I love all animals. But rats, not so much.

I saw this rat on the deck a few days ago, picking seeds off a bird bell.  Although I don't have the visceral abhorrence some folks do when they encounter rodents, his presence is hardly welcome.  I mean, it's a rat.  On my deck.

I doubt he's a loner, traveling from one part of the city to another, stopping off in the neighborhood for a brief snack.  (When I close my eyes I envision a subterranean warren on these loathsome creatures lurking beneath the floorboards of the house, breeding with abandon, plotting untold horrors.  Really, it's enough to give a person nightmares ... if, y'know, that person was afraid of rats.)  I'm obviously putting too much food out for the squirrels, that's the problem.

Being a live and let live kinda guy, I now find myself with a dilemma.  Rat poison is out.  It causes intense suffering, and I wouldn't want another animal accidentally taking the bait.  I won't use sticky traps.  I couldn't bear having those little eyes gaze at me, pleadingly, while I tossed him into the garbage can.  Spring traps might harm other wildlife.  I looked online and found a device called Rat Zapper.  The rodent crawls inside a box and gets a deadly jolt of electricity.  They're humane and (supposedly) too small to accommodate squirrels.  They're not cheap.  But I have to do something.

Art and I recently re-watched the movie Ratatouille.  Maybe this is a Pixar rat, always ready with a wisecrack, or a song.

Comments

[Bee Girl]

I agree with you about those sticky traps. You might have to stop putting any seed out until they go away. (Yes, I'd wager there is more than one rat.)

[Amanda]

i got rats in the garden once and it took forever to get rid of them. And your right about something else. They are Really Smart. They communicate with each and can usually out guess humans.

[madfloridian]

Once I was sharing some peanuts with our squirrels. They would come up close, 5 or 6 of them, to pick them up off the ground. All at once I saw a small one with a thin tail. Guess what it was. A nervy rat, but a smart one. He figured I would not notice him among the squirrels.