Farm Drama: The Extermination Begins

The exterminator came on Monday and told us that things were going to cost a bit more than he originally thought since we have a large property and he needed more traps to cover the area.  He came back on Saturday morning and put out 9 bait stations.  "How are these different than what we were already trying?" was my big question... not because I begrudge him the money that we are paying him, only because I want to know and NEED to know that this is finally going to work. 

Turns out that there are several differences:

1). The "homeowner" level of rat poison takes multiple bites/meals in a row to work on the rats, whereas the professional poison works after the first bite.

2). Pro level poison is better quality and more attractive to the rats.

3). He will leave it out for 30 days (more patient than I was) and then come back for his first of three follow-up visits. One visit every month or so.  He said that these bait stations are about 95% effective. Usually during the first follow-up visit he will see a lot of activity -- a lot of the poison will have been eaten in the popular stations (each bait station contains enough poison to kill 30 rats). By the second visit he said that the amount of bait consumed should be a lot less and by the third visit he should see no more activity.  In case he does still see activity or the rats ignore the current bait - he has a very expensive "soft bait" poison that he will use to finish the job.  So it will take longer than I was hoping for, but it sounds like he has a lot of experience with rats.  He says that out in the country we should be able to get rid of them completely.  It is people who live closer to downtown/urban areas that have a lot more problems getting rid of rat infestations. 

 It will be so nice not to see all these dreaded holes and piles of dirt in the rabbit house.  I guess one positive outcome of this experience is that it should help us build the aviary more securely.  I won't do wire flooring since it is a huge pain for harvesting the compost/cleaning the floor of the house.  A concrete pad would be lovely though unrealistic because of cost.  I think a perimeter of wire mesh about a foot deep around the aviary should do the job nicely.  Hopefully, rats won't be a recurring issue.  The exterminator said that he is seeing a lot of rat problems this year because we had such a mild winter.

It rained off and on all day Saturday so hubby spent some time following up on the mystery of how the rat got into the laundry room in the first place. He used an endoscopic camera to explore the dryer vent and also a small opening around the water pipes behind the washer.  No droppings in the dryer vent, but we found an obvious pile of them inside the wall beyond the water pipes.  Droppings make it easy to follow the rat's trail.  We know he was under the fridge and under the washer, but there are no droppings in the basement. So how did he get into that wall? One theory was that he could have come down through the attic. 

 The kids were very excited to see this attic space since it was a mysterious part of the house which they had never seen before.

Hubby was searching for any sign of rat droppings.  He found TWO snake skins, a few trails of mouse droppings, and only a tiny possible group of rat droppings. We know that the rat was not a roof rat, but rather a Norway rat, so it was kind of a long shot but gives me some peace of mind anyway.  It was super hot up there - no one would want to make it their summer residence. And the possibility of snakes? Well the skins could have been up there for 20 years for all we know. At this point snakes seem a lot nicer housemates than rats.  They don't carry many diseases and they eat rodents. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend" philosophy totally works for me in this case. 

 So the mystery of how the rat got into the laundry room remains unsolved.  Hopefully there wont be any repeat performances that allow us to figure it out. We can just fill the opening around that pipe and call it good.