We are gathered here today to celebrate the death of one of
the Neotama floridana clan, who was
feeling lucky, but instead, it was our lucky day. In the past week, she chewed
a hole in an electric blanket that we had stored in plastic tub, most likely to
line a nest she was preparing for her most recent litter, shredded some tax
records, also stored in a tub, and chewed through our telephone line twice in
three days. There was great rejoicing in the camp at her demise.
I suppose it is not fair to blame all of these events on this
particular pack rat, because we have killed two others in as many days -- after about 2 weeks of setting traps -- both the old-fashioned spring variety and a live trap.
We have since spotted a fourth rat in the basement...
and Molly informed us there is a rat lurking in the engine block of my car, which is temporarily disabled due to a transmission problem but will become permanently disabled if the rat is not caught before it destroys the wiring, hoses, connections, etc.
This seems to be a particularly bad year for them. Peacefully
coexisting with these animals is not possible. Their predilection for
chewing through electrical wiring makes them very dangerous. Trapping them live
and then releasing them is not an option. One man who made a study of this
discovered they must be moved at least 5 miles away or they will find their way
back.
5 comments:
Wishing you the best of luck in ridding your home of these pests.
Glad I looked at your blog. Living in the country is a constant battle with predators. For us lately it has been with big rat snakes...hey maybe you could use a rat snake. :) I love the green snake. I saw one in early spring and watched it for quite a while. Didn't think to get my camera. The green snakes are cute.
All is fair in love and war...I am certain you will win the war:)
Good luck! I liken these disgusting rats to sneaky squirrels and the damage they do. We have lots of rats out in the field, but thankfully they haven't gotten into my house yet.
Being an animal lover, seeing this makes me sad. But we had to resort to the same thing for the mice that had invaded our home. We set up the Have-a-Heart traps for years and would drive them down to the woods and release them. I have no idea if it was the same ones coming back or a new batch, but we never could get rid of them. The final straw was when they made a nest somewhere in the back of our gas stove, and every time I turned that thing on to cook and it heated up, OMG - the stench! I don't know if someone died back there or it was just their droppings and urine, but we replaced the stinky stove and started setting the snap traps. I hated to do it, but truly had no choice. Hope your rats are now a thing of the past. If not, you sure have a good watch dog to let you know! What a cutie!
Donna
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