!) and merges with the population in a crowded town whilst major repairs are carried out to his craft. These are done by nanobots controlled by the ship near AI computer.
However the ship comp is also damaged and it too is going psycho. It starts sending out nightly killbots in rat form to nail the commander, but he's a predatory survivor and keeps getting innocents into harms way instead. Days pass and he realises the ship repairs should be complete in a couple of days . He plans to then do one mad charge and blast at the ship and take out the computer, then jury rig with auxiliary computers. All he has to do is survive two more nights but he's exhausted. He therefore wipes out yet another innocent householder and spends three or four hours rat proofing the remote house in case the computer tracks him down - a full nights sleep.

Here's my problem, there's a lot of info online about rat proofing but nothing really specific. Two or three forums say "insert bottom guards into down pipes, these are readily available at local DIY/ hardware shops"
But they don't actually seem to exist. Any attempt to find them leads instead to "top guards" which have to be fitted with ladders.
I wanted this guy to be stumbling around bleary eyed after a quick drive to a distant shop. Kicking these things into the bottoms of drain pipes whilst ducking up and down out of sight of passing traffic.
Instead he would have to be up a ladder in full view, he on a lookout list due to the recent spate of gruesome deaths.
Anyone who can advise about these rat guard things?
Thanks
Danny

 

[TheDustyZebra]

Here's a video of someone slogging through mud to install one:

 

[Danny McG]

Cheers for this DustyZebra.
Looks a bit time tricky picky for him to undertake, drills and tools etc.
Think I'll just have him shoving fistfuls of chicken wire into 'em instead.
It wasn't how I envisaged it anyways - thought they'd be like a big cork in a bottle but made of mesh. I'm glad I never fully wrote it and then incurred the scorn and loathing of the rat guard purity fraternity.
Thanks again

 

[RX-79G]

Houses don't generally have "down pipes" that lead into the interior of the house. Those instructions sound like they are for gutters or other pipes that it would be inconvenient to have rats in, but not because they are entrances to the house. A regular house is already pretty rat resistant, and when they do get in it is around the foundation or under the eves.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

Yes, that.

Although a nano-rat, presumably intelligent, might go for the vent pipe over the toilet in a regular house. They might have ways to climb up to the roof that a regular rat wouldn't.

You could use steel wool in some of the openings -- readily available, and it's one of the recommended deterrents for rodents, because they won't chew through it. Also, it's usually soapy these days.

 

[Danny McG]

Whichever ways he does it he makes one tiny error in keeping out the nanorats. They find him just before dawn but he staggers off with a bad limp as he loses half his foot. This to have consequences later. I originally was going to have him lose half a hand but hey! Roland the Gunslinger haha

 

[Biskit]

Rats would be able to reach the eaves by climbing up between an down-pipe and the wall to the gutters. Anything that gives the little &&&&&&& a chance at a grip. If rough enough, they can climb the corner of a building - I've seen one go up the outside of our timber stables on a corner, basically reaching round to grip either side and then going up.

Depending on building construction, they can chew through walls, but that can take time, although a horde or nano-driven rats might speed things up. Medium and heavy-weight blockwork stops them, steel usually, aluminium if thick enough. Light-weight 'thermalite' blocks slow them down but are apparently the rat equivalent of an appetiser before working on more structural elements - not seen that, but then we deliberately avoid lightweight blocks in our out-buildings.

They are fast, they can jump, they can eat through medium electrical wiring - we had one get into the dishwasher and eat the wiring loom in the space of a day or so.

They can burrow underground. Stone will stop them, but we have had them go through the sand/gravel/pebble layer that sits on top of the native granite.

Based on the experience of ourselves and our neighbours, the following are known to stop rats: shotgun, poison (if you have a week or two), bludgeoning (I was seriously p****d because it bit my hand), a competent cat (as opposed to the incompetent one that brought in the live rat that trashed the dishwasher), small and yappy dogs bred over centuries to kill rats, weasels (but you don't find many tame ones readily available), rat-traps (the sort that kill).

 

[RX-79G]

Personally, I have a harder time with the idea that the AI has applied its massive manufacturing capabilities to producing something as limited in capabilities as a rat than the problems of keeping them out. Why not robots that can fold flat to fit under doors or bots that have the ability to cut through walls or shatter windows?

