Several years ago, my wife, Lisa, and I were watching a television show in the late evening when we suddenly heard a pitter-pattering sound coming from somewhere above. Because our garage is attached to the house, as the noise continued, we realized the light thumping had to be coming from the garage roof. Not having heard this noise previously, we tried to guess its origin. Too light to be that of a human and too heavy to be that of a flock of birds, we thought it might be squirrels. We did not pay any further attention to what we heard, but indeed did hope that the noise would disappear, as it finally, did. Moreover, upon going outside to check the garage, I did not spot any movement or anything unusual.
Out of curiosity, we did a quick google search and discovered that squirrels tend to be solitary and highly territorial. This fact only heightened our anxiety inasmuch as we never had experienced this noise in the past. The next evening, I needed to retrieve something from my car and, as I opened the door from the house leading into the unlit garage, two beady eyes, glowing in the dark, came running toward me. After I quickly turned on the garage light, whatever had been coming toward me had disappeared. Recovering from my momentary fright, I realized that I had seen a rat running on the track of our garage opener. When I reported to my wife what I had seen, she refused to believe me telling me: “You are seeing things.” Upon retiring to bed, I felt conflicted insofar as I was quite sure as to what I had seen, but given how rapidly the rat or whatever it was had disappeared, I thought perhaps, in fact, what I had seen was a mere figment of my imagination.
Often, we, as humans, don’t want to allow negative or painful experiences to enter our consciousness. The next evening my inner conflict was resolved when, once more, I saw two glaring eyes in the darkness heading toward me. I knew that what I seen was real and not imagined. Upon turning the garage light, the rodent had scurried to protection probably in the loft of our garage where it no longer could be seen. But this time, however, I had concrete proof of what I had seen: We had recently bought a 10-pound bag of cat food that had been torn opened by either the teeth or paws of a rat. This rat or rats (I was hoping it was only one) had left a trail of poop by the side of my car. Unhappily, we recognized that our state of denial had been pierced necessitating the need to act.
A friend of mine that is quite handy noticed that there were some gaps left by the eave of the garage roof. He volunteered to help me close these open spaces by putting some mesh wire in the interstices. As we could see no other way the rodents were entering, both my wife and I hoped this would solve our problem. Unfortunately, it did not as we continued to hear the light trampling on our garage roof afterwards. I had heard that rat poison was a solution to our problem, so the next day I purchased some from Home Depot neatly placing the green pebbles in a container in the loft of our garage. The next day I climbed the ladder to the loft of our garage and discovered that much of the poison had been devoured, but remnants of the green little stones were scattered outsize the box in which I had placed them. Not having any idea where these creatures were coming from, my wife and I both decided to call an exterminator.
When the exterminator arrived, I accompanied him to the loft where he saw the scattered rat poison. He told me that the rats had been fighting over the “treat.” He indicated rat traps are both safer and more efficient than poison because in the latter case the rodents may die, while stuck in the walls, causing a fetid odor throughout the house. Although he set four rat traps with melted chocolate as the bait, after looking around for any telltale crevices or openings, he could not reveal to me where the rats were gaining entrance to the garage.
After disposing of the poison with gloves, with my foot, I gently pushed one of the traps to an area in the loft apart from the other traps. Suddenly, I heard an explosion as loud as what us kids used to call a “cherry bomb.” (firecracker). It scared the hell out of me as, accidentally, I must have disengaged the spring of the trap. For those of you who will ever need to set rat trap, be sure not to stick your hand in it once it’s set. Guaranteed the loss of a finger or two if you make that mistake.
The next day I walked up the ladder to the loft of our garage wondering what I would find. Sure enough there was a dead rat in one of the traps. Rats, dead or alive, are not the most beautiful creatures to behold: This one, brownish-gray colored with a long tail and a bit of blood on the side of the trap. After disposing of the rat, I had no idea how many more of those fellows were going to invade our garage. Well, guess what? That was the last rat we saw. We did not change anything following that day so I have no idea what caused their disappearance. Because rats often hang out together, with a group of rats being called a mischief (I wonder why), perhaps its chums got the message. It remains a mystery to me. If any of you readers are experts in animal behavior, send me your take on the blessed ending of Lisa and my rat problems.
Dr. Bernard F. Natelson 