More Than You Wanted to Know About Rats and Mice

This is not a cute story about cuddly mice and smart rats in cages. No, it's about my battle with the wild critters of open space that want to move in with me and how I am determined to vanquish them.

When we were fixing the house up in preparation to move in, several contractors let me know that, at least in the past, there had been a rat problem in the attic and crawlspace. EW! I didn't know if this was an active issue. I brought in a pest control guy (Alfredo) on contract and worked with him to try to rodent-proof the house and assess the problem. Aside from one rat he trapped in the attic, we didn't seem to have any activity. It was also summer and very hot...roof rats have other places to go in that weather.

Now, I know that rats are more common than people think in suburban settings. And certainly, on the edge of an open space preserve, we have a few more critters than usual. Come cold and rainy weather, they want shelter. Thing is, I have no intention of providing it. They may have set up home here before, but now, this hotel is CLOSED.

Everything seemed to be okay until December. I noticed that on one crawlspace vent where Alfredo had sprayed expansion foam to seal a gap, something was gnawing on the foam at night. Um, ew. A couple of weeks later, Tilly and I suspected a problem. She was spending a lot of time looking suspiciously out the window at nightfall (near the crawlspace vents) and I thought I heard something under the floor, so I gave Alfredo a call. He was dubious that anything could get in, but laid traps beneath the bedroom floor to humor me. I bought a Xenon flashlight with ultraviolet settings so that I could hunt for evidence in the dark. It must be unusual to have me for a client!

Shortly after Alfredo laid the traps, I was awakened in the middle of the night to a loud SNAP! Never having had traps set anywhere near me, I was spooked. Was there something dead beneath my feet?

The next day I mulled over what might be under my floor. Even though Alfredo was scheduled to check the traps, it was the beginning of the weekend and he wouldn't be back for days. I wanted to know what was under the floor. Moreover, I felt that it wasn't right for me to be a dictator who turns a blind eye to the effects of her own reign of terror. I had ordered the death of a creature and the least I could do was look at it. 

I didn't work up my courage until two pm. Did I mention that I am afraid of rats? Hey, I saw Willard. I know it can be bad. Even while I was procrastinating, I realized that if I put it off too long it would be dark. I didn't want to go to sleep without knowing the answer.

I started by pulling the furniture out of the closet, exposing the trap door. Then, I lifted the door. Standing above the shallow crawlspace, I could see nothing. One trap was still set and the other, for some reason, was no longer visible. I leaned to one side, seeing nothing, and then...was that a tail? I jumped away and backed up to the other side of the room, heart pounding. A tail, a tail! A really looooong tail!

After a moment, I calmed myself. I had to take responsibility for this and view the execution I had ordered. I went back to the opening. This time, I had to lie down on the floor in order to see it. Lying almost out of view was a dead rat with the longest tail I had ever seen. Of course, it's not like I've looked at a lot of wild rats, so what would I know? At any rate, I looked at it for a little while and realized it was not a demon. It was furry creature that, regrettably, I had to kill. I wish it had stayed away. I went upstairs to sit in a chair looking out the window at the rain. I'm sorry, Mr. Rat, but you can't live here and I thought I gave you all the signs.

Alfredo came by the following Tuesday to take the rat away and reset the trap. He said, "That's a BIG rat!" Having looked at it, I was confused. Perhaps I've watched too much SciFi. When I think "BIG rat," I think 18-inches long (or more!) with fangs that drip blood. I expect to hear the rats rooting around beneath the floor like feral pigs. This was nothing of the sort.

In the next week, we trapped two more rats. I heard the traps snap as I walked across the floor at dusk, definitely a creepy feeling. One of the rats was smaller, with a white underbelly, and I imagined it was female. I felt bad for her, but I didn't regret trapping. I know some people are in favor of live traps, but where are these rats supposed to go? There are too many of them, and they really are a potential health hazard. I'm not going to poison them (that's rife with problems!) but if they get inside the crawlspace, their days are numbered.

In the past few weeks there has been no activity, so I was pretty sure that the rats were all gone. Then, the other day, a routine check showed that the bait was removed from the traps without setting it off. Alfredo came over today and said that now we have a mouse. He said that when we have rats, we are very unlikely to have mice, so he knows the rats are gone. I asked why and he told me something that made my face scrunch up: rats will eat mice. Yuck. (It turns out that this is called muricide and 70% of wild rats engage in this behavior. Thank you, Google.)

So, now Alfredo has put down mouse traps. One might ask why I have a pest control guy to do this when I check the traps myself anyway and even tell him where I want them, but it makes sense in my head. I don't really want to be alone in this and I'm not tormenting Kathy with rodent stories if I can help it.

The battle is now a war and as the General, I'm in command. The biped forces will win; you'll see.

Similar yarns

• DIY Diva with a Drill

Technorati Tags: DIY Diva with a Drill

• ‹ previous
• 14 of 409
• next ›