I Caved

Caved.  Gave In.  Gave Up.  Surrendered to using what works.

We have caught 8 rats outside and I have lost count of the mice caught inside.  I know it's been more than 20.  Seems that my cute, one little mouse in the cupboard had lots of friends and family.  

Last week I opened the bonnet of my car and there was a rat under there.  Son was going to cook some meat on the barby...there is a rats nest under the grill.

I tried the non poison Plaster of Paris baits.  I tried the toothpaste.  The toothpaste hasn't been touched and though the PofP bait has been eaten I am not finding dead mice but still catching live ones.  The traps that are working catch 1 mouse at a time and  have 3 of them but don't get something every day.  Sometimes 2 a day sometimes nothing for a week then another 1 then another 2 then nothing again...I have 5 or 6 traps that are supposed to catch multiple mice but out of them all I have caught 1.  It's taking a long time.

The trouble with catching them live is that you then have to do something with them.  Years ago I would put the cage in the bike basket and ride up the street and let them out so the mouse might have died anyway out in the cold or been eaten by birds or it may have made its way to someone else's house and the problem would have passed on to someone else.  These days if I catch them then it's my responsibility to do something with them.  And I have been doing that.  Over and over and over.  And I am over it.  It sickens me but does need to be done.   However I am now getting to the stage where I can't do it anymore but because the mice are a filthy pest that need to be eradicated I caved. 

I have put baits in areas around the inside of the house for the mice and out in the sheds for the rats.  The son has been warned to watch his dogs in case they find a dead rat.  The chances of them eating a dead rat are really low but we need to watch out for it anyway.  I will walk the yard every day looking for bodies.

And I know that in a weeks time there will be no more mice in my house and no rats in the sheds.   If I had used real baits a month ago it would all be over now.  I think sometimes we need to bite the bullet and do what we know works instead of wasting time trying alternatives to poisons.  Sometimes poison is the quickest, best way for the problem.  Maybe I need to rethink the slaters now...