THIS IS WAR! On rats....

I think life mocks me at times, today I've taken delivery of a couple of things to review... The Victor Electronic Rat Killer Trap and a bunch of bait...

And, I literally went to groom the guinea pigs and since this morning, I stepped into the shed and there was an immediate god awful smell.  The smell of rat.

But this isn't life mocking me... 

No, the mocking comes from the fact that the bloody test model rat trap doesn't work, and then I put the blocks of bait (which only come in a plastic bag) on top of the cage for an hour whilst I cooked tea... And when I returned the blocks and bag were gone, replaced with a set of six fat shiny fresh rat shits!

So tomorrow it's WAR!

The guinea pigs and rabbit are being taken out of the shed, all the storage bins (which are large plastic and covered with heavy lids) will come out, everything will be swept and the whole shed will be torn down and chopped up.

All the paving slabs are coming out and being stacked... and I'm digging out about 14 inches around the weather-board layer of the concrete fencing and I'm putting in a layer of chicken wire and back filling with pea gravel.

It's war, war war.... We're sure the things are attracted by the open den our pet Rabbit has, she has the run of the shed at night, with a saw dust den and food... They must be getting in to drink her water and eat her hard feed.

But we live near a water course between a quite pungent stables and equally pungent, at times, dairy farm.  Rats are par for the course, however, this is clearly getting out of hand.  Willing, in day light, to climb onto a surface to eat a whole bag of 15 bait blocks.  It at least tells me they're not getting that much sustenance from the rabbit's bowl, they were hungry for the bait.

The guinea pigs are unaffected they're in a closed stack of cages, but clearly the rats have climbed onto the top of the stack at least once.

It's all coming out, I know what I'll find more of the damn tunnels I found before under the paving slabs, but this time it is going to be the whole shed.

WAR!

There's a Rat in me Shed, What am I gunna do?

We've had a rat come visit our shed...

Well, when I say paid a visit, I mean he has dug a complex trench system for the war which I am now perusing against him...

This was beneath a patio, and somewhat is a surprise... The first signs of a visitor were these droppings in the shed where the guinea pigs live...

I spotted these and immediately knew they were rat... The curled one on the right is a classic shape for rat droppings...

Anyway, I then decided to take a look around, and I found a black smudge and some trailed mud, in the back of the shed where no-one could go, so it was obvious there was a visitor, I moved everything out of the shed and found a neat hole cut into the back wall... Bastards!

I baited this and nailed it up, then placed more bait inside, after I had jeyes fluid cleaned the whole area and swept up.  As you can see in the second picture there was a lot of dropped matter, bedding and bits from the guinea pigs, but there was also hay from the stables in there and horse feed... Bad place to store them in the bag, rather than dumped into the hard plastic bins we have.

Anyway, inside secure, I set about looking outside, and saw what I thought was a run behind the shed in line with the hole, so I baited that and blocked the main exit into the garden with a tall slab.

I also saw this darker area of soil... Now we have a rabbit who lives free in the garden most of the day, and I figured she had just been moving earth around, as rabbits tend to do... Maybe for a fortnight I've seen this earth moved each evening, and assumed it was the rabbit.

But, it wasn't, seems the clever ratties decided it was a bore to go all the way around the shed, and they cut the above tunnels beneath a storage box... I lifted this and found the tunnels....

I baited the one nearest the shed, blocked another with yet another slab on end, filled in the tunnels then laid new slabs on them and placed the storage box back on this new footing.

The detritus in the middle of that run is all stuff from the shed, mainly guinea pig feed... So we've clearly been spilling it... In fact I know I have, the perfect invite for these little bastards.

Anyway, poison down, earth moved, slabs laid and gnawed shed patched up... The guinea pigs however are spending the night stood under three layers of blankets in the garden as I put so much cleaning fluid down the shed hasn't dried yet.

Phantom in the Garage

We call it the garage, though no car can get into it, its really a large out building to the rear of our property, we've recently cleared and organised it and the guinea pig has a hutch and run in there... And its to the guinea pig I'm going to talk.

He had a rough start, he was a baby when we got him from a rescue centre with another little chap, the other one being a proper psycho attacked the pig and attacked me, so he went back under duress... But we kept this one now and he's a nice little chap.

The other night we'd left him in his run with a few spare leafs from a cabbage, and he was enjoying them, it was warm so I left the garage door open to cool down.  About an hour later dark had fallen and I went out to him, and the poor little chap was chirping away for me in signal distress...

Firing up the lights I saw him in his run, and I saw something else... A Rat...

To his due the guinea pig looked like he's kicked this rat senseless, it had fresh torn ears and the guinea pig was backed into a tube like armour and baring his teeth to it... The moment the lights came on it tried to make it's escape... it rolled a ninja style forward roll through the hole in the wire it'd cut and it scampered past me, once between me and the door it decided to make its stand.

Now I don't know if this rat was smart and had met people before and had them freak out, but it got what I think was the shock of its life as it stood on its hind legs and started to hiss at me, and I wellied it with the plastic basket we use to collect grass trimmings from the mower...

This thing must have been a good 5 inch long in the body, with a tail of at least 7 inches all fat and scaley the tail... And it writhed around drunk after I whacked it.  It was inside this basket and hissing and spitting... and I want to either knock it out to capture it, or kill it... But it rolls upright and comes at me again...

I'm serious, this thing did not run out the open doors into the dark, it actively came towards my bare feet... Now, so I squared around, picked up the broom and smacked the think back again, it tolled head over arse three times and whacked into the right hand closed door at the far end of the building...

It got up and came at me again... This is the third time... I'm ready though, I've swapped the broom for a set of shears, with a hook end on them, it looks rather like a hockey stick... as it comes in I let fly and the sickening sound of its skull on the metal end sends it spiralling back and this time out the door...

It runs around in a huge circle, bounces off a set of flower pots we've got and legs it down the gap behind the garage and next doors property...

I have never had a rat take me on like that... I've met them before, previously when I lived at a different address in the same area they came to feast on the neighbours fishing bait, and I put traps down evicting them... But they were always scared of me, this thing was not scared... I think it was trying to claim the territory...

Needless to say, there's now a series of traps down...

Guinea pig was fine, he had a cuddle later and was chirping and purring at me, like he does... He has a new larger cage come run on the way as well today, because there's a hole chewed in the other and it was taking up too much room.