My Dad always used to say that one should never hate anything in this world. He was, of course, correct. I used to pass this sage advice on to vehemently vegetarian surrogate step-daughter. Her response was to affect mock annoyance, stamp her foot and say "OK, Graham, I don't like it a very lot then." I think that might not have been my response in the middle of the night from which I've just woken. At 0245 I woke to a noise in the roof space. I'd woken to it on the previous two nights but much later and thought it was birds on the roof. It wasn't. Last night it was louder and more persistent and 5 hours later is still going on. If I had had a shotgun there would be several holes in the ceiling! As it was I put my iPod headphones on and tried to block out the noise. It's a family of rats scurrying, scratching, feeding, and partying. It's a good job we are not staying here tonight! The house ain't big enough for us all!
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Optimism in Trouble
5 days ago
so where were you? if at home, get thee to a pest control person! I DO hate rats! They are afraid of NOTHING.
ReplyDeleteI'm away in Northland. We were staying in a holiday rental for 3 nights.
DeleteEarplugs. Not the musical kind. My recommendation, tried and tested on numerous holidays with a snoring husband, when I could not sleep anywhere else but the one hotel room we'd booked!
ReplyDeleteI've never worn earplugs and as we were only in the holiday rental for 3 nights and are back at Pauline's tonight it's not my problem - we did tell the owner!
DeleteLibrarian, I have exactly the same response (and for the same reason even though Partner-who-drinks-tea alleges women don't snore). We have wax earplugs in Boots the Chemist and they are among my top ten items to take anywhere with me.
DeleteYeah, when faced with the choice between the discomfort of earplugs and not getting any sleep at all, it is not difficult to decide for the earplugs...
DeleteI loathe that noise too.... heard it once and the next day investigated the back of the kitchen cupboard through the wall from our bedroom ...I pulled out a large box and saw an enormous tail! Decided to leave it until husband returned home as I couldn't manage thought of killing it. He merely fished out the box, carried it outside and released the rat! Definitely not what I had in mind but at least the noise stopped.... for a while. Some time later I heard it again - right behind my head.... It came and went for a few hours, making me toss and turn. FInally it dawned on me the noise was worse when I moved.... and I discovered a bag of whole peanuts had been left at the top of the bed, husks and all, and they were dribbling slowly out of the bag, down the wall, making a scratchy, rat-like noise. Oh the relief :) Lesson about munching in bed learned....
ReplyDeleteThe other noise we came to hate was at our rented house in Queenstown - a steep three storey A frame with huge trees round it. At night the possums would leap put of the tree and slide down the roof directly over the bedrooms, dragging their nails all the way down. The calls of a possum are unsettling enough - this was hell! We got used to it eventually, but visitors hated it...
I've heard the plod of an opossum once and it made me jump but I've never heard it again. I'm glad to say.
DeleteGB. How do you know it's rats?
ReplyDeleteWe have squirrels and fouine in France that occupy roof spaces.
There are nop squirrels or fouine and an opossum has a very different sound. These scuttled all around the roof all night and then there was the squeaking which presumably means there was a nest with young. The only other creature it's likely to be in NZ - an opossum - plods like an old man.
DeleteWe let them be till they decided to come into the house, then it was war, My husband killed the first with a sickle and the rest with traps, it took us about a month but we got them all or at least the rest moved on and haven't been back since. Once they are gone you have to seal up the holes that they can come in from so they cant re-establish a colony.
ReplyDeleteI've never had them in the house. I've never even had a mouse problem in the house. A rat in the house would be open war!!
DeleteIt was, but as the permaculture folks say "you don't have a snail problem just a shortage of rats" (apparently they are fond of escargot).
DeleteNow all I will think of for the rest of the day is James Cagney.
ReplyDeleteHa ha. I can't recall which film it was though.
DeleteYuck. We had some problems with mice in the attic back in my childhood but never rats. I remember my mum finding a mouse in the cellar once, she caught it alive in a towel or similar in the laundry room and carried it out into the wood (just behind our house) and let it loose.
ReplyDeleteI can cope with mice although having had the garden shed over-run by them the first time I came to NZ for 6 months I've always taken steps to see that it doesn't happen again. I wouldn't like them in the house either.
DeleteFunny, thought I posted about this. Anyway, all I was going to say is that I find the squeaking more unpleasant than the scratching with rats.
ReplyDeleteI remember the first time I saw a rat. I was four, and it made me feel very excited. I really wanted a cat and I rushed in and told my mother I'd seen a lovely cat in the garage. And what's more it had a pink tail!
I used to love my pet rats. Wild ones in the roof is another matter altogether. And yes, the squeaking was worse that the scuttling and other noises!
DeleteMust say - the mouse Kate found in your loft whilst she was looking for some books - certainly made her squeal! David to the rescue - mickey is no longer there and hopefully his death has helped to put his brothers off!! Another inspection when your visitors go on Tuesday morning.
ReplyDeleteAt least the traps in the loft are doing their job! Thanks a lot.
ReplyDelete