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[IAmtheFMan]

Yeah, so this isn't the first time this has happened. It happened last year about this time too; apparently there's a hole behind my kitchen wall that leads outside, and my place is situated right near some woods. Whenever it gets cold now, I et pretty anal that a rat may be creeping into my place.

When it happened last year, it freaked the hell out of me. Cockroaches I can deal with; spiders, no problem. Hell any bug and I'm fine. Even mice are fine since they're small, and kinda cute in a way. Rats are big honking fuckers and yeah, I'm kinda a wus when it comes to them.

I layed down glue traps (eventually dishing out for the ultra-heavy-duty-rat/squirrel/badger trap since the regular mouse ones weren't cutting it) and caught it.

I layed down another glue trap just to be sure right after to make sure some of its buddies weren't hanging out still. All quiet on the cabinet front, so I forgot about it.

Fast Forward to last weekend, and I thought I heard some noise rustling behind my cupboards. I didn't think much of it, then a few days ago I opened the cabinet door (which has the hole) and noticed some crap on the glue trap. I'm not sure what it is, but there's definitely been some movement back there.

This sucks for a number of reasons; 1: Last time, my landlords did shit to help me so I had to buy all the crap myself and deal with it, 2: I don't have the TIME this year to deal with this, 3: I'm not a messy guy and keep things kinda clean, and 4: I REALLY FUCKING HATE RATS.

*sigh*

 

[Foreign Jackass]

Oooh I think I smell a raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat....

OOOH I THINK I smell a rat.

 

[boredJonathan]

Sorry to hear about your problem man. Having a rodent problem is definately not cool, even more so when you have landlords who are dicks and don't help.

When I was down in Texas and living with my girlfriend, we had a rodent problem. It was just mice, but the land lords were giving us the run around and saying they'd get someone out there as soon as possible.

Well what sucked was that the mice were coming in through a hole in the cabinet floor that was directly under our sink. (It was where we kept our trash can since the place was so small.) The hole was small so you could hear them clawing at the opening to push themselves through.

One night, my girlfriend and I were just sitting there watching TV when the damn things were trying to get in. I said screw it, I couldn't kill it, but I was gonna scare the shit out of it. I got up and just started slamming the cabinet doors and running the garbage disposal and really just making an ass of myself by making alot of noise. (It was more to relieve the stress that my girlfriend was having over it, get her to laugh you know?)

Anyways, the noises stop and I figure "Ok, scared the fucker off for now and got Crissy to laugh a bit. " I go back and watch TV for awhile and then about an hour later I get up to through something out and I when I opened the cabinet door I jumped back about five feet. The mice was stuck in the little hole. But it wasn't moving. Curious, but cautiously I get a little closer to see what the hell was going on.

The thing was dead.

I scared it to death.

After regaining my composure and telling Crissy not to freak out, I just let the thing sit there since it was blocking the entrance better than anything we had laid out. I told the land lords the next day that we had a dead mouse stuck and they needed to get someone out right away. That worked thankfully, and the look in the exterminators face was even more worth it.

I should have taken a picture with OWNED underneath it.

 

[IAmtheFMan]

I just let the thing sit there since it was blocking the entrance better than anything we had laid out. I told the land lords the next day that we had a dead mouse stuck and they needed to get someone out right away.

Ha that's awesome.

When I caught the first one, it was still alive just stuck all to hell on the trap but I could hear it trying to fidget it's way out of the cabinet. I didn't know if it was loose or anything, and was gonna bite, so I slo-o-o-wly approached the cabinet door... reached for the handle...

My fucking cell phone starts buzzing in my pants. I swear to God, I nearly pissed myself.

 

[BojTrek]

Move out... don't keep any old newspapers and SHIT...

Throw old garbage out...buy a piece of wood and nail the hole shut...

Clean the place with Pine-Sol or so Anti-Bacteria...

Roaches you can deal with... they are pure filth... they shit and eat shit...

Burn everything you own and start over...

 

[psycho_snake]

I once had a rat in my pool, it was massive and just disgusting.

 

[IAmtheFMan]

I think I found a small hole leading out of the bottom of my pantry. I don't have anything to board it up with right now. Anybody know if I duct tape the hell out of it, will it stay as a temp solution?

