I smell a rat!

We had our first rat in the house. It wasn’t a matter of “if” but “when” this would occur. When you live in a densely populated area with limited waste management you would expect to experience some of the issues related to such an environment. We were told when we first moved here that if you keep your place clean you won’t have any problems so we have worked hard to keep a spotless house. Dishes are always cleaned before bed and all food is kept sealed and out of sight. He (I’m calling the rat “he” but I didn’t actually check the gender) showed himself while I was cleaning the dishes one night. He walked out on the stovetop while I was in the kitchen doing dishes. I thought this was a bold move since there was activity and the lights were on. We were told that he was a young one so he may not have had the street sense to stay out of sight until the lights were out. I caught his movement out of the corner of my eye and as I turned to get a closer look he turned around and climbed into one of the vent holes on the top of the stove. We had two mice living in the stove when we first arrived so I had purchased some rodent trapping supplies in preparation for this day. I ran to the closet and gathered my glue traps and placed them all around the stove. The traps I had purchased were made for mice so I was afraid they wouldn’t stop him since he was four times the size of his rodent cousin. My hope was that he would get stuck on multiple traps and be immobilized.

After setting the traps I notified Val that we had a rat. She was not happy about that (Who would be?). I told her I had the traps set and I was certain we would have him caught be morning. I went back to washing dishes. Moments later I noticed movement in my peripheral vision. I turned to see the rat slowly creeping around the stovetop again. When I turned, he started back for the vent hole but got his rear foot caught on a glue trap. While struggling to get that foot loose he stumbled into a second trap which immobilized his front feet. He began to roll around trying to get free which got him more stuck in the two traps. I quickly grabbed the nearest blunt object that I thought would “do the job” without denting the metal stovetop. I grabbed the cutting board that was waiting to be washed (OK that may have not been the best weapon of choice but I was desperate) and I headed over to the stove. The cutting board had rubber ends on it and it was long enough that I could hit him without any fear of being close enough for him to bite me. I took the corner of the board and I gave him a good whack on the head. He started screeching and I whacked him two more times. He screeched no more…. Val heard the commotion and came running. Our neighbors, the Nelsens, also heard and came over to investigate. The rat was dead.

I left the traps out over night in case there were more in the stove and set multiple traps through the house in areas that might have rodent traffic. As of now, there have been no more sightings. My guess is that he was a baby exploring new areas. Unfortunately he chose the wrong place to explore….My Kitchen!

Oh Yeah, In case you are wondering…Val made me bleach and boil the cutting board.