RATS!!!

Rats! No, I don't mean that as a exclamation of discouragement. I mean it quite literally, rats. Wednesday morning, we took my husband to work and came home to start our schoolwork. I planned to wash a few loads of laundry as well. I grabbed a basket of dirty clothes and went out into the garage. I dropped the basket onto a storage tote that was sitting near the washing machine to prepare to put it into the machine. No sooner than I had done that, I heard a noise and looked at the wall and saw a GIANT, and I mean GIANT rat running away along the wall.

I, of course, calmly walked back into the house and shut the door. Well, maybe not so calmly. With an extremely LOUD scream of terror and surprise I ran into the house and slammed the door, thus scaring my two year old into tears. Shakily, I calmed her down and called my husband. He suggested opening the garage door so that it could run out and start empty the garage of its contents so that we could try and scare it out of the garage. Ever the obedient wife, I open the garage door and go outside with my oldest child and start emptying the garage slowly.

I didn't want to be by myself so I called my friend Rebekah and asked her to come over for support and maybe a little help. She came over and helped me empty out the garage and bang around looking for the rat. We didn't find it. We did find a hold behind the water heater which we think it went into since it was headed into that area when I saw it. She went to the store and got a rat trap and we set it out with peanut butter.

The next morning I went out to check the trap, bracing myself for a grim sight. When I entered the garage, I noticed that the trap hadn't tripped. Upon further inspection, it was quite clear that the rat had licked the trap clean of the peanut butter without tripping it. So ,we have a somewhat clever rat! So we set it out the next night with some cheese on it. Apparently we have a really clever rat! It ate the cheese off of the trap without tripping it again. My husband said that it even stood nearby because there were droppings near the trap. So my husband went to the store to buy a glue trap which we have set out tonight and will see if that works.

My friend gave us another idea that we will try if the glue trap doesn't work tonight. She suggested gluing a peanut to the trap. They do that whenever they have problems with rats and it works every time.  I just feel such a weight knowing that there is this thing carrying disease and stuff in my garage. I'm terrified that it will get into our house and hurt my babies and/or myself. I feel like my house is filthy and I by proxy. I will feel quite relieved when this is past us.

Have you ever had rats in your house? How did you rid your home of them? What are your thoughts?