Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5

Ants and now a rat.

#1
confused2 Offline
Yesterday Mrs C2 rang me at work, a bit hysterical, to say the kitchen was full of ants. I got home to find the kitchen was indeed full of ants. Sent Mrs C2 off in my car to get some antiant formula (her car still isn't back from the repairers). Found the nest, zapped it with the antiant formula and felt pretty much on top of domestic crises.
This morning I found a half drowned rat in the boy's toilet. Definitely not on top of the current wave of domestic crises. Removing rats from toilets might turn out to be one of those 'Get somebody else to do it' type things. The superior person would probably push its nose under until it drowned but it will struggle and I'm not sure I can handle that. Helping it out of the toilet - not sure I can handle that either.

Stage 1. The rat is in the toilet.
Stage 3. There is a dead rat in a bucket which can easily be disposed of.

Currently no Stage 2 where the rat gets from the toilet into the bucket. The person involved in stage 2 is worried that the rat comes back to life and goes berserk at some point during the transfer.

I have flushed the toilet a few times. The rat looks very alive and very clean and is still keeping its nose above water. This could go on for days. Fill toilet bowl with CO2. Fizzy drink? Rat thinks "Oo Coca Cola - just what I needed right now.". Must get CO2. Time passes.

No progress on the CO2 front.
Give rat food laced with sleeping pills. Rat falls asleep and drowns. This is a nightmare. No sleeping pills anyway.
Reply
#2
confused2 Offline
Not many ants in the kitchen.
Reply
Reply
#4
confused2 Offline
Several hours ago Ratty was 'rescued', still alive, by a pest controller (aka rat eradicator). RIP Ratty. Sniff.
Reply
#5
C C Offline
Two kitchen items: One of those foldable reacher/grabber tools with a strong grip. Tall, slim, empty waste container readily at hand and already tilted toward the distressed swimmer to quickly drop it in and stand upright. Transport far away to be somebody else's moocher if local law requires expensive euthanasia by experts.

EDIT: Actually, in a similar predicament years ago, seems like hubby just wore multiple layers of plastic grocery bags around his hands/arms like long mittens, and after seizing the critter then dropped it in a small cage made out of hardware cloth slash wire mesh (too small for it to squeeze through).

But the above is what I'd try myself, to avoid even having a barrier space between my hands and the house guest. Or maybe not. Would kind of hate having to throw away that reacher afterwards. Similar to Jerry Seinfeld losing that contaminated cooking spatula after Kramer scratched his back with it.


The Pie (Seinfeld episode)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pie

Transcript (applicable excerpt):

KRAMER: (to the gang) There's a clothing store downtown. They got a mannequin in there that looks exactly like Elaine.

ELAINE: Get out!

KRAMER: It's uncanny! It's like they chopped off your arms and legs, dipped you in plastic, and screwed you back all together, and stuck you on a pedestal. It's really quite exquisite.

GEORGE: Kramer, what's the name of the store with the mannequin?

KRAMER: Rinitze. (he takes Jerry's spatula and starts rubbing his back with it) Oh yeah...

JERRY: (to Kramer) Uh... may I help you? (wondering what the hell Kramer is doing)

KRAMER: It's this itch. I was watching TV without my shirt on, and one of my couch cushions didn't have any fabric on it.

GEORGE: Wait a minute, Rinitze? Don't they have some really cool suits in there?

KRAMER: Real Boss!

ELAINE: I'm going down there.

GEORGE: I'm gonna go with you. I gotta get a new suit. I got a second interview with MacKenzie, and I think I'm really close. They're all taking me out to lunch on Friday.

ELAINE: (grabbing George by the arm, hurried to leave) Let's go.

GEORGE: All right. All right. (They both leave)

KRAMER: (leaving too, with the spatula) Are you gonna need this?

JERRY: Keep it. (implied: please)
Reply
#6
Zinjanthropos Online
Wonder if rats would do as well adapting to us if we lived in or provided a clean sterile environment?
Reply
#7
confused2 Offline
SS Wrote:Actually, in a similar predicament years ago, seems like hubby just wore multiple layers of plastic grocery bags around his hands/arms like long mittens, and after seizing the critter then dropped it in a small cage made out of hardware cloth slash wire mesh (too small for it to squeeze through).

