Feces. Scat. Droppings. Little presents. Caca. Doody. Special Raisinettes from the Easter Bunny. However you say it...it's never fun to find that a rodent has visited your cupboard. And since they are not the cleanest animals in the world, the evidence that you have been invaded is their leavings. Although there was a very civilized family in Westchester who installed tiny little commodes for the little vermin and only knew that they were having a rodent problem when the dirty little buggers forgot to put the lids down...Savages!
After several moments of imaginary research I have concluded that every house in the United States has been, at one time or another, a home to an unwanted guest. (the number of feet these guests walk on depends on your personal boundaries) I generally assign no blame to having the occasional squeaker running around in your pantry. They want food, you have food, you keep the food on the inside, they will work to get inside. Occasionally they succeed. If, however, you cannot tell whether or not that fuzzy lump on the floor is a leftover moldy hand towel or a deceased woodland creature, you may want to straighten up a bit...or call TLC to have them feature you on their next Hoarders expose.
I will admit it. Our house, our castle, our home away from vacation, has at one time been graced with the presence of roof rats. I can assure you that you do not want this particular species to come set up residence. They are noisy. They are destructive. They are hungry. They are hard to eliminate. And they are big! They may not be mistaken for a small dog, big...but they are sizable. Our particular infestation happened when I was a teen. (I grew up in this house) We had interesting things happen. The plastic garbage can where we kept the dog food had a hole chewed threw the bottom. There were wires whose insulation was gnawed off. There were strange scratching sounds at night. They left above averaged sized droppings all over the garage and attic. The worst was the nightly bowling tournament that happened overhead. As a kid I was embarrassed and didn't want people to know...I'm over it now. I thought I would share this with a million of my closest friends.
According to the exterminator, the reasons we got them were: a) we had a dog and dog food. b) we had tiny holes next to the wires coming into the house that were pencil sized. (apparently that is a superhighway for a rodent) and c) we lived in a house. We had already tried poison from the store. We had tried to patch any holes. We donned camouflage jumpsuits and patrolled the house with rifles and night-vision glasses. (not really...as far as you know) Nothing seemed to work. Then the exterminator came to my dad and basically said, "Psst...Buddy...I can get rid of those things...for sure. You willing to go the extra mile?" Since we had fought and fought these battles and were continually losing the war, he agreed. The exterminator donned his most protective gear, climbed up into the attic, and spread what looked like a fine powder all around. When he came down, he said we wouldn't have any problems after that. I don't know what that stuff was but he was right. Almost immediately the bowling alley closed. The way he described our particular rats were too smart to eat the normal bait. This "special poison" they walked on and when they licked their paws clean...(insert funeral march here). My theory was that he used an illicit drug and the rats all ended up hanging around the Seven Eleven late at night and got picked up by police. No matter...they were gone.
Now I told you that story so I could tell you this one. In true American homeowner fashion, my mom has been 'blessed' with critters eating their way into her pantry. One problem is that her association owned garage is connected to four others so the burden of trying to keep them out by patching holes is multiplied. She discovered that she was having a problem when she picked up a box of granola and found that there was a hole chewed in the bottom. "Drat!" (Sorry for going all street talk on you...trying to keep it real) Then she looked into the pantry to see what else had been snacked on. When she looked in she saw a group of very large black things lying in a pile. Since she was there in the roof rat invasion of the early 80's she is familiar with large sized leavings. These were way bigger than that! She thought she had been invaded by granola munching caribou! Then she inspected further. As it turns out she was indeed playing host to a tiny little rodent. What she thought were world record sized pellets turned out to be the extra large raisins from the granola that the mouse had chosen not to eat, but left in a neat little pile as if to say, "I'm not fond of these but there's no use throwing them away. We can share."
All of this leaves me wondering two things. What kind of rodent is so cultured that it will leave things in a neat little pile like that. And, what the heck is so wrong with the organic granola raisins that even mice won't eat them!?
After several moments of imaginary research I have concluded that every house in the United States has been, at one time or another, a home to an unwanted guest. (the number of feet these guests walk on depends on your personal boundaries) I generally assign no blame to having the occasional squeaker running around in your pantry. They want food, you have food, you keep the food on the inside, they will work to get inside. Occasionally they succeed. If, however, you cannot tell whether or not that fuzzy lump on the floor is a leftover moldy hand towel or a deceased woodland creature, you may want to straighten up a bit...or call TLC to have them feature you on their next Hoarders expose.
I will admit it. Our house, our castle, our home away from vacation, has at one time been graced with the presence of roof rats. I can assure you that you do not want this particular species to come set up residence. They are noisy. They are destructive. They are hungry. They are hard to eliminate. And they are big! They may not be mistaken for a small dog, big...but they are sizable. Our particular infestation happened when I was a teen. (I grew up in this house) We had interesting things happen. The plastic garbage can where we kept the dog food had a hole chewed threw the bottom. There were wires whose insulation was gnawed off. There were strange scratching sounds at night. They left above averaged sized droppings all over the garage and attic. The worst was the nightly bowling tournament that happened overhead. As a kid I was embarrassed and didn't want people to know...I'm over it now. I thought I would share this with a million of my closest friends.
According to the exterminator, the reasons we got them were: a) we had a dog and dog food. b) we had tiny holes next to the wires coming into the house that were pencil sized. (apparently that is a superhighway for a rodent) and c) we lived in a house. We had already tried poison from the store. We had tried to patch any holes. We donned camouflage jumpsuits and patrolled the house with rifles and night-vision glasses. (not really...as far as you know) Nothing seemed to work. Then the exterminator came to my dad and basically said, "Psst...Buddy...I can get rid of those things...for sure. You willing to go the extra mile?" Since we had fought and fought these battles and were continually losing the war, he agreed. The exterminator donned his most protective gear, climbed up into the attic, and spread what looked like a fine powder all around. When he came down, he said we wouldn't have any problems after that. I don't know what that stuff was but he was right. Almost immediately the bowling alley closed. The way he described our particular rats were too smart to eat the normal bait. This "special poison" they walked on and when they licked their paws clean...(insert funeral march here). My theory was that he used an illicit drug and the rats all ended up hanging around the Seven Eleven late at night and got picked up by police. No matter...they were gone.
Now I told you that story so I could tell you this one. In true American homeowner fashion, my mom has been 'blessed' with critters eating their way into her pantry. One problem is that her association owned garage is connected to four others so the burden of trying to keep them out by patching holes is multiplied. She discovered that she was having a problem when she picked up a box of granola and found that there was a hole chewed in the bottom. "Drat!" (Sorry for going all street talk on you...trying to keep it real) Then she looked into the pantry to see what else had been snacked on. When she looked in she saw a group of very large black things lying in a pile. Since she was there in the roof rat invasion of the early 80's she is familiar with large sized leavings. These were way bigger than that! She thought she had been invaded by granola munching caribou! Then she inspected further. As it turns out she was indeed playing host to a tiny little rodent. What she thought were world record sized pellets turned out to be the extra large raisins from the granola that the mouse had chosen not to eat, but left in a neat little pile as if to say, "I'm not fond of these but there's no use throwing them away. We can share."
All of this leaves me wondering two things. What kind of rodent is so cultured that it will leave things in a neat little pile like that. And, what the heck is so wrong with the organic granola raisins that even mice won't eat them!?
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