Continuation of Day Seven

Around ten that night Kathy called me back upstairs to check out a noise she heard in the kitchen, one of the sticky traps was turned over and in the middle of the floor. We started the watch routine again and we sat quietly in the dark for over hour. I remembered an old wire trap that I had in the building out back, this was about ten inches by eighteen inches and has a door on each end with the bait on a trip platform in the middle, I set it up and baited it with the peanut butter, block of the remaining door opening and waited again. Kathy retired around eleven and I camped out on the love seat in front of the fireplace where I could watch the kitchen door way by the night light.

A little after one in the morning I dosed off and woke suddenly when something touched my right arm! I got a glimpse of something flashing toward the kitchen, it looked small but I was not sure if I was dreaming or not. I waited awhile to see if anything moved, then got up and turned on the lights, there on the carpet just before you enter the kitchen was a fresh mouse drop!

Tired, I gave up for the night, moved the large cage out to the carport, cleared the doorway and went down stairs. Kathy informed me that she heard a scratching sound over the ceiling in our bedroom while I was upstairs. I went back up and re-baited the traps with fresh peanut butter, mover one spring loaded trap and one sticky trap down stairs, then retired for the night.

Day eight Hubert = 2, Willard =4

This morning I check all the traps, no mouse or rat, found one more mouse drop on the kitchen floor and several droppings at the base of the lamp next to the armoire. While making coffee I noticed that the peanut crumbs in the kitchen drain, where I rinsed off the spoon the night before, were missing. Looks like he is finding plenty of food.

We called the exterminator. No one could come out on the same day and I was not convinced they could find him. One of the companies recommended Rid-A-Critter a company specializing in rodent removal. He seemed very confident that they had to right bait to trap him so we set an appointment for two the next day.

At lunch time Mom found that the rat had eaten a large hole in Dad’s bread during the night. Willard has zeroed in on the kitchen. I finished with our Monday morning work at the church and headed for the hardware store again, picking up some pellet rat poison that everyone was telling would make them thirsty and cause them leave looking for water before they die. However I still wanted to know where he was before putting out the poison. I did not want to tear out the ceiling in the basement.

I got home and checked all the hiding places again and not knowing where he was decided to hold off on the poison and make another trip to the hardware store for some of the larger sticky traps for rats as that is what worked the last time. I picked up four of the big ones, blocked off the kitchen door way with them baited with peanut butter and a piece of bread stuck on top. Three cover the space in the door way so I placed the forth on the top stair, just in case he was in the basement.

We retired for the night after I promised to check on the traps during the night.

Day nine four in the morning

I awoke at four and all was quite, but I knew that I had better check the traps, so I got dressed and went up stairs, turned the lights on and one of the three traps in the door way was missing, I search the living room and then the kitchen no sign of a rat or sticky trap, I could not believe it! Back in the kitchen and under a free standing cabinet, behind a potato jar was the trap up on its edge. It was a mess with hair and much more stuck all over it, but no rat. All of a sudden the paper around the edge flower pot moved and I started looking closer. He was behind the cabinet with two feet on the wall chair rail and two feet on the back of the cabinet top. I ran for the fireplace tongs but I could not get to him, with him being able to get away.

I went and got the wire cage trap from the carport and set it next to the cabinet and blocked off an area so he would go into the trap. I then went to the other side and flushed him out. He ran down and into the trap and back out again before I could get the trap door closed. He headed to the back of the kitchen and under the pillows on the bench.

I proceeded to build another barricade across the middle of the kitchen with the wire cage trap in the middle open on both ends so he could see through and take the easy route. He ran right through the trap jumping over the plate that trips the trap and into his hiding place in the living room under the TV console. Willard had won again! Now that I knew where he was it was time for the poison.

It was five in the morning, so I made a cup of coffee, ate some breakfast, set the poison on each side of the console, turned out the lights and waited. A little after six I heard him munching on the pellets, I continued to let him eat for about 15 minutes before getting up. Now I had to keep him upstairs until Rid-A-Critter arrived. I found another hardware store that had a large plastic mouse trap that I could leave the front open and place water with more rat bait. It had a hidden spring that may hold his head in the trap. I set that up next to the opening along the wall with the other bait hoping he would get thirsty and go for it.

Two in the afternoon and help has arrived!

Jeff Vredenburgh and Brandon Shore with Adcock’s Rid-A- Critter were eager to take over. I gave them a brief history and showed them where Willard was hiding. They got their net, gloves, and three foot grabber and started to work. After about ten minutes of checking under the TV console with flashlight and mirror, they spotted him. The TV console had a brace in the middle that blocked my view so that I could see only less than one side at a time, when I would move to the other side the rat would move also, so I was never sure if he was under there. After we moved it away from the wall, they could get a good view of him.

Now it started to get interesting as they tried to position the net and flush him out. After several attempts he escaped, ran over my foot and headed down the hall toward the back of the house.

Mom was in the bedroom with the door shut and Dad was in his chair writing a letter. He was under the desk, then under Dad’s chair, up a lamp, across the book shelves and then back under the desk again. My grandson and I had the door way blocked and they’re sure was a lot of excitement in that small room.

He got into the lower drawer of the desk and as they were taking the items out, he moved up to the next drawer.

When they removed the middle drawer, he moved up into the top drawer until there were no more drawers too hid in.

With the glove hand they finely caught him. Out of the house at last.

Our thanks to Jeff and Brandon for their brave action and best of all nothing was broken.

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About the Author: Hubert Crowell, Cave Explorer

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