Oddblock Station: Hostilities Persist and A New Front Has Been Opened

Need more be said?

Back in early May my wife awakened me in the middle of the night because she'd been awaked by the sound of something gnawing in the attic. Not what I wanted to hear.

I had suspicions that rodents might be up there because I thought I'd heard something scamper across the ceiling a few weeks earlier. No further noises ensued so I concluded that I might've only heard birds on the roof.

Anyway, my wife was right because I heard the gnawing too. After determining where the noice was coming from, I rapped on the ceiling. The noise stopped and I slipped back into bed. As soon as my head hit the pillow, the rodent racket resumed. Again doing the same thing, I couldn't get the irritating pest to stop its chewing no matter how loud I knocked on the ceiling.

Determined to put a stop to the chewing, I slipped on a few clothes, grabbed a flashlight, went outside to retrieve my step-ladder from the storage shed and hoped I wouldn't awaken my neighbours. Minutes later I had the ladder set up beneath the access opening, readied the flashlight, shoved aside the door and went up.

Of course the gnawing stopped as soon as I'd opened the access, but I didn't see any little creatures staring back at me or running around. Closing up the attic access, I returned to bed. Mercifully sleep returned and all remained quiet for the remainder of the night.

The following morning I unwrapped a fresh rat trap, glued it to a piece of corrugated plastic white board, nailed it to a 4-ft strip of pine and ended up with what looked like a protest sign. Feeling inspired, I grabbed a black maker and made my sign look genuine.

After the glue was well-dried, I baited and set the trap, stepped to the top of the waiting ladder and rested the readied sign on the rafters. All I had to do now was wait.

I hadn't heard anything during the rest of the day and through the night, but curious the next morning, I checked the attic.

I wasn't expecting this...

May 11, 2022

My protest sign with the rat trap had caught a mouse... a pest I hadn't even considered might be present. Too, I didn't think a mouse was big enough to get snagged by a rat trap, nonetheless a dead rodent is a dead rodent which means one less uninvited intruder to deal with.

Again feeling inspired, I made a trip to the basement and made a second protest sign, using another rat trap because I didn't have a mouse trap.

After removing and disposing of the dead mouse, I baited the two traps, grabbed my two protests signs and placed them in the attic.

Around 11:00 p.m. my wife and I heard this loud thump like something had fallen on the roof, and then I realized a trap might have been sprung. Sure enough, another mouse, and judging from the sign it chose, I was wondering if the thing had been able to read.

May 12, 2022

I returned the freshly reset traps to the attic and kept checking them once a day, but no new casualties. At the same time, I wasn't hearing any unusual noises from the attic.

"Maybe they're gone." I began to believe, and wondered too if the traps should be removed, but...

"They're back!"

Unlike the movie from which this line has been borrowed, there's no "They."

Only one pest has appeared, and it became another casualty.

July 07, 2022

Another month has since passed and the traps ready and are waiting, but thus far along, all remains quiet on the Pestered Front.

I'm hoping I've beaten the enemy back to well beyond the outside of the four walls of my home, but only time will tell.

They keep on coming!

This sign says rats but this was a mouse.

In case you're wondering, these traps are glued to that piece of whiteboard. Adding the writing was an after-thought.

Doing this supposedly makes escaping the trap more difficult, assuming the rodent isn't killed outright. And I know some aren't killed outright.

September 26, 2002, one of two caught ten minutes apart.

October 10, 2022, is Thanksgiving Day in Canada.
I'm thankful this dead rodent from my attic wasn't a rat.

The Oddblock Station Agent

Addendum November 30, 2022

It's that time of year again

And I wish it wasn't, because these determined nuisances have been attempting to move in to escape the coming winter.

Again I have checked around the outside of my house and I can't find any opening that would permit these pests access. This said, I live in a semi-detached building, thus I've asked my neighbour to screen-cover his rodent-accessible vents and check the other openings on his side, such as weep holes, and plug them. That can be done with galvanized 1/4" wire mesh.

He hasn't, but he's admitted to getting mice inside his home.

This far along, every mouse I've caught has been in the attic, which leads me to suspect they are coming through from next door.