Rats (Again): The Joys of Home Ownership

[cjsmith]

The guy came by to look at the rat holes to seal. He crawled in the attic from the garage access point [note: this couldn't be done until now because we had no ladder tall enough] and found the traps full and a nest of 8 live rats (6-8" long) nearby. He called up the Pest Control people and told them to get out here on the double.

He found at least 18 grates on the outside of the house that the rats are using for entry, plus a whole bunch of other problems. Rob says rat fur is stuck in the holes and dust is on the floor where the rats have enlarged the holes in the stucco. Our guy was kind of stunned - said he'd never seen a house with so many access passages. O joy O rapture!

Another problem is how all the trees and bushes have grown next to the house. That makes it easy for the rats to jump on the roof and crawl along the gutters.

So our guy is coming by tomorrow to seal the holes, and will recommend a tree trimmer to deal with the shrubs and the trees.

In an unrelated note, the back fence is sagging and wobbly, and may be about to fall over. O rapture! (The landscaping done by the neighbors behind us might have weakened its support by lowering the dirt level a bit, but to be fair the fence is old and was on its last legs anyway.) Maybe the back neighbor will be willing to split the cost of a new fence with us.

Comments

[tsjafo.livejournal.com]

Well...if you can't get rid of the rats you can always rename your house the Congress. Hopefully you can evict all of your uninvited guests easily. How old is your house?

[wcg.livejournal.com]

Sorry 'bout the rats. I don't suppose you'd be interested in the old Royal Navy recipe for 'Millers in Onion Sauce' that I have in a cookbook? No, didn't figure so. (The midshipmen called rats 'millers' because they typically caught them in the bread locker covered in flour.)

Homeownership does have its downside. I repair my wooden fence every spring, and one of these years I'm going to have to replace both it and the outer wrought iron one. (I need two. Pool.)

[redgrrl.livejournal.com]

Oh my Lord, I just got out my ruler to try to imagine the 6-8" rats, and it freaked me out. I can't believe how calm you are about the whole thing. You're tougher than me, Ceej!

I'd lend you my cats if I lived closer...

-Wen

YYYUUUCCCKKKK

[zuzijo.livejournal.com]

Eeeyhew .... blaghck .... I hate rats!! Poor you, i'd lend you my cats, who are GREAT ratters, but we live even further than Wendy
8-(
Hope you get it sorted soon ..... the hair is still standing up on the back of my neck!!