Fwd: Rats!

For the last month or so, there has been a gnawing noise in the kitchen.  Then we came down one morning and the throw rug by the refrigerator was all chewed up.  Phil the bug man, a patient of Julie's who happens to be an exterminator, came and pointed out where the critter had tunneled  under our patio and into the crawl space under the kitchen.  I removed the bricks and filled the space with gravel and then replaced the bricks.  Phil also put some poison and glue traps in the basement near the crawl space.  Over the next couple of weeks, the glue traps disappeared but the gnawing continued and every couple of days we had to clean up more of the gnawed up run.  When the snow melted, I checked and saw that the rat and dug all the gravel out from under the patio and more bricks were caving in.

So today, the boys and I took advantage of the warm weather to take up about 1 foot square of the brick patio.  We repaired the hole in the railroad tie border with hardware cloth (basically wire mesh) and a piece of 2x6, then filled the hole and the tunnel under the house with concrete.  We spread concrete where he had dug out under the bricks.  After the concrete cured, we put sand on top and replaced the bricks.  On the inside of the house, I pulled the refrigerator out from the cupboards and filled the gaps with rat poison, wood blocks, and foam insulation.  Then I nailed strips of wood along the base of the wall to seal the 1 inch opening between the wall and floor.  Finally, I used acrylic caulk to seal the tiny seams.

No way the rat was going to be able to get back in the house through his old tunnel.  After several hours of rat proofing the house, we sat down to watch the Colts vs. Chargers.

But what's that noise from the kitchen?  Sounds like gnawing.  Oh no!  I sealed everything up real well but I must have sealed the mouse into the house instead of out of the house.  Aargh!