Eeewww...rats!
I'll be glad when this page goes to archives and I don't have to look at that rat photo anymore. Rob's post was probably inspired by the fact that I noticed last night we had acquired another unwelcome house guest. It seems every time the temperature drops below 40 degrees at night, some rat finds a new spot that we haven't found yet where they can chew a hole in the house and move in.

I'm not the kind of person who jumps on a chair and makes weird noises when I see a rat. I'm more likely to try and throw something at it or reach for the pellet gun, but I never manage to hit my target so, for me, traps are the best way to go. Rats, by the way, do not like cheese. It's mice that like cheese and oh how I wish I was dealing with mice instead since they are much easier to trap. Rats, at least the rats around here, are too smart to fall prey to the snap traps. I had, at one time, a wonderful trap that electrocuted them. Unfortunately it stopped working after.. well, never mind the details, but it was my fault. If you looked at the price on that thing, you'll see why we haven't bought another one. Between the miserable failure of snap traps and my lack of sharpshooting skills, I had to resort to glue traps even though I think these are excessively cruel. However, I don't use them the way most people do. I only set them out when I'm at home and can shoot the rat as soon as it gets stuck (trust me, you'll hear it when a rat gets stuck on one of these.) I still prefer that Rat Zapper though and now that we have the home improvement money I can buy another one to use while we are fixing all the spots that let them get in the house in the first place.