In my Life this week...
According to a news paper article I recently read states that because of all the construction on the sewers and interstate near my house many hundreds of thousands of rats are running loose through my area of the city and are seeking shelters near or in homes. ( like ours). You can see them running around at night in back yards where children play. Our city is not doing much about it either. They have put hundreds of lbs of rat poison in the sewers but the rats are not found there they are in neighborhoods like mine.
A rat has now chewed a hole under my back door into the dining room crawl space. We STILL have rat problem!! My husband thought that all the Decon he put out killed them but he was WAY wrong. We now have hired an exterminator who set up 4 bait stations in our backyard for the rats to feed on, he will switch to a different poison each week for 4 weeks. We also have snap traps in our garage as well. The exterminator came out today to show me how to get my dead rats out and reset them.
One of the big problem we have in our yard is a HUGE oak tree, he said they attract rats because they love the acorns. He also mentioned that they love to eat dog poop. Yum! I am religious about cleaning up ours everyday but my neighbors do not clean their poop up, EVER and they have 3 dogs! You can see all the rats digging tunnels under our fence to feed over there.
Would it be un ethical to place some dead rats in their driveway so they can SEE there is a problem, maybe then they would start cleaning up poop!
In our homeschool week..
Well we are on vacation this week so I have been busy planning next months lessons. We are going to be studying Asia.
A quote to share...
We were just heading outside to play and Duck says to me "its freezing outside it's 30:10, and that's a lot of money!" lol I think we need to work on time, measurement, and money a bit more, he seems confused ......lol!
30:10!? How cute is that? :) Good luck with the rat issue. That does NOT sound fun. :(
ReplyDeleteThat is absolutely HORRIBLE! I can't imagine rats invading "my" space, and I grew up on a farm! I always intended to win the mice/rat war, even had to do some in with my shovel once-horrible too! Usually we were able to leave the war to our dozen cats, which you can do on a farm. I am so sorry. Maybe get a cat or two?
ReplyDelete30:10 I love hearing the way they make up numbers to express themselves ! Treasure it it does not last long. Hope the rat issue sorts it's self out pretty soon.
ReplyDeleteBlessings for 2012
The answer rats..are cats! Let us know what happens!
ReplyDeleteDropping by from the HMJ
I thought about cats, but if I feed the cats they won't want to hunt the rats right? Do I just go get some outside cats and only provide an outside shelter and water? If I feed them they won't want to hunt right?
ReplyDeleteOh, no, it's almost instinctive for cats to hunt rodents. But you need a mouser. Not a pampered house cat. See if anyone has some adult barn cats they need homes for. Either way, what a terrible, yucky situation!
ReplyDeleteHow terrible your city is not stepping up to the plate to take care of the problem! I laughed out loud reading your comment about leaving some in the neighbor's driveway to clue them in. One of the things I'm trying to accept is that some people just truly don't care no matter what you smack them upside the head with. I hope this is all resolved for you very soon!
ReplyDeleteHmmmm, wonder if craigslist has any barn cats up for grabs. My husband is worried that our dogs will scare away the cats, but cats hunt at night and that's when the rats are out so I'm thinking it should be fine.
ReplyDeleteFlmom, when you say "no matter what you smack them upside the head with" I envision myself smacking my neighbor upside the head with a dead rat....lol... Not that I would do that, it is just funny image that popped into my head.....thanks!
ReplyDeleteMy friend has 2 indoor cats that go outside a couple of times a day and they are alway bringing field mice or shrews to her when they want to come inside.:) Oh and she feeds them daily too cause her cats don't actually eat what they kill:) I don't own cats so not sure if this is the norm or not. Good luck with the rat problem that would be awful to deal with. Thanks for stopping by and commenting on http://lifesadventures-amb.blogspot.com/
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh that is disgusting!!!! We have an outside cat that we feed table scraps. She catches mice for the rest of her food. The table scraps keep her at my house and keep me from having to compost much. But, it's not usually enough to make her full so she goes for the mice. Win win. We live in the country, though, so she stays outside. Not sure about an indoor cat. I hope you get your rats taken care of soon!! Thank you for your kind words about Explorer, too!
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