I was in bed the other night, just dropping off to sleep, when I heard the unusual sound of dishes clanking in the kitchen. "WTF?", I thought, and got out of bed to investigate.
As I crept slowly down the passage way, the clunking got louder. I was getting a bit nervous by this stage, so I turned on the light and in a quavering voice said "Whooooo - who's there?"
Then I heard this: scurry, scurry, scurry, squeak, squeak, squeak. The rat heard this: GARRRRRGGGGGHGHHHH!
I raced back into the bedroom and assailed the Galumph with a frantic, panicky "There's something in the kitchen!" He sat bolt upright, and said "There's somebody in the kitchen?!" "Nooooo!", I replied. "It's even worse - something!"
I threw myself under the covers, and shook (yes, I was being a big fat girl about it all!), whilst the Galumph went down to investigate. I could hear odd thumping noises, but that was it. When he came back to bed, he was bearing bad, bad news: it was a rat that had been in, as evidenced by it's wee little bowel movements that it left behind.
When the morning come (the night had been spent with out bedroom door firmly locked - what if it tried to get in during the night, ewww), Galumph investigated properly and found that it had come in through a hole in the wall where the heating duct was, then nibbled through the cupboard in the kitchen, and squeezed it's way past the dishwasher so it could scamper all over my dish rack. I spend the entire day washing and disinfecting everything in sight. I even found myself peering paranoidly into cupboards to look at dishes that it couldn't possibly have found access to, wondering if maybe I should wash them, just to be on the safe side (truly, there can be no bounds where my rat paranoia is concerned).
So, we've plugged in the hole with steel wool, which apparently they hate and won't chew through, and are now debating what to do. I'm not very keen on poisoning it, but then again I don't want it anybloodywhere near me. Should we invest in one of those $100 hi frequency things you plug in that send them crazy, then send them away? The little devil is still out there - the last few nights we've been watching Pride and Pejuidice (hey, I needed comfort viewing), and I've seen the little @#$%er racing across our courtyard - shudder. He's probably gathering all his rodent friends so they can launch a mass vermin assault on the steel wool and make themselves completely and utterly at home (paranoia again).
So, any suggestions? I just want him gone! It's funny, I can handle spiders, leeches, maggots - heck, even dead bodies, but rats and mice give me the heebie jeebies.
Heeeeeelp!
LOL!
ReplyDeleteThe high frequenzy things don't work, so don't waste your money on those... how about getting a cat or two?
I'd be a big girl too, probably blubbing under the covers! Based on no experience at all, would your local council have a rat trap they might lend to worthy citizens? But I think the cat (big and mean) is a good idea.
ReplyDeleteour cat is not much use, so cats are not a surefire remedy. G puts scrunched up alfoil in the holes and then rivets bits of metal over the top. Even so he discoverd the other day that a large rodent had eaten through a thick (and expensive, so I'm told) electrical lead. We just try not to think about it too much and dispose of the dead bodies as organically as possible. Sigh. We're veterans of the rodent invasion... I'm sensing deja vue here.
ReplyDeletePerhaps we need a pied piper, but not one that takes away the children, just the rats and mice. And maybe relocates the possum in our roof.
I am so with you - spiders etc are fine but a little mouse in my house and i am a squealing mess!!!
ReplyDeleteA rat though - and i think i would move out!!
I'm with you, rats and mice are yuck, that's why I'm not overly fussed about the fact that my dog has killed to rats. He's so not a hunting dog but he sure did get those rats, and he was mighty proud of himself too. You want to do something before it breeds and you have a whole hoard of rats runnning around your place.
ReplyDeleteWe had this problem only recenly, but with the smaller kind. I was happily toddling off to the toilet one day when the black darting into the linen closet MADE ME PEE MY PANTS and shriek ( embarrassing ).
ReplyDeleteI threw the cat in there and he wouldn't have a bar of it, the old fat lazy sod, so I called DH who said 'traps', and then I googled to see Peanut Butter was better than cheese. I felt really bad about this as I heard they slowly suffocate, rather than being snapped dead straight away, BUT, the little bugger(s) simply ate the PB off the traps - no snapping.
Then DH bought Ratsak, which made me REALLY feel bad, as apparently they die of dehydration and it eats all their inner organs or something. We used to hear them having a chomp in there of a morning :(
But at least I know don't have to leave the bathroom light on all night, so I can pee without worrying about stepping on a mouse ...
The chemicals work. Sorry :(
I have to agree with h&b above. We had a mouse (which probably meant we had a family of meeces) and we tried traps with peanut butter, bread, apple and pumpkin seeds and the clever little thing just ate it and left. He must have been doing some matrix manoevre to avoid getting zapped. But anyway, after about a week of this mouse taunting us by dancing under the dining table while we were clearly in the next room my hubbie laid down some ratsack. Needless to say, we haven't seen him since.
ReplyDeleteeeewww - Do not use ratsak !!!! We did and one ate it and crawled under the house to die - eeewwww and we could smell throught the floor of teenage sons room (it took us a while admittedly as we thought it was him ). The advertising says they go away to die - true but not far enough away !!!!
ReplyDeleteHA! Cats....This will really make you shudder! One of our cats once left a huge (I mean really HUGE) one in our bed while we slept (Godfather style)!!! Anything is easy to cope with after that...Good luck, maybe he can cook?
ReplyDeleteGood to see another post! Those electrical thingos don't work. We have rats in the yard and outside laundry and I don't know how many miceees in the house. Everyone in the street has chooks and the houses are old.
ReplyDeleteWe use elliott traps. Put nutella (works a dream) on some bread, put it in the trap and the creature goes in and the door swings shut. No squished or dead bodies. Then I make the man take the trap out and he plunges it into a bucket of water. The traps are easy to clean as well.