Last winter we had an unwelcome busy little vistor running backwards and forwards across the ceilings. It disappeared during summer, but it, or one of its relatives, turned up again a few weeks ago.

Late one night recently it dropped down the shaft next to the bedroom where some pipes are. On purpose or by accident I don’t know, but it decided to make a home there – rather noisily as well. As it turns out we have an access panel to those pipes and when I opened it up there was a little brown face and black eyes staring back from behind the pipes.

So a couple days ago I put our mouse trap in there along with some poison sprinkled around for good measure. Next time I looked behind the panel there was insulation wool everywhere. It had obviously found a gap where some cabling went through the gibboard and made the most of it. Obviously from all the noise behind the wall it was party time in there. So I rearranged the wool and set up the trap again. Later that evening there was a nice “whack” from the bedroom. When I had a look there was lying between the pipes a rather larger creature than we had first suspected and it was still breathing! I went to grab a plastic bag, but just as I got back it staggered around in a circle and then shot back into the wall! Grrrrrrrr #%&£#!.

So more poison next to its hole and set the mouse trap up again with another dollop of peanut butter. Obviously since rodents are supposed to be rather smart I couldn’t believe it would fall for this and get brained again, but hope lives eternal. And it does too! After coming home yesterday and opening up the panel again there was a rather stiff furry beast lying there right next to the sprung trap. Although it had managed to eat all the peanut butter first! So I don’t know if it was the poison, getting whacked on the head twice, or both, but we got the little shit! Although it was a bit bigger than we first thought, so we should probably buy a bigger mouse trap!

And yes thats a rat, and yes that is a full size screwdriver, and a normal size mousetrap!