Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Up On The Roof

I actually made it out of bed early today and had time to dig out my ladder from the shed. It was buried by the stuff from my rental house that I still haven't sorted. I climbed on the the roof with my trusty tube of caulk and patched up all of the obvious cracks around the sheet metal covering the old chimney hole and the old swamp cooler hole.

I thought another storm would test my work but I only got a few sprinkles today. Hopefully that fixed the problem for now. Of course I still have some other problems like the leaks around the AC's and dog doors but at least it shouldn't rain down from the ceiling any more.

After I patched the roof I went in the RV to get ready for work and I heard a very loud gnawing sound. I looked in the heater vent, nope. I opened the compartment on the step, AH HA! A big rat was in there chewing on the compartment wall!!! He ran back in to the bowels of the RV and then came back to look and me and the cat. Then he ran off again.

I had bought a mouse trap so I got it and realized that it was too small for this fat rat. I put some bait in it anyway and put it in the compartment but there was no rat in it when I got home. Who knows what important stuff he is chewing up down there. He needs to go away asap. Plus he is filling up my RV with rat droppings and plant material. Oh ya, and if 'he' is a 'she' it could be having babies! Noooooo!!!!

9 comments:

Dave said...

What kind of mouse trap did you use? Would a glue trap work or would the rat be too big for it and just drag it around the RV?

And isn't it the cat's job to find the rat and kill it?

YECCH @ all the droppings and other stuff the rat has dragged into the RV.

Daizy said...

The cat wouldn't know what to do with a rat. the rat hasn't made it into the main living area yet. That compartment is kind of an access panel to the underside I guess. And yes, the rat has left a lot of debris in very unreachable places. A glue trap might work but I wouldn't want to deal with it, especially if it was alive. Eek. The mouse trap was a live trap...or dead trap if I leave them in there too long but that would be bad if it started to smell. The rat poison that I put down there is gone but it must have been his friends that ate it because he doesn't seem bothered by it.

KoBold said...

Caulk the rat to a cactus!

KoBold said...

On the other hand, you can always get a foster rat terrier...

Miss France said...

A good way to bait a trap, believe it or not, is to super glue a nice, big piece of walnut or cashew on it.

Anonymous said...

Please be careful using any kind of poison around the dogs as you wouldn't want a dog to ingest the poison "secondhand". http://www.dogsymptomscure.com/dog-rat-poison-symptoms.php

Daizy said...

KoBold, the rats like to live in cactus and bring bits of cactus in to my RV. Perhaps he is just trying to share with me. I would love it if my dogs could patrol my garage and RV and keep the pack rats away but there are too many things they might destroy as well.

Daizy said...

That's a good idea Miss France. Now I just need a bigger trap so that the rat can actually fit inside.

Daizy said...

Yes, anonymous, I am aware of dogs and rat poison. I don't like to use it at all but when I do it is only in places that they can't get to like the garage or RV.