Plan D

One of my friends has suggested that " When the packrats outsmart you by accident....where can you run to?!?!?! ".

In the first place, I am not sure that it was an accident. If you haven't had any dealings with the varmint in question, you should not jump to hasty conclusions. There are stories of people driven to such extremes by their devious and dastardly actions that they lost control and tried to kill them by shooting through the walls in a vain attempt to get rid of the nuisance. They will while in the process of gnawing through the support beams of your house not even pause in their pursuit of your house's destruction while you are pounding on the ceiling directly under them.


The last time that Karen went to town, ( 130 miles one way) I had her buy the biggest "Ultrasonic Rodent Repeller" that she could find. I also talked her into getting some Rat Poison. She is dead set against poison, but that is how bad the Rats can be that she agreed. She has apparently hedged her bet by hiding it somewhere I cannot find it. ( She denies it of course) The sonic device works in a range that people and animals other than Rats and Mice cannot hear, at least that is what they claim. The only thing that I can see is a little red light. I installed a plug in the attic and plugged it in. Karen thinks that it might be working. We will see.


Not all of the various Pack Rat subspecies or individuals for that matter make all the right moves. If they choose the wrong place to destroy, it is possible to make some inroads into their own destruction. In fact Josie and I have managed to kill two of them in the last few days. One was caught in the pool cover, and with the help of Karen and Josie blocking, she was killed with the BB gun. (Very pregnant) Another chose to set up house keeping in my currently unused Hawk house. Not enough hiding places there. I suppose that it is the process of evolution, to weed out the ones who don't possess the proper amount of cunning to sufficiently aggravate the human population.


You will notice from the title that I am up to plan D. The first was just a straight forward Rat trap with Peanut Butter on the trigger. Well, he apparently told a bunch of Mice about the food on the top of the table. They sprung the trap and since it was a Rat trap, the killing mechanism just went over their heads. Once the ruckus was over they then came up and polished the trigger to a shine. He then re stuffed the food can full of the stuff that I took out of it, called it a night and was curled up somewhere in the hanger to await the next challenge.


I left the stuff in the can and reset the trap with more Peanut Butter. I checked it at Midnight to see what was happening. The trap was sprung, no Rat. I reset it. No action by morning. Apparently if I let the stuff alone that he puts into the can he would be satisfied to leave no trace of his existence. Sorry, its not happening.


I then set a repeating Mouse live trap on the counter, baited with dog food. I set the trap up on the food can to keep it out of reach of the Mice. I also emptied the can of "trinkets". This morning I found that he had licked the Peanut Butter lightly, but apparently was not the brand that he liked. He also picked up his trinkets and put them back into the can under the trap. (The 6 mice that I caught in the live trap were released for Josie to play with.)

He also stuffed that little piece of plastic in the trap to show me what he thought of my attempts.

This is the stuff that he put back into the can. There is no real rhyme or reason why he choose these items, but they are all items that he likes and uses. So my next move, since he doesn't like Peanut Butter is to use things that he likes. The shiny thing next to the screw is a chain link that he has stuffed in the can each time that I have taken it out.

So I am now using it as bait. We will see what the morrow brings.