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I just found a whole stack of wardrobe draw in my study had become an ant's nest. I'm removing everything and spraying as best I can!
I have a rat problem.
At least, I think it's a rat problem. Every night I can hear them in the ceiling and walls, running about from spot to spot. I also hear signs of them in the kitchen and laundry, and find evidence of them afterwards.
They chewed through the plastic top of the dry dog food container, and ate some of the dry food. I found that they'd chewed the remaining two sticks of silverbeet that I had on the kitchen bench. There's a hole in one bottom corner of the kitchen, and also in a wall at the top of a partition that divides the bathroom from the laundry. And yet, they don't seem to eat the bread, which sometimes I've left out, still wrapped in plastic.
Anyway, I've decided to take steps about this. Gabby (who's mostly an "indoors" puss) sometimes tries to stalk them in the kitchen, but mostly she's given up on this. I've been afraid to set "standard" mouse traps in case the cats or Peggy get caught in them, and afraid to set baits in case they ate them.
However, recently I bought two different sorts of traps. One is a long tube with a bend in the middle at a slight angle. You put the bait at one end and when the mouse/rat runs down to that end it tips down, and a trap door at the other end closes shut and locked. The second trap it some sort of circular spring driven trap, that shuts after they enter it. I might try these in the kitchen.
I also got a set of three baits. I intend to put one in the dry food container, and two in the roof. None of my pets should be able to reach these baits in these positions (unless one of them is getting into the roof, though I doubt that), so they should be safe to deploy. I think this is reasonable - these aren't pets, like some of my friends have, but a nuisance.
We'll see - I'll place them tomorrow morning before I go to uni.
What Jeb did next
Feb. 28th, 2006 11:00 amIt was obvious that both adults were out as both cars were gone, and the son was at school. I went over and had a look at how the backyard of the house opposite was fenced. The house was on the centre of the block, there was a gate over the driveway, and a short fence on the over side. The house was raised up about a foot off the ground and there were trellis and bits of fencing along it, except for two glaringly obvious gaps - see diagram below:
I also left a note in the front door, saying that Jeb was out again and what I'd done, and offering to help plug them properly. Maybe they'll take up my offer. Who knows. But at least Jeb isn't (for now) wandering the streets.
But to uni work... ...hopefully.
More on Jeb
Feb. 27th, 2006 10:13 pmLater today, at about 8pm, Jeb turns up at my gate and starts yapping! I let him in for a short play with Pegasus, and then grabbed him and walk over to the house. The front door was open and the fly wire door not quite closed. I knocked on the door frame loudly, and when the boyfriend/husband came gave him the dog, and said that it wasn't acceptable for Jeb to do a repeat of last night. That if he turns up at all tonight again, then I will return him, and knocking on the door loudly until someone wakes up and answers.
I hope he got the message. I like Jeb, but I need my sleep. I get the impression that it's his wife/girlfriend's son's dog, and he doesn't care for it much. That may be, but he still needs to be responsible for it.
Jenny phoned a short while later and we talked through the possibilities. Hopefully I will get to sleep tonight. I have a Wednesday deadline for my uni work and today was just wasted.
Death to Fleas Part 3
Feb. 23rd, 2006 07:10 pmI'm going to try another tactic. I heard this from Jackie at Second Life. It was how she cleaned out a granny flat of flea infestation.
- Sprinkle Epsom Salts on the floor and furniture and into all the cracks in the infected area.
- Leave this for a week.
- Vacuum thoroughly the entire area. Seal the vacuum cleaner bag and dispose of this.
- Spray area with "flea mix" from spray bottle.
- teaspoon metholated spirits
- 1 teaspoon Lavender Oil
- 1/4 cup white vinegar
- fill remainder with water
Fleas - 1st test
Feb. 21st, 2006 07:57 am![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif){kind=small}
fiery_ichor last night. I put a dinner plate on the lounge room floor , some dish washing liquid and some water on the plate, then place a tea light in the middle, switched off the light and went to bed.This morning it looked like there were two dozen fleas stuck in the liquid. It was hard to tell because foolishly I'd used a black plate. However, when I went outside for 30 minutes to play with Peggy, it was still dark in that room, so I got another plate and did the same thing. About a dozen fleas, in only 30 minutes!
Wow,
fiery_ichor, this actually works!
A plague of Fleas
Feb. 20th, 2006 10:54 pmWith Peggy in the house there's always been a certain level of fleas here. Not many, but here none the less. With a big back yard and walks through the bush it's impossible to avoid. But until now they haven't been much of a problem. However, this summer things have gotten out of hand. I managed to recover a big chunk of carpet a year ago (from the bush - perfectly good stuff) and it's made a difference, however it's also acted as the perfect home for fleas. And things peaked after my trip to Lorne. He just had so much more on him, and they've infected half of the lounge. Not good.
I stripped the bedding I had on the sofa, and removed the carpet from the room, and vacuumed the room and washed what I could. So far though, it doesn't seem to be enough. Any suggestions about killing this buggers, without making the place toxic?
