"You Dirty Rat......."
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Well, Maggie, you could always be a contestant on Hell's Kitchen. Your signature dish: Rat-a-ptui!
LOL.
Seriously, I'd be hopping mad at that incompetent exterminator and the landlord by this point.
Again, I suggest that if he doesn't get rid of them right away, to hire your own exterminator and deduct the cost from your rent. Keep a record of your rat trappings as a record in case the landlord balks and it winds up in court.
In California there is an tenet in law that residential rental units have what is called a "warrant of habitability". Your apartment, technically, is not habitable because it is rat-infested. If necessary you could probably even move to a hotel and bill the landlord for that expense, but what with your dogs and all I suspect that's a last resort.
LOL.
Seriously, I'd be hopping mad at that incompetent exterminator and the landlord by this point.
Again, I suggest that if he doesn't get rid of them right away, to hire your own exterminator and deduct the cost from your rent. Keep a record of your rat trappings as a record in case the landlord balks and it winds up in court.
In California there is an tenet in law that residential rental units have what is called a "warrant of habitability". Your apartment, technically, is not habitable because it is rat-infested. If necessary you could probably even move to a hotel and bill the landlord for that expense, but what with your dogs and all I suspect that's a last resort.
JerseyMike
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Just a throught ...
If you have a rat problem, then the other apartments in the building probably have a rat problem. The exerminator needs to visit and set traps in every apartment. If he doesn't do that, then it's going to be next to impossible to get rid of them.
Mike
If you have a rat problem, then the other apartments in the building probably have a rat problem. The exerminator needs to visit and set traps in every apartment. If he doesn't do that, then it's going to be next to impossible to get rid of them.
Mike
maggie~hamilton
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~sudshane, sorry this thread bothers you. I would let it die except that dealing with it here is extremely therapeutic for me.
I have suggested to the building owner as well as the other tenants that it's highly unlikely that rats have singled us out, but my warnings have fallen upon deaf ears. The other tenants all say they have not seen any so they are presuming they don't have them. I say it's probably just a matter of time. After killing six of them here in, what, a 2-week period, how could it really be possibly that we are the only ones with these invaders?
As to setting up housekeeping in a hotel, don't think we're not considering it. If this doesn't end soon, that's exactly what we're gonna do, dogs and all.
Another thought: Put each rat in a plastic zip lock bag. Freeze. Make an appointment with your landlord and hand him a cooler filled with frozen rats.
maggie~hamilton
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Well, I have threatened to start mailing them to him....... that was when he finally got off his ass and called the exterminator.
~sudsshane
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Maggie~
no need to apologize..if you need to vent, we are certainly here for you.
Rats just make my skin crawl! I don't know how you deal with this.
Good Luck with everything.
Shane
no need to apologize..if you need to vent, we are certainly here for you.
Rats just make my skin crawl! I don't know how you deal with this.
Good Luck with everything.
Shane
maggie~hamilton
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WE HAVE REACHED CRITICAL MASS.
The following email to the owner of my apartment building says it all.
-----------------------------------
This morning (Monday) at around 2:30 a.m. I was awakened out of a sound sleep by a very loud gnawing / chewing sound.
At first, I thought one of the doggies had a bone and was on the floor by my bed with it. But then I realized my one dog was asleep on the bed with me -- I could hear her snoring -- and the other dog was sleeping in Arlee's room I am sure, as that is where she always sleeps.
Heart pounding, I lay there very still in my bed trying, first of all, to figure out what the sound was, and then to pinpoint its location. Gradually as I awakened and fully came to my senses, I realized what the sound was -- obviously it was a rat chewing on something. The sound was coming from the northwest corner of my room -- directly across from my bed. It sounded like the rat was gnawing on wood. It was a very loud and frightening sound.
I got up and turned on the light and of course the sound stopped. I pulled a small upholstered trunk away from the corner of the wall and do you know I saw a freaking RAT go scurrying along the baseboard and then it disappeared under my chest of drawers.
IN MY BEDROOM.
Well that was pretty doggoned brazen if you ask me.
I got the vacuum cleaner and fired it up and began poking the nozzle under the chest of drawers hoping I could suck the thing up in it. No such luck. It went scampering away again --- right past my hand and under my bed.
So, at 3:15 in the morning, I pulled my bed away from the wall, pulled the covers off, dragged the mattress and box spring off, looking for that rat. It was gone. No sign of it. But for all I knew, it had gone up into the box spring somewhere.
While I had the bed out I vacuumed around the corners and molding along the floor. May as well take advantage of the opportunity to do a little housework.
Needless to say, I won't get a whole lot of sleep tonight. I can't sleep in my room now, and I am also afraid to sleep on the couch in the living room as we have trapped three rats just next to it.
