What she doesn’t tolerate well are mice and related
rodents, which explains why there was a startled shriek from the top of the
garage steps recently and then a strong suggestion that we make a call to Orkin
in the near future. Luckily, Orkin is on
my speed dial list.
That’s mostly because we had a rat problem. Well, really two very different rat problems,
over the last couple of years.
The first started innocently enough. We began to notice that the insulation around
the vent pipes in the garage was disappearing.
There were also some droppings, which I thought indicated we had
mice. So I bought and set some mouse
traps which, in spite of the fact that everyone is supposedly trying to build a
better one, seem to be the same as ones I set as a kid. Turns out I was in the nostalgic aisle of
Home Depot, since I now know they are practically as obsolete as a VHS machine.
After a few days when I had no activity in my traps,
I called Orkin, and they were very pleased to address my problem…for about
three hundred dollars. Worth every penny
though, since they recognized that the droppings were not mice, but rats. They set rat traps, baited with Juicy Fruit
gum (lasts forever and rats love it).
Within two days we caught two rats.
While we didn’t sex them, the Orkin man was pretty sure they were a pair
and were gathering the insulation material to make a nest.
Two and no more.
So, for about a hundred bucks apiece, I solved my rat problem…for a year
or two.

I began to question the quality of my seeds as there
seemed to be many that were empty, even while in the feeder. It turns out, I had a mouse that had figured
out how to get into and out of the feeder.
My Home Depot expert had me grease the pole with graphite and that
seemed to discourage the mouse for a while, but he seemed to return. So I asked
my Wild Bird man what to do and he sold me my fiasco, a $55 Rat Zapper, which
supposedly kills in a humane manner by electrocuting the animal. I had one replaced because it stopped working
and now a year and a half later; the second flashes a red light, which indicates
it has caught something, but either the raccoons in my neighborhood have
disarmed it, or water damage has rendered it inoperable. The Rat Zapper people are not returning my
calls, so I am recycling the machine. I
never caught an animal in the trap and suspect that the mouse, who I have
watched eat his lunch while I ate mine on the deck, uses the machine to vault
unto the pole.

Within a couple of days we caught a roof rat,
seemingly endemic to the woods in which we live. Shortly thereafter Mary heard a terrible
ruckus in the chimney and afterwards we heard no more rats. I had the chimney repaired and seemingly
solved that problem. My theory is that
the mother rat insisted on a larger home now that they had children.
So, at this time I have about a dozen mouse glue
traps and rat traps in my garage and loft.
I have caught one mouse in the glue trap and one rat in the rat trap and
have had a possible entry way closed with copper wire. We are now on week two with no kills and no
droppings. We did catch a sizeable
lizard in the glue rap, which PETA will probably find out about and demand retribution.
My next post will deal with how renewed interest in
Hockey made me a new friend.
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