One Small Problem . . .

One issue that's come up that's a little trickier than replacing an old fixtures or putting a new coat of paint up are the residents that already call our new house home. The hole in the screen pictured above isn't from being old and weathered, but instead from rats. I'm almost 99% positive they were using this as an access point into the house. We've found several of these holes in screens around the house and one occasion, recently while we were hanging out on the deck, we saw one come out. Needless to say this is a problem.

To give you some perspective, this is the kitchen window, but when looking outside you can see why this is an easy access point for them . . .

The bottom of the kitchen window lies just above the roof of the outdoor water heater (the new one from the last post). They can easily climb on the room and get in. What's a little disconcerting is that if you follow the window sill (the red line above), they can actually access another window . . .

This is the inside of the bathroom window and what you don't see (because it's covered by the foil pan) is a similar sized hole like the one pictured in the first photo above. About two weeks ago when we first went through the house, this was the first thing I noticed when I came into the bathroom (not the pan, but the hole). At first I thought that a bird made the hole in the screen because what else could do that on the side of the house. Come to find out, the window sill by the kitchen actually leads to a small ledge that runs right to the bathroom window sill. It's totally plausible that they could follow along that ledge and then gain entry to the bathroom. As a deterrent/temporary solution, this foil pan fit perfectly over the hole and is held in place by the window slats.

Other temporary measures have included duct taping the holes:

But probably the easiest and best solution has been just to shut the windows all together:

If anyone decides to work in the house they can open the windows so air can circulate through, but at the end of everyday/night, we need to close them so that the rats can't get in (hence the friendly reminder).

These are again all temporary measures. We plan to replace all the screens and are going to try fix all the windows so that they can all open and close properly (some are stuck open, some are stuck closed). However, in the meantime, this is what we have.

In addition to all of these precautions, I'm also trying to catch these guys. This weekend, in fact just yesterday I set two traps and ended up catching one. Initially I had just bought two traps because I wasn't sure how they were going to fair, but after one night and catching one rat, I went out today and bought two more. This is what I got:

They're basically plastic versions of the wooden rat traps were all familiar with, just easier to operate and dispose of. All you do is lay your bait in the circular holes, and then snap the upright levers back, and place them. 

Now I'm sorry if you think this isn't humane, but this is my future home here. Rats are pests and they need to be taken care of. If you would like to come over and do some Pied Piper action then by all means, be my guest. Otherwise, this ain't no 'catch and release' program I'm running here. 

I'm hoping that these traps combined with a bait system will be enough to take care of them. Depending on how well (or bad) things go, we'll see if we need to call in professional help. Definitely stay tuned for updates.