Car exhaust fumes kill family in rat extermination plan

Car exhaust fumes kill family in rat extermination plan

June 28, 2010 • 11:34 am

By Diana FasanellaThree Ukrainian residents died from carbon monoxide poisoning after the head of the family tried to exterminate rats in the basement of his home with the help of exhaust fumes from his car.

A 71-year-old man, his wife, 77, and their granddaughter were found dead in the basement of their Dnepropetrovsk home after the man attached a hose to the exhaust pipe of his Zaporozhets and put the other end of the hose into a basement window, Pravda reports.

After the man started the engine, he went upstairs. Some time later, he decided to return to the basement to see if any rats had perished. Because of the high concentration of exhaust fumes, he lost consciousness.

When he did not return, his wife went downstairs to check on her husband. She also fainted. The same thing happened with their 29-year-old granddaughter.

Another granddaughter found the bodies of her relatives about two hours later. Authorities said she is lucky to be alive.

It was unclear if any rats died.

http://blogs.app.com/saywhat/2010/06/28/car-exhaust-fumes-kill-family-in-rat-extermination-plan/

childhood about rats and gas.

My father decided to clean out the rats nest under the hog house so his cousin & son and my brother and I and father all drove the car up the hill. The men banked the foundation so there would be no holes for the gas to escape. The shoved the hose into a hole and turned on the car. Suddenly hundred of rats (at the time I thought thousands) started pouring out from under the building all around us. The gas was not all that effective and they were crawling up our pant legs to get away from the building. I have never been so afraid in my life. This story made me think of that day.

When I was a boy, we lived in a very rural area. Most people kept food in the pantry during the Winter as few had refrigerators.
We began to notice that the food was being nibbled on and I suspected an Ermine that had moved in under the back shed. I tried trapping it to no avail. It simply sprung the traps and ate the bait.
One day, we began finding dead Rats in the basement, all with a wound in the neck. It was the Ermine and the rats had been the culprits all along.

Reminds me of a myth I read once...

http://www.rohan-irishwolfhounds.com/Myths%20and%20Legends.htm