Success!

You may remember my post about our rat problem and our many issues with how to get rid of them as we have chickens running around- no glue traps, no rat traps during the day, no poison scattered about...makes it difficult to catch anything. I was at the local farm store last weekend and bought a rat bait center- it's a box with a lid that is screwed on. When you lift the lid, there are four spindles attached to the bottom that you slide the bait on. Then you screw the lid back on and wait for the rat(s) to enter the box through the hole, eat some poison, walk away and die. Art wasn't completely sold, as the device cost $15.00 (and he's cheap. Sorry, frugal), but the rat(s) have been eating away the insulation in the chicken coop and making a mess of it, so he was ready to try anything. Nothing happened for the last week and I was beginning to think that the rat was too smart and that maybe *gasp*, Art was right about the bait box. Until last night- Art went into the chicken coop and there by the chicken feeder dead as a doornail was the rat. He called me (I was in the house and he was really excited, hence the phone call instead of walking up to get me) and told me to bring the camera so he could strike a pose. He compares this picture to the ones you see with people holding up their big catch or standing next to the twelve point buck they just shot. We have an odd sense of humor (if you didn't know that already).

Art covered up the hole that the rat had been using to get into the coop, but unfortunately this morning it was partially re-opened, meaning there is probably another rat around. This didn't surprise me as rats are very social creatures so I expected there to be more than just the one. We'll keep the bait box locked and loaded and hope for the best!