WE HAVE REACHED CRITICAL MASS.
I need to hear from the owner of this building TODAY with a plan to immediately purge this apartment of these pests. We simply cannot continue to even stay here under these conditions, much less sleep here.
We are going to have to go stay in a hotel until such time as we can be assured that the rats are gone once and for all. And of course we will expect to be reimbursed for those hotel costs.
This has gone on long enough. I first alerted you of this problem almost two months ago when we first saw and heard rats, and we are still not rid of them.
PLEASE CALL ME TODAY.
The following email to the owner of my apartment building says it all.
-----------------------------------
This morning (Monday) at around 2:30 a.m. I was awakened out of a sound sleep by a very loud gnawing / chewing sound.
At first, I thought one of the doggies had a bone and was on the floor by my bed with it. But then I realized my one dog was asleep on the bed with me -- I could hear her snoring -- and the other dog was sleeping in Arlee's room I am sure, as that is where she always sleeps.
Heart pounding, I lay there very still in my bed trying, first of all, to figure out what the sound was, and then to pinpoint its location. Gradually as I awakened and fully came to my senses, I realized what the sound was -- obviously it was a rat chewing on something. The sound was coming from the northwest corner of my room -- directly across from my bed. It sounded like the rat was gnawing on wood. It was a very loud and frightening sound.
I got up and turned on the light and of course the sound stopped. I pulled a small upholstered trunk away from the corner of the wall and do you know I saw a freaking RAT go scurrying along the baseboard and then it disappeared under my chest of drawers.
IN MY BEDROOM.
Well that was pretty doggoned brazen if you ask me.
I got the vacuum cleaner and fired it up and began poking the nozzle under the chest of drawers hoping I could suck the thing up in it. No such luck. It went scampering away again --- right past my hand and under my bed.
So, at 3:15 in the morning, I pulled my bed away from the wall, pulled the covers off, dragged the mattress and box spring off, looking for that rat. It was gone. No sign of it. But for all I knew, it had gone up into the box spring somewhere.
While I had the bed out I vacuumed around the corners and molding along the floor. May as well take advantage of the opportunity to do a little housework.
Needless to say, I won't get a whole lot of sleep tonight. I can't sleep in my room now, and I am also afraid to sleep on the couch in the living room as we have trapped three rats just next to it.
WE HAVE REACHED CRITICAL MASS.
I need to hear from the owner of this building TODAY with a plan to immediately purge this apartment of these pests. We simply cannot continue to even stay here under these conditions, much less sleep here.
We are going to have to go stay in a hotel until such time as we can be assured that the rats are gone once and for all. And of course we will expect to be reimbursed for those hotel costs.
This has gone on long enough. I first alerted you of this problem almost two months ago when we first saw and heard rats, and we are still not rid of them.
PLEASE CALL ME TODAY.
I killed 3 rats with a shovel at work last month...
The smokers were leaving the rear door to the shop area propped open, so they could get back into the building after 'paving their lungs". Well..... the rear door to the building was propped open more often than not, due to the smokers going in and out. There is a wooded area, and a pond just about 100 feet from the rear of our building.
One day I was out in the shop speaking to my boss, when a rat ran past us with a baby rat in it's mouth. I FREAKED!! My boss never even saw it! I saw the rat run under a pallot, so I ran to get a shovel from the tool rack. A couple of the guys chased the rat out from under the pallot, and I smacked at it with the shovel. Didn't get the large rat, but it dropped the baby rat and I smacked that one. Kill #1. The large rat ran under another pallot, but I could still get to it. I got it with the sharp edge of the shovel a few times, then pulled it out from under the pallot with the shovel. Still alive, but mortally wounded. Kill #2. That afternoon, another employee spotted yet another rat. Rat #3 was not as large as the second rat, but not a "baby" rat either. At any rate, it had to go! It had ran under yet another pallot, and a couple guys were standing around, waiting for it to make a move. I got my trusty shovel again, and when the guys jumped on the pallot, I smacked at the thing as it ran out. Direct kill on rat #3.
At this point, I went to speak with the owner of our company. I said that since they passed the smoking ban in Fort Wayne, the smokers have been propping the rear door open. I pointed out that besides running up our A/C bills, by letting all the hot humid air in, the door was also letting rats and whatever else inside the building. I said that a latch should be installed on the rear door, so that smoking employee's could get back in the building. And also pointed out that we had NEVER had this problem with rats, until a month after the smokers were told they could no longer smoke in front of the building. I reminded the owner what a dangerous health risk rats are, plus the fact that they chew on wires, can be very destructive to buildings ect, and that and the fact could even be shipped to one of our customers with one of our products! I ended, by saying, "you just don't want rats in your building"
A latch was installed on the rear door the next day, and an exterminator was called in the next day.
