It has been an emotionally tiring day. Rats have invaded the house. We heard them working on breaking a hole in the wall.
When my son in law came today to help me move the fridge, we were shocked how big the hole was. You see it in the picture above.
They had stolen a dish towel and dragged it into the hole.
He is the best son in law ever. He fixed everything and hopefully, they won’t be able to come in again.
But as much as I love my garden, I don’t love the rodents that come along with the deal.
As I said. I really miss my rat terrier Boya.
She kept things under control. But am not ready to look for a new dog. She was special.
Don't read on if you are squirmish. Last night, I had set sunflower traps. This is what you do. Fill a 5 gal bucket halfway with water and sprinkle black oil sunflowerseeds on top until the water is not visible anymore. Place the bucket in a place you think rats are hanging out. Add a ramp that they can easily run up to the top.
The trick is to fill the bucket enough that they can't touch ground and jump out but not so much that they just hang down and eat the seeds without jumping in.
I only got four last night. Hoping to get some more today.
Don't look if you feel bad about killing anything - truthfully, if there were only a few rats around eating some fruit and such, I wouldn't care. But coming in the house and eating everything on a tree (like all the pomegranates) I have to put my foot down.
They are in the compost now. Some chickens will eat them - no mine... but they make a good addition to the compost pile...
Anyway, dealing with rodents grosses me out and I spend the day taking care of this particular problem and what I had planned didn't get done... such is life... Still, I am tired and it is early. Going to sleep now and hopefully dream of something pleasant.
Join us for the daily 5 - Minute Freewrite. Check my profile for a new prompt every day.
All images are my own unless otherwise cited.
Animation By @zord189
#SoCalSteemit is building and supporting the Steemit community of Southern California. If you are from SoCal and are into creating quality content here on Steemit, we'd love for you to follow us @SoCalSteemit and join our group on Discord!
Click on the graphics to vote for Enginewitty as a witness
I am a proud member of the Dtubefamily777 created by @nathanmars.
Join us at the Freewrite House for fun and games!!! Weekly drawing for SBI memberships and so much more!!
Post from Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and other social media accounts to your Steem account using Share2steem. Here is my referral link
On Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarianneEWest
Listen to the Sustainable Living Podcast here!
