Oh fuck.

[elegy_of_flames]

I saw a rodent. It was in front of the washing machine, and then it scurried away behind it. Mouse, rat, I don't know, but it was as long as the palm of my hand and I swear I screamed

Comments

[anonymous]

if it's a rat I think the council will exterminate it

[wight1984]

If it was in the garden then I wouldn't worry to much, just be sure not to let it in whilst you bother the estate agent about it. Might want to try the council, but they're likely to try and charge you for the pleasure.

[elegy_of_flames]

"I saw a rodent. It was in front of the washing machine, and then it scurried away behind it." Our washing machine is in the garden, yes. Classic Jamie...it was in the fucking KITCHEN :/

[wight1984]

:oP

For some reason I read that as 'washing line' first time around :o)

In any case, if it's in the house then your landlord will be legally obliged to do something about it pretty damn sharpish.

Hopefully yours isn't as rubbish as some of mine have been.

[sweetcyanide]

You could borrow Frankie, but I think you'd probably rather have the rats! ;-)

[elegy_of_flames]

Oh, you know I'd love to borrow Frankie, but then I might not want to give him back ;)

[sweetcyanide]

You can get humane traps as well, btw, if you don't want Dead Things to deal with. They are really pretty good, you just have to make sure you let them go a long way from your flat :-)

[elegy_of_flames]

Hon...I am NOT humane. I do not give a flying fuck about the wellbeing of hte fluffy vermin. I don't like corpses, but I want those things fucking DEAD and crushed into a fine powder so they cannot possibly ever bother me or anyone else. Ever. Again.

[halluciphy]

When identifying rats and mice it's more about the tail than the body cos it could be a baby rat - the lovely British city rats will generally have a rather thick tail (an adult's often being roughly the same width as your finger but around 6" long).

In the mean time, most hardware stores have a variety of traps starting at less than a tenner.

PS. Unless it's a cat that's used to dealing with rats, like a farm cat or something, it may be unwise to use one to try to get rid of it - adult rats will quite often win a fight with an inexperienced feline!

[elegy_of_flames]

Yeah, it scurried. I didn't see tail width, but I'm estimating about 3" of rat and another 4" of tail. Will look into traps...

[vincula]

I had mice (two different species, no rats) in my last flat in Edinburgh. They liked two things: scampering around my study/computer lab, and scouting the kitchen for chocolate. That's right. Not cheese (they wouldn't touch Brie if they had Kit Kat). Fearing they might chew on power cables, kill themselves and burn the flat, I bought some of those ultrasonic pest control thingies. They worked for me, for a few months (they won't forever, mice are the most intelligent life form on the planet, after all

[elegy_of_flames]

"Gone" is good by all kinds of definitions and I'm not squeamish about the implications except inasmuch as I'd have to dispose of the corpses. That being said, Moppet used to bring me birds quite regularly in Athens. I was very proud - especially as the damn things stopped waking me in the morning with their musical cheerfulness *evil grin*

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy reference I'm assuming? ^^

[arabwel]

Narf! :P