Sometimes a person gets better results if they try to present what risks the other person has, rather than their own.
For instance: If I had told the owner, that I didn't want rats in our building, just because my office door is off of the shop area, the business owner may not have acted so quickly to get rid of them. However, when I pointed out the facts, that showed the risk to the business, the employees, and to the building itself the problem was taken care of.
You would be shocked to know how fast something like the fact that rats are present in the building spread! Everyone was talking about it! That may be another angle you could use. Do the other tenants know about this?
Hope this works for you Maggie!
Rick the rat killer (as I have been named the last couple weeks)
The smokers were leaving the rear door to the shop area propped open, so they could get back into the building after 'paving their lungs". Well..... the rear door to the building was propped open more often than not, due to the smokers going in and out. There is a wooded area, and a pond just about 100 feet from the rear of our building.
One day I was out in the shop speaking to my boss, when a rat ran past us with a baby rat in it's mouth. I FREAKED!! My boss never even saw it! I saw the rat run under a pallot, so I ran to get a shovel from the tool rack. A couple of the guys chased the rat out from under the pallot, and I smacked at it with the shovel. Didn't get the large rat, but it dropped the baby rat and I smacked that one. Kill #1. The large rat ran under another pallot, but I could still get to it. I got it with the sharp edge of the shovel a few times, then pulled it out from under the pallot with the shovel. Still alive, but mortally wounded. Kill #2. That afternoon, another employee spotted yet another rat. Rat #3 was not as large as the second rat, but not a "baby" rat either. At any rate, it had to go! It had ran under yet another pallot, and a couple guys were standing around, waiting for it to make a move. I got my trusty shovel again, and when the guys jumped on the pallot, I smacked at the thing as it ran out. Direct kill on rat #3.
At this point, I went to speak with the owner of our company. I said that since they passed the smoking ban in Fort Wayne, the smokers have been propping the rear door open. I pointed out that besides running up our A/C bills, by letting all the hot humid air in, the door was also letting rats and whatever else inside the building. I said that a latch should be installed on the rear door, so that smoking employee's could get back in the building. And also pointed out that we had NEVER had this problem with rats, until a month after the smokers were told they could no longer smoke in front of the building. I reminded the owner what a dangerous health risk rats are, plus the fact that they chew on wires, can be very destructive to buildings ect, and that and the fact could even be shipped to one of our customers with one of our products! I ended, by saying, "you just don't want rats in your building"
A latch was installed on the rear door the next day, and an exterminator was called in the next day.
Sometimes a person gets better results if they try to present what risks the other person has, rather than their own.
For instance: If I had told the owner, that I didn't want rats in our building, just because my office door is off of the shop area, the business owner may not have acted so quickly to get rid of them. However, when I pointed out the facts, that showed the risk to the business, the employees, and to the building itself the problem was taken care of.
You would be shocked to know how fast something like the fact that rats are present in the building spread! Everyone was talking about it! That may be another angle you could use. Do the other tenants know about this?
Hope this works for you Maggie!
Rick the rat killer (as I have been named the last couple weeks)
maggie~hamilton
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Exterminator makes a dramatic find
Well, after a sleepless night last night, an exterminator came out this morning. This was a different guy than the two guys who had been here before.
I told him about the gnawing sound in my bedroom. He looked back into the corner of the room and said, "Yep, there's rat poop back there." He set a trap there and suggested leaving the trunk pulled away from the wall for a while.
Then I told him about how many rats we had caught in about two weeks' time -- seven of them. He said that it was obvious they were getting in and out somehow. He said he'd take a look around outside.
He was not gone for more than a minute before he called me out there to the back. He showed me the electric meter / fuse box on the rear wall of the apartment building -- just on the other side of our kitchen in other words. He said, "Look at the underside of that meter box -- you will see there's an open channel running the length of it that leads right into your kitchen."
I looked. I saw.
"THAT's where the rats are going in and out," he said.
When I asked him why none of the other exterminators had found that he just kinda shrugged and said, "Sometimes the guys are just in a hurry to get to the next call because our workload is so heavy......."
He spent a good hour out there installing heavy-gauge screening to cover the entry holes. He said to watch things for a couple of days and see if that stops them.
Dear God, PLEASE. I can't spend another night like last night.
-------
btw, the exterminator was a very handsome Latino man, late 30s, I'd guess. Tall, dark, handsome, and muscular. No wedding ring (and no ring line on his finger), and jusssst a lit-tle bit flirtatious... He enjoyed me taking photos of him as he put the screens in, quipping with a sly wink, "You think I am handsome enough for GQ?!"
I'll say!
