We had a long go, this rat and I. Isn’t she a beauty!? Not a pet, a pest; but a respected one. This rat infested our house for many months. You can read about one of her earlier conquests here. (I don’t actually know she is a she but I have a gut, visceral feeling that she is; and that we caught her just before she bred).

A bit of background. Our house was build in 1941/42 and was only supposed to be standing till “the war” ended. The whole neighborhood was put up in about 6 months as a work perk for the employees of the airplane factory in the neighborhood. They stood on rented land (rented from a local farmer) and our understanding is that they were only meant to be standing for a few years; then taken down and shipped to England to help replace housing there. After having done several renovations I can confirm that they are fully constructed with 4′ x 8′ sections which are bolted together; walls, roof, and floor joists. Similar to the refugee housing you can buy from Ikea. When the war ended there was a housing crisis here at home and not only in Europe so the houses stayed. They were sold cheaply to returning Veterans.

They are set on concrete blocks pillars (and we are pretty sure they are not attached in any significant way). There is no subfloor, no duct work, no real foundation, and they would certainly not pass a current building inspection. Still, as our own building inspector said, “they’ve settled as much as they are going to in the last 75 years and if they haven’t fallen down by now they are not going to”. They sit on large central lots and are close to schools and bus routes. We love our house, even when it shakes in the wind, and as long as there isn’t a major hurricane or tornado (Land of Oz anyone?) we’re fine.

What we are not fine with is the rodents. Because the blocks around the house are only skirting (they don’t go more than 2″ below the ground) basically the whole exterior of the house is an open invitation for small (and not so small) visitors.

This rat took advantage of the obvious invitation to make house. At the beginning I though it might be an improvement because she drove off all the smaller mice. Rats are quite meticulous about where they poop and so I found I was no longer cleaning up droppings. We would hear her at night – cruising around and looking for a party. Rafa went downstairs several times with consecutively larger and large wooden objects but never saw her. Rats are smart and this one had a PhD. We tried traps and poison, all to no avail.

The final straw (and when the war really ramped up) was when we heard her in the couch. I CAN’T have a rat infested couch in my living room. We realized where she was in a late night reconnaissance mission and I convinced Rafa that we couldn’t manage at that hour of night. “Let’s just go to bed and look in the morning… I just can’t”. The next morning, with great trepidation, we opened the storage area of the couch (a fold out one with a storage space below) and found it full of empty wrappers. A bag of coffee sweets (lovingly imported in a suitcase from Colombia) had recently gone missing from a top shelf in the kitchen. It was too high for either of the kids to reach and neither Rafa or I had finished them off. On this day, the mystery was solved. Inside the couch we found only the wrappers, carefully and meticulously chewed around the top edge, freeing up the coffee, toffee interior. She’s brilliant and a caffeine addict. That was it! It was now mano a mano. It was on!

I did some careful internet research and learned that rats can smell human residue on traps that have been set and therefore know to avoid them. Word to the wise, the experts recommend the cheapest wooden ones and those were the ones that finally worked for us. I made a trip to the local hardware store to by a clean set of traps, donned my rubber gloves (so as not to leave any scent residue) and set them up in her favorite highways. And… she fell. One night we heard the trap spring and the following morning there she was.

I must admit to feeling very proud of myself and also a bit sad. She was a mighty opponent and a beautiful specimen of an animal. However, she was not a good bedfellow or houseguest. The quest continues to find a way to keep the rodents our long term but for now, Julia 1 – Small furrys – 25(?). I have not won the war but today, in this battle, human ingenuity and determination has taken the day.