Dianne Lehmann

Of Rodents and Men


Posted: Thursday, October 25, 2007

by
Artisan Jewelry from SyZyGy

Its rats actually and me, a woman. Really, its only one rat. I'm fairly certain of that.

It is living in our basement. It got in by chewing through the metal screen that covers the backs of the vents in the basement. Hes (no female would be so pushy and crass) apparently a very determined little rat with very sharp and very tough teeth.

This wouldn't be a problem, except I dont know what he might be chewing on down there now that he can't get out of the basement. We put a much heavier screen over all of the vents. And I worry (yes, I really do) that he might die down there.

He is too big for the Mice Cubes that we have. They are made of clear plastic and have a one-way door that must close all the way to work. I am thinking that the wily little bas**** purposely left his tail in the door so he could back out after eating the peanuts I so thoughtfully shelled for him.

Last night we tried the bucket trick. You take a five gallon bucket, put some peanuts (thoughtfully shelled) and a small dish of water in the bottom so he won't starve or die of dehydration before you can let him loose. Then you put a piece of cardboard across the top that has a crease in it so it will fall into the bucket when the slightest weight is placed on it. You bait the cardboard with more peanuts; thoughtfully shelled. It seemed like a good trick.

When I checked the bucket this afternoon, fully expecting to find Mr. Rat, he was not there. All the water was gone as well as the peanuts. He is probably somewhere right now happily sleeping off the feast. Obviously, he is as good a leaper as he is a gnawer.

My husband wants to use one of those traps that goes snap and practically decapitates the poor thing. He says its humane. He says that the rat will never know what hit him. He says that the rat is just going to die down there anyway. I say not so. Not if I keep feeding him peanuts and giving him water.
Dianne Lehmann is a jewelry designer who has been in business since January of 2000. Her interest in designing and manufacturing jewelry goes back beyond that to 1994. It took her many years of trying various creative outlets to finally figure out that making jewelry is what she really enjoys. She has also discovered that she loves to write for Wryte Stuff. If you like, you may view her jewelry creations at http://www.syzygyjewelry.com

This Article has been viewed 185 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)
» left by Joel Hendon
 4 years 65 days ago.
125 fans.
Dianne, I can easily see how you feel about the intruder, but I must agree with your husband. First of all, don't think that it is simply an innocent rat that won't do any harm. Unless you feed him until he is bloated and cannot stand the thought of food, he will gnaw into anything you have down there. Be it discarded papers, or your electrical wiring. They can cause an electrical shortage that will burn your house down. Not only that, if he brought his madam with him (and they generally do), you will very soon be inundated with small big rats. What do you plan to do with him if you catch him alive? Take him somewhere and release him? so he can invade someone else's house? Or turn him over to the police? Humane society? It is very likely that any of them will put him away, not as humanely as a snap trap. Rats are known in some instances to carry disease and certainly if they build up to a lot of them you will be able to smell their old urine deposit areas. I dislike the idea of killing any animal, really. But when mice or rats find their way into my house or storage building. I very quickly put the snap on them. It's easy, just put a little blob of peanut butter on the bait holder and you will have him in an hour or two. They cannot resist the smell of peanut butter...and I can't either. Gotta go and make me some peanut butter and crackers.
» left by 4 years 65 days ago.
Joel, thanks for your advice. I probably should have published a follow up article to let readers know what happened. We live in a very rural area and there is lots of wild life around us. We have hawks in abundance and owls, ravens and roadrunners. There are coyotes that come down out of the hills at night and raccoons. We also have a wild pig called a javelina (have'-a-lean'-a) which is actually a collared pecary. There are tons of rats and mice, squirrels and chipmunks, cottontails and jacks. After a few failed attempts at getting the live trap to work (it had a part that needed fixing), we finally caught it. We took it to Clipper Wash which runs through the Fain Ranch land near to us. I sincerely hope that she is doing well, but with all the predators that abound around here, she will probably have a short life. Anyway, we took her far enough away that she most likely won't bother any one else.
We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.