Yet Another Blog Post About Rats

Oh let me tell you how sorry I am to return to the subject of rats. I realize that this is an extremely unsexy thing to post about and that I have posted about this problem before but alas, we are still plagued by rats in this here house. Things were quiet for a good long while but they're back.

This rear corner of the garage is the epicenter of most of the activity. This is where we previously had a nest and where they are entering by way of a big steal Ibeam that is on the property line, midway in the building and therefor pretty inaccessible. 

So Mr. Raton enters by way of the beam and then cruises around in the garage ceiling bay, leaving his nasty calling card (ahem, I said this was going to be a gross post).

I was noticing a lot of droppings along my retaining wall in the yard too. Turns out this is a super fucking rat freeway. They ran along this wall then dropped down in-between the buildings and then made their way in. The final straw for me was finding a dropping on my bedroom window sill upstairs -one had climbed the bougainvillea. Ew, ew, ew! I sleep with my window open. I freaked out.

I checked with my neighbor and they let me dismantle their fence along the property line so that I could get a look at what was happening there. My house extends about 6 feet farther than theirs so this is the area where I could have a look at the gap between the foundations.

This is looking through the fence on my side and how I got in there.

And this is where I believe all the trouble is happening. My foundation is on the left. I felt in over my head so I called a new pest company that sounded genuinely professional -they've got a no rat return guarantee. I like that.

They placed stainless mesh at the access point and poured concrete along the bottom of the trench between the two buildings. Good god I hope this works.

After all was said and done, I reassembled the fence and cleaned off the entire wall and then sprayed it down with bleach and water -which is supposed to deter rats from returning to the scene of the crime. This way I'll also be able to monitor the activity level over  the next few days and weeks.

So there you have it. The professionals also trapped the shit out of the garage and will be returning two more times to check them (because now of course any creature that was inside is now stuck inside). It's macabre, I know. La la la la la, trying not to think about it. And then finally, the pros will do a final clean.

After that, time to repair the drywall in the garage once and for all.