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Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Where's the Pied Piper When You Need Him?

For the last few weeks we have been battling unwanted furry visitors. They consumed a whole bag of blood and bone (garden fertiliser) in the garage, which was bad enough, but they have also managed to get into the house. We had our fruit and vegetables in racks of wire baskets and it has been interesting to find out their preferences - for instance, kumara (sweet potato) are favoured but not regular potatoes, carrots, apples and bananas are all tasty to rodents apparently but the oranges and onions were untouched. They also consumed all the seeds from the middle of the cut pumpkin but not the pumpkin itself. They have the ability to suck out the tasty kernel of the pumpkin seeds but scatter the dried empty husks all over the floor.

And no, I am not talking about mice, the tooth marks are definitely bigger. At first I thought it was mice, but the mouse trap was triggered and flipped over, empty. We put out rat baits and they took all the ones in the garage but haven't touched the inside ones. We have now put all food items inside plastic containers with lids but still haven't managed to get rid of the visitors.

So, this morning I went into the downstairs bathroom to do my teeth and hair before leaving for work, and found big rodent tooth marks in the cake of soap. (Aaagh!!!)

My daughter thinks we need a cat. Given the size of her last vet's bill, I think the electronic rodent scarer advertised for $150 would be cheaper. If it works.

(More on local poetry events coming soon).

2 comments:

Kay Cooke said...

Rats are intelligent and cute - so they say. I did get to kind of tolerate a friend's daughter's pet white rat ... but ... they tend to make me shudder and squeal. We have two cats and they keep the rats at bay - altho' dead ones occasionally end up on the laundry floor. The cats are put out into the laundry and not allowed into the house at night, as their rat-catching abilities result in rats getting dragged indoors as trophies for us to ooh and aah over. NOT likely - and not a welcome sight in the morning.

leonie.wise said...

bloody hell! sounds like an infestation! sorry i can't give you any advice, not having had guests like yours before.

i just hope you get rid of them soon.