EDIT: BTW, the hosted pic isn't working; I'll image host it when I get back at my place. (at library right now.)

 

[Pachinko]

why dont you just put it in a cage and keep it has a pet ? I hear rats get as big as small dogs.

 

[IAmtheFMan]

Here's the rat pic from the first infestation:

So guys, any ideas whether duct taping the hole will do any good?

 

[FrenchMovieTheme]

did someone say rat??

 

[calder]

Holy fuck rats terrify me. Gah.

When I was young I read about that medieval torture where they'd

Spoiler

place a rat on a hollow disk sitting on your torso then lower hot coals close to the rat so it'd eventually snap and start eating through your fucking stomach trying to get away from the heat. Or that old corpse in England that was exhumed and they found a rats skeleton in the guys fucking skull and figured it must have gotten into his coffin and eaten through into his brain when it died.

Er, I apologize if that shit isn't helping other rat haters relax.


As for duct tape, rats can eat through many metals so I think tape would just be a tasty appetizer to your average rat. It wouldn't stop the heat from escaping well enough either so the rats would still be trying to get in. If you do try to stop it up with tape and stuff I'd get some rat poison pellets and steel wool or something to stick inside the hole so if rats do try to get in the steel wool (maybe those ones with comet-like cleaning powder in them would taste nasty to em?) slows them down enough to give them time to suck back some poison.

 

[IAmtheFMan]

Thanks for the tip... I guess I'll just have to buy some traps this weekend. The last one went through, I swear, like 4 boxes of rat poison, and was still kicking it when I found him on the glue trap. We had to put him down with my pellet gun.

I think part of my phobia of rats is I read this thing on what the average rat can do including the spaces it can squeeze through, how strong they typically are, etc.

I hate these things.

 

[Chipopo]

Calder, I hope you can afford the amount of therapy your post just cost me.

 

[PhlegmMaster]

Err, I may have missed something, but is there something that prevents you from simply patching up the hole with a wood plank or something?

Anyway, if you buy a real rat-trap, make sure you put the peanut butter (or whatever bait you want to use) exactly on the little metal trigger plate, and not anywhere else, or the trap will shut on the rat's paw or tail, which will probably result in you being waken up in the middle of the night by hideously pitiful shrieking. That's what happened to me last time a rat found its way into my house. Fortunately, the trap broke its paw, so it couldn't run fast enough to outrun my big heavy metal shovel and myself. I killed it with a dozen heavy blows, plus another dozen to make sure it wasn't merely faking death. Then I managed to pick it up with the shovel and made my way to the children's playground on the other side of the road, where I dropped it neatly in front of the see-saw.

 

[IAmtheFMan]

If you look at the pic with the rat in it, right to the left of the rat is where it was coming in, i.e. a big huge panel that's completely absent; it's about 1 1/2 feet by 2. If I were to find the actual HOLE, it wouldn't do any good because I wouldn't be able to get back there to hole it up since there's a mess of pipes, and stuff.

I think i'm gonna get one of those heavy duty metal traps.

 

[Kuro Madoushi]

I killed it with a dozen heavy blows, plus another dozen to make sure it wasn't merely faking death. Then I managed to pick it up with the shovel and made my way to the children's playground on the other side of the road, where I dropped it neatly in front of the see-saw.

:lol
OVERKILL!

Anybody ever think about getting a cat? That's what they do though...

However, sometimes they won't kill it outright, they'll play with it or they can hide it sometimes...what would your reaction be when you moved your speakers and found a couple of dead mice in there?

 

[adam20]

This thread gives me ideas. I wish they made more enemies for Halo 2. I am not talking about Giant rats but maybe something slightly similar. Something disturbing and furry maybe. And no tail. tail is too goddam gross. Also we need some kind of Adventure mode. Face enemies in section to section battles. On a techy map. One section to the next but with some choices. awesome. Halo 2 could sure use some kind of rat monster (but not really like a rat). You guys are brilliant.

 

[PhlegmMaster]

If I were to find the actual HOLE, it wouldn't do any good because I wouldn't be able to get back there to hole it up since there's a mess of pipes, and stuff.

Oh.

I think i'm gonna get one of those heavy duty metal traps.

Be very careful when setting it up. Those things are extremely sensitive, and most importantly, extremely powerful; they can break your fingers easily.