 

[Danny McG]

Think it was Friday in the Heinlein story who gave a nifty little speech on how tenacious and hard to wipe out rats can be. That may have influenced my nanorat concept

 

[RX-79G]

Think it was Friday in the Heinlein story who gave a nifty little speech on how tenacious and hard to wipe out rats can be. That may have influenced my nanorat concept

If I may, instead of rat sized robots, how about wispy little slivers of nanotech that take over natural rats brains? That way you have both the full capabilities and limitations of rats while keeping an output limitation on the ship's manufacturing that explains why it isn't sending tanks or robot soldiers.

 

[Danny McG]

If I may, instead of rat sized robots, how about wispy little slivers of nanotech that take over natural rats brains? That way you have both the full capabilities and limitations of rats while keeping an output limitation on the ship's manufacturing that explains why it isn't sending tanks or robot soldiers.

That's a possibility. Zombified rats! However it then begs the question why not do the same to the townspeople?
I'm gonna do a bit of thinking on this. The ship is hidden in scrubby woodland so maybe a convenient rodent population? I'm mentally designing a
Wildlife army now! Rabbits for listening, Owls keeping lookout, Badgers digging trenches....
Enough!
Shutting down for a while.
Thanks all

 

[TheDustyZebra]

Ahh, now that's an idea --

That's a possibility. Zombified rats! However it then begs the question why not do the same to the townspeople?
I'm gonna do a bit of thinking on this. The ship is hidden in scrubby woodland so maybe a convenient rodent population? I'm mentally designing a
Wildlife army now! Rabbits for listening, Owls keeping lookout, Badgers digging trenches....
Enough!
Shutting down for a while.
Thanks all

Well, rats are traditionally found in labs, getting experimented on, so it would stand to reason that they might be the first ones perfected in a plot such as this. And it does open up the possibility of some human having this happen to them if you need it to in the future.

 

[RX-79G]

Ahh, now that's an idea --


Well, rats are traditionally found in labs, getting experimented on, so it would stand to reason that they might be the first ones perfected in a plot such as this. And it does open up the possibility of some human having this happen to them if you need it to in the future.

Exactly. Rats are smart and capable, but have smaller, simpler brains to take over than people. Additionally, no one would question unusual rat behavior, but people are more likely to be noticed acting weird.

And that notion scales - a dog has a larger, more complicated brain than a rat as well. Rats, birds, bats all have brains in a similar range.

 

[Brian G Turner]

If it's a particularly old house you could end up with The Rats in the Walls - Wikipedia ...

More seriously:

killbots in rat form

You keep talking about keeping out actual rats, whereas you mention specifically that they are "killbots". In which case, won't these wee bots be equipped with tools/weapons for tracking down and killing targets? Forget blocking pipes if they have mini plasma disrupters built in ...

In which case, how are they tracking him? I might suggest that's more of a core problem. It might be something built into his uniform, or inserted under his skin. Getting rid of that won't guarantee safety but might give him some breathing room.

2c.

 

[RX-79G]

The Killbots don't have plasma cutters, but they can transform into 1/48 scale cars.

 

[Danny McG]

Ta for pointers people. Am doing a bit of revision on section two and will use some of this.
Ship computer got some of it's memory damaged in the crash. Protagonist did a direct link through his neural implant to direct it in the ship repairs but some of his insanity seeped through as a psychic virus. It now sees him a Christ like figure it feels compelled to kill to witness the Resurrection. Therefore it maybe isn't too logical in the agents it sends after him.
The rats have to periodically form a King Wheel to receive updates from the ship computer... I really must come up with a name for that comp

 

[Danny McG]

Maybe I won't do a Rat King Wheel. It was just a random thought . Not really relevant to a nano bot but possibly applicable if controlled rats.

 

[RX-79G]

Does anyone know what a King Wheel is?

 

[Danny McG]

Does anyone know what a King Wheel is?

Yeah, I do.
See what ya mean, it's a bit deep and obscure. Trying to avoid infodumping and I don't want anyone stop reading to google.
There again it may be the opportunity Rat Wheel's have been waiting for to get publicity - they are rumoured to achieve psi powers!

 

[Mr Orange]

it might make more sense for him to camp in one room in the house and then ratproof that. from experience, entire houses are near impossible to ratproof (especially if they're old. the houses, not the rats). he could then fill all the holes, gaps around doors windows etc with fast setting sealant.

he could then forget the little hole in the wardrobe that the rats eventually find and get in through