Rodent stuff

Over at George Bristow's Secret Freezer some rodent business has been going on. Cheeky rodents have stolen the bait from delicately set Little Nippers.

The beasts of the field are occasional B&B customers in our house. Recently a Wood Mouse lived in our sofa for an unknown period of time. We eventually tracked it down and evicted it, the sofa now has a redesigned section. Moles are occasionally found circling the living room, one recently tried to dig its way out and I need to repair stone and mortar (we have generally released these unharmed). The cats have found a source of young rats of late and they have taken to bringing them in to play with. Two of these have caused chaos when we've been faced with Rattus charging around the house with us and cats in hot pursuit. The first of these I managed to trap in the coal scuttle after turning out a whole cupboard. The demise of the second is described in the Secret Freezer. Feeding the birds does seem to attract Brown Rat. Currently one can occasionally be spied peeking out of a wall near one of our feeders and then rushing to the food below. During the snow it melted a little path to and fro. I will need to get my rat trap out. The trouble is like the Little Nippers it is a lethal piece of kit but rarely to Rattus. Somehow they seem adept at getting into the trap eating the food and then getting out again, I come along and try to put more bacon in to reset it and kerpoww it slams violently shut on my arm and I respond with a stream of invective and tears. The other problem with the trap is it is somewhat indescriminate and potentially lethal to a variety of creatures from cats to Blackbirds so measures need to be taken to prevent casualties and these measures make the trap less effective - apparently a dachshund is a useful alternative.