Rat Trap - and you've been caught!

Ed has had a serious clearout of the garage. He laid 2 rat traps, but all they did, was feed the rats! Everytime he checked them (sometimes 3 times a day) the cheese had gone, the traps had fired, but there was no sign of anything!

Previously, the nearest we had come to rats was the spotting of one, as it stole almonds from the tree and then scurried back into Ursula's woodpile. However, in the summer, they moved the woodpile and built a new store. Evidently the rats decided to try out Hotel Bramley. For them, the free cheese must have been a real treat!

Underneath his 12 ft long workbench, he found the beginnings of a nest. Well, more than the beginnings, but thankfully no baby rats.

Time for more action. The purchase of a poison bait rat trap. I read all of the instructions (Spanish), but it was simple enough. Our main concern, was the liklihood of rotting rats. Yuk. He baited the trap, and spent a lot of time in the garage, trying to figure out where they were and how they were getting in. Oh, oh. One day, he admitted to me that he had seen 3 of them. 1 black and 2 brown. One of them was the size of a cat. No wonder the poison trap didn't work - the rats were too big to get in it! (must feed them less cheese)

A total clearout still found no rats, but Ed finally decided that they were getting in in the space around the boiler flue. He sealed that up, and there have been no further sounds or mess.

Then, yesterday, as I collected wood for the fire, I nearly picked up a big furry thing in the middle of the wood pile. Argh. Ed (my hero) went and removed it for me. Yes, it was a dead rat. Yes it was huge. In fact, it's tail was about 9 inches long (or so he said).

Gross. I'll let Ed get the wood for now, until he restacks it, later in the week.