He had showed up in an immaculate, crisply pressed white dress shirt. But after he had been on his back, wallowing around in the flower bed below the meter box, the poor guy was covered with black potting soil. I toyed with the idea of inviting him to come in for a shower to get cleaned up, but thought better of it. I realized he would be back, and if I was misreading his flirtatiousness it could be awkward.
Alas, I'll have to spend the rest of the day sitting in a quiet swoon, playing out that shower scenario in my head, fantasizing about what could have been.......
"Well, sure, I'll take a shower ... but only if you join me..............."
{{{*a giddy tingle running down my spine*}}}
Yeah. I know. How crude and tacky of me. But if you'd have been through what I had been through the night before, you would have fallen for this knight in shining armor too. Heeeeee's my heeeee-roh.
"Ah, sweeeet mystery of life, at last I've found yooooooou..."
Well, after a sleepless night last night, an exterminator came out this morning. This was a different guy than the two guys who had been here before.
I told him about the gnawing sound in my bedroom. He looked back into the corner of the room and said, "Yep, there's rat poop back there." He set a trap there and suggested leaving the trunk pulled away from the wall for a while.
Then I told him about how many rats we had caught in about two weeks' time -- seven of them. He said that it was obvious they were getting in and out somehow. He said he'd take a look around outside.
He was not gone for more than a minute before he called me out there to the back. He showed me the electric meter / fuse box on the rear wall of the apartment building -- just on the other side of our kitchen in other words. He said, "Look at the underside of that meter box -- you will see there's an open channel running the length of it that leads right into your kitchen."
I looked. I saw.
"THAT's where the rats are going in and out," he said.
When I asked him why none of the other exterminators had found that he just kinda shrugged and said, "Sometimes the guys are just in a hurry to get to the next call because our workload is so heavy......."
He spent a good hour out there installing heavy-gauge screening to cover the entry holes. He said to watch things for a couple of days and see if that stops them.
Dear God, PLEASE. I can't spend another night like last night.
-------
btw, the exterminator was a very handsome Latino man, late 30s, I'd guess. Tall, dark, handsome, and muscular. No wedding ring (and no ring line on his finger), and jusssst a lit-tle bit flirtatious... He enjoyed me taking photos of him as he put the screens in, quipping with a sly wink, "You think I am handsome enough for GQ?!"
I'll say!
He had showed up in an immaculate, crisply pressed white dress shirt. But after he had been on his back, wallowing around in the flower bed below the meter box, the poor guy was covered with black potting soil. I toyed with the idea of inviting him to come in for a shower to get cleaned up, but thought better of it. I realized he would be back, and if I was misreading his flirtatiousness it could be awkward.
Alas, I'll have to spend the rest of the day sitting in a quiet swoon, playing out that shower scenario in my head, fantasizing about what could have been.......
"Well, sure, I'll take a shower ... but only if you join me..............."
{{{*a giddy tingle running down my spine*}}}
Yeah. I know. How crude and tacky of me. But if you'd have been through what I had been through the night before, you would have fallen for this knight in shining armor too. Heeeeee's my heeeee-roh.
"Ah, sweeeet mystery of life, at last I've found yooooooou..."
maggie~hamilton
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maggie~hamilton
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maggie~hamilton
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maggie~hamilton
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maggie~hamilton
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maggie~hamilton
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maggie~hamilton
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maggie~hamilton
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Great! Glad you finally got a competent exterminator out there.
Did he show you exactly where in the kitchen the passageway was? Was it under the sink, behind some cabinets, around some wiring, or what?
And what was the rat chewing on in your bedroom? Hopefully not a vintage vacuum cleaner cord!
Did he show you exactly where in the kitchen the passageway was? Was it under the sink, behind some cabinets, around some wiring, or what?
And what was the rat chewing on in your bedroom? Hopefully not a vintage vacuum cleaner cord!
I'm so silly and stupid, and you men are so big and stro
Therefore you all knows way more than little ole me.
I told you days ago to check any and all entry ways such as pipes and electrical work as they are easy access points for rodents. Also told you to get someone out there that knows how to look for rodents/rodent proofing instead of the exterminator what you had before.
OTHO am happy you finally sorted your problem out, or at least let us all hope so; because quite honestly can go without seeing anymore close up pictures of dead rodents and rodent droppings.
L.
Therefore you all knows way more than little ole me.
I told you days ago to check any and all entry ways such as pipes and electrical work as they are easy access points for rodents. Also told you to get someone out there that knows how to look for rodents/rodent proofing instead of the exterminator what you had before.
OTHO am happy you finally sorted your problem out, or at least let us all hope so; because quite honestly can go without seeing anymore close up pictures of dead rodents and rodent droppings.
L.
