Friday, May 31, 2013

the rat bastard is pissing me off


You might remember that one of the chores for my grandkids was helping me clean out a rat's nest in the garage.

I've known about it for quite a while, known I would have to move two crates of glass and one of kiln shelves to get to it.  

I have, for weeks now, been yelling at the rat bastard as he gnawed away on my crate, his nest being in the back of the crate next to the adjacent metal shelving unit, banging on the crate with a hammer, shaking the glass around.  

the section of crate the rat destroyed, now flipped over

I can hear him when the door to the garage is open.

I guess he moved in during the winter or early spring.  While the one garage door is propped open enough for the cat to get in while we are in residence, we always close it tight when we are in the city to work.  Which, this year, has been half of every week so the little bastard settled in on the days we were gone.

Since I was disturbing him in his main location, he started building an annex under some metal shelves on another wall.  I swept out the most peculiar things besides the expected acorns and shredded fiber blanket that we use in casting.  

And by sweep, I mean that I took an old broomstick and waved it back and forth underneath the shelving unit pulling out stuff like round and peanut shaped ceramic insulators, plaster fingers (that's a different story), and metal brackets for mini-blinds among other things.

So now that we had cleaned the nests out, we stopped propping the other door up but he was still getting in through the hole in the wall where the wire that powered the old well pump came through because I could hear him gnawing in the garage again. Before we left for the city this week, I nailed a piece of flattened aluminum can over the hole.

When we got back yesterday, I noticed that my aluminum patch was gnawed and torn up and he had started building a new nest. Repeat the sweep under the shelving unit and pulled out all those weird little things again...plaster fingers, ceramic insulators, metal brackets, kiln furniture. The rat bastard had fetched all those things again off the bottom tray of the cart that the kiln sits on where I had put them.

the rat's eclectic collection

Last night I was determined he was not getting in again so I set up a much bigger barrier. Now if he wants in he has to gnaw through 2 pieces of 1/4” glass and about 4” of brick.

an impenetrable barrier

So far so good.

Since he has such a fondness for plaster fingers and kiln furniture, I'll just keep my eye on that stuff and if it disappears again, I'll know he's back.

In the meantime, I'm getting a trap.





19 comments:

  1. such a clever little rat- just making a living...clearly he knew where to go! Plastic fingers are high commodity in Ratville!

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  2. good luck to you! i detest the smell their little 'nests' have, too.

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  3. Poor single father rat, just trying to do the best he can and be responsible. (says Shay, from a great distance)

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  4. He's too stupid to understand it is time to hit the road. 50 ways to leave and he can't think of one. I say get the trap.

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  5. They are so smart! I am dealing with a pack rat in my tack room that loves the big spoons that I stir the feed with. Yum! I constantly have to get smarter than him/her. I guess that's good for my aging brain.
    Anyway, good luck! Cats are good...

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  6. They are so smart! I am dealing with a pack rat in my tack room that loves the big spoons that I stir the feed with. Yum! I constantly have to get smarter than him/her. I guess that's good for my aging brain.
    Anyway, good luck! Cats are good...

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  7. Holy cow. That is one determined rat!

    However, he has no idea who he's up against.

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  8. Ack! We're having rat problems too. I'm hoping my daughter's dog will dispatch the rat before I get around to getting a trap. Can't believe how destructive they are.

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  9. I hate ratty vermin. I vote for the trap and anything else necessary to dispatch him immediately.

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  10. You almost have to admire them for their ingenuity and work ethic.
    But then, no.

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  11. You both have ingenuity and tenacity. May the better woman win!!

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  12. I hate to say it but I think the only way you're getting rid of him is to get a trap. He likes his little rat home too much. Is there a rat relocation program? They move beehives maybe they move rats.

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  13. Oh that sounds like a fight to the finish. That's what you get for giving him the finger. ;)

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  14. Awww, poor rat.

    (Plaster fingers????)

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  15. Take that you dastardly rat.....ha ha ha
    How distressing!
    Hugs
    SueAnn

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  16. Hate rodents! Set the trap, put out glue boards. I like the big snake boards. If his family shows up they can join him on that big glue board to rat heaven!

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  17. I had a mouse problem in my garage. They took the bait from the snap traps I set out, laughed and ran away.
    I went to the store to buy poison, which I did not really want to use, and the guy at the register told me about a new type of trap, made by Victor... it looks like a little mailbox, and it uses batteries (not included) to electrocute the rodents. The front end is completely open and the back end is full of big holes. You smear a tiny bit of peanut butter on the back end, flip the switch on, and go away for a few hours. Rate enters trap and is zapped.
    Disposal is easy.
    But you need to be sure to keep pets away from the trap.
    I no longer have rodent poop on my work table, and this makes me very happy!

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  18. We always had rat problems when we lived in the village - we kept chooks and lived next door to a stable yard! Our cat was a blessing!

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I opened my big mouth, now it's your turn.