The rat has left the house….

Finally…. after raging a war for 18 hours ending at midnight. We now think he was a young pack rat because he wasn’t a foot long yet. He was persistent and deterred by nothing!

Late in the day I decided to go into Quartzsite to purchase an arsenal of rat traps, any and all that are available. But apparently the legendary “Quartzsite” rat is on the rampage here and it wasn’t until the 3rd store that I was able to finally find some of the sticky paper traps. When I was asking store clerks if they had any rat traps, they replied: “Oh, you mean for the Quartzsite rats?” as they indicated the foot-long size with their hands. All shaking their heads and wishing me luck. Not the encouragement I wanted. Did get a homemade solution suggested: put a piece of hard candy in a lid and then pour in antifreeze. I was hoping the sticky papers would work. They don’t. It was explained to me that they just walk around with them and shake free. I forged ahead anyway.

Back at the van I laid my traps: one at his passage by the right passenger side, 2 on the mat between the swivel seats, 1 under the passenger side foot well and another on the drivers side, and 1 in the back. He was so brave that he would run past the traps and by my feet (!) to go to the back. At one point, when I opened the van, I saw him running to the back from my bench, past the front of the microwave, and under my mattress!!

I closed up the van without me in it thinking it would encourage him to run around more and maybe get stuck on one of the traps. After a while I went to check my trapline again. Wait! This time something was different! He had been caught on the sticky paper in the back but had pulled free…..without his tail! The sheath of his tail was stuck on the paper! Ah-ha! This cat and mouse game continued for a few hours.

As evening descended, I decided to close up the van with the lights off and wait outside to see if he would come out and get hopelessly stuck. Periodically I would go check. Still nothing. I could tell that some were moved around, but no sticky rat. I finally decided it was too late and chilly outside and that I was going to have to manage for the night. When I went to the van, there he was! On the window sill on the passenger side!! Aargh!! This is an all out war now…

I was NOT looking forward to being up all night with one eye open hoping to not have a bedmate. Desperate as it was now getting close to bedtime, I gathered up all my assault weapons and set up a fortress of traps with yummy bits of enticing apple on each.

While I was on rat patrol,Jody was on the internet looking for alternate traps. Found one. We had all the required materials: a gallon plastic jug, a beer can, super sticky tape, scissors, box cutter, peanut butter. Carefully following the You Tube instructions, it was quickly fashioned and added to the arsenal. I placed the baited jug, the apple-laden sticky papers, the ramekins with peppermint fragrance, and my headlamp hanging overhead with it’s disco strobe light. Surely something will work. Now I sit on the bed waiting.

I didn’t have to wait long. I hear a bunch of flapping around and he is caught on the paper that had been by the passenger door. He is now near the sliding door. Perfect! With my fly swatter in hand, I open the sliding door and try to push him out but he is so big that the hinge down at the bottom of the door is preventing him from falling out. I desperately try to swat him out but am able to only fling out my flyswatter stuck to the paper while the rat stays inside.

It’s quiet for a few minutes and then he is back with his skinless, bloody gnarled tail sniffing at and getting close to the traps. But he is so large and clever that he just eats the apples off the papers. Two of the sticky papers I have folded into tents which he pokes his nose into to nibble away at the apple. He is now going to be a very fat rat who for sure won’t leave this smorgasbord van! He sniffs around at the jug but doesn’t attempt to go in. The strobe light from my headlamp is having no affect. Nor do the bright lights from inside the van. I finally just take my headlamp and shine it directly on him. He looks at me. I look at him. Both of us in defiance. He would sit and lick his paws while staring me down.

He leaves for a minute and then comes back. What is he doing??? He has taken one of the tent formed sticky papers in his mouth and is trying to pull it up behind the console and into the hole from which he had come! He is really trying to get at at the peanut butter that had been smeared inside that one.

I have an idea…after scaring him off for a minute, I take the tent trap and put it in the footwell by the passenger side. If I can get him down in there, then just maybe I can open the door and shove him out. Here he comes…. Sure enough he goes down in the well trying to get to that peanut butter. I carefully open the door and shine my headlamp on him, ready to shove him out. To my surprise, he looks out. Starts to descend. Comes back in a few steps. Keeps tentatively assessing his escape to freedom and then low and behold he is out!!!!!

Man…I slam the door! Give a huge sigh of relief! (but still wary).. Throw out all the traps and the jug on the ground. Get in the drivers seat and move away. I don’t want him to re-enter! This has been one long day of Rat Patrol TV. I hope this was the first and only episode and that his contract was not renewed. With a smile on my face, I’m able to finally go to sleep.

I’m still wary at night, but so far so good. Whew!!! It was an 18-hour saga that was all-consuming. I’m still skittish but able to sort of live normal again. Now I have a metal can for any food scraps, peppermint oil sachets coming in today to put out everywhere, apples and bananas in a rat-proof drawer, and burning trash twice a day. Time will tell cause we are going to be here for a while (months)!

Click here for Jody’s hilarious rendition of the rat events.