I am very impressed.

Judging by the way Ratty cleaned up after a flush Mrs C2 had visited him in the night. She said she had noticed something dark in the toilet but just thought "Boys will be boys.".

My hamsters used to step onto my hands to be carried around - I couldn't see the technique working very well with Ratty.

Once the rat catcher had ratty in a cage I gave him (the rat catcher) a bucket so Ratty wouldn't drip everywhere on his way out. At the door the rat catcher said "You can have your bucket back now.". I said I didn't actually want it so he took the bucket away with him.

If I had my time over again I would (try to) be less of a wimp - get Ratty out - feed him up a bit - and take him to somewhere where he might be happy.

Z. Wrote:Wonder if rats would do as well adapting to us if we lived in or provided a clean sterile environment?

Generally I'm pretty OK about rats. The OP rat in the toilet was nightmarish (for the rat) but generally it's a matter of keeping them out. If they find (or make) a way in then find it and block it up. Mrs C2 had two sewer rat flaps (thanks for the link*) couriered down to us - one was fitted this morning and the other will be fitted in a few days. It is a 'thing' that old drains don't go back together quite as good as they were when you took them apart. Although surprisingly clean there are 'deposits' that need to be wiped or scraped off or the part replaced entirely. My immune system is currently ready for anything the town can throw at it.
*Mrs C2 actually ordered devices from pestcontroldirect.co.uk costing about £18.00 each which have turned out to be ideal for the job.
Reply
#8
C C Offline
What coincidental timing. Didn't realize that with the addition of alcohol, your situation was a prototype of the new super-weapon.

New York turns to alcohol in rodent fight
https://phys.org/news/2019-09-rat-york-a...odent.html

INTRO: New York unveiled its latest weapon Thursday in the city's long-running war against rats—alcohol. Rodents are one of the more unappealing aspects of life in America's largest metropolis, often seen scurrying between subway tracks and sniffing around garbage bags. City officials have spent millions of dollars trying to cull the rat population over the years, deploying everything from rodent birth control to vermin-proof trash cans.

Now they say they have finally found a solution: a machine that attracts rats with bait and then triggers a trap door that drops them into a pool of alcohol-based liquid. "It knocks them out and they drown eventually," Anthony Giaquinto, the president of Rat Trap Inc., which imports the devices from Italy, told reporters... (MORE)
Reply
#9
confused2 Offline
SS Wrote:Now they say they have finally found a solution: a machine that attracts rats with bait and then triggers a trap door that drops them into a pool of alcohol-based liquid. "It knocks them out and they drown eventually,"
I suspect our insurance company could well be the ones that invented the strategy if not the actual device.

The intent of the Traffic Gods seems to be to teach us humility in the face of the Car Driver. After a few weeks of using public transport and having no choice but to cross roads I am already starting to think of Car Drivers as Massa amd Memsa. Sometimes I have to be in a particular place at a particular time and if Massa and Memsa won't let me cross the road I have to dash across hoping they value their bodywork more than I value mine. The stakes are high - once your car goes into the 'system' it isn't a matter of whether or not it is repaired - just finding that it still exists is as much comfort as you can reasonably hope for.

After fitting the rat exclusion flaps in the sewers I seem to have acquired some sort of black death type infection under my finger nails. Mrs C2 is impressed by my sudden enthusiasm for washing the dishes - despite which it is still there.
Reply
#10
Zinjanthropos Online
Quote: I seem to have acquired some sort of black death type infection under my finger nails

Is it at the base or top of nail? If at the base, there is a rare form of melanoma that can occur. Subungual I think that's how it's spelled. Anyways my neighbour has it. Nail it (no pun intended) before it spreads. Have a doc look at it, don't fart around.
Reply


Possibly Related Threads…
Thread Author Replies Views Last Post
  Self-destructive DIY species: From exploding ants to postnatal octopuses C C 0 338 Apr 29, 2018 08:10 AM
Last Post: C C



Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)