It is exactly like a war, 5 more in the bucket trap which brings my total to 24! :shock: Only 6 adults of which only ONE was female.
Have tweaked the trap to catch the slightly older and more agile youngsters. Wonder what rats are called at the "Out of the nest, on their own, not ready to reproduce" age?
That is what I am killing right now.
What is interesting is the few I have to encourage into the water, most just run like normal but some of them attack with shocking aggression, not met attack rats before.
You know the numbers are at dangerous levels when a doe dies in the night and most of her head is gone by morning. <br /><br /> -- Sat Jun 27, 2020 3:58 pm -- <br /><br /> CanineWild, NO amount of poison is good for you and don't kid yourself, what is being sprayed on crops is poison! :evil:
A bit of an update.
My youngest son went ridged and fell backward into my arms in the kitchen and recovered like a switched on light when I pulled him into the living room and sat him down on the couch.
Two days later my daughter was standing in the kitchen door watching the telly when she stiffened, fell to the floor, and had a seizure. She also recovered with no wooziness or faintness when dragged onto the couch.
At that point we called in the emergency gas leak people - no leak - no carbon monoxide detected - oxygen levels normal.
But SOMETHING in the house is dangerous and potentially deadly. This spring our neighbor died of no known reason and the rabbits died on windless nights.
We had found a house on Shetland to rent already so asked the owner if we could come on the next ferry and she said yes. Keep in mind I had already checked with the ferry that we could take up residence on the island at this stage in lockdown.
Rented a truck, loaded it all night long (all the windows and doors wide open, OMG it was cold) drove most of the next day to get to the ferry in time to be told.......
NO! You may NOT travel to the island! New governmental guidelines made us not eligible to travel.
So there we were, all ultra tired and for the first time ever, I had no plan B. Just had no idea what to do at all. Not a very nice moment in time, I will admit.
Sent the big van back with our friends who had driven it for us and spent almost two hours finding food - fish and chips - and a hotel with room for us. One of the highlights of the entire thing was the hotel, AMAZING! Just an amazing old place.
And despite not having slept in almost two days, my brain felt clear and everything felt real for the first time in ages. You know how you never really know how sick you have been until you start feeling better? Like that only times about 100.
Came up with a plan B next morning and drove all the way back to where we started and booked a hotel on the way so imagine our surprise when we got there to be told they were full and even if they had not been they would not let us in, we were not essential workers.
Scotland, where we were not allowed on the ferry let us into a hotel no problems but England which is solidly in phase 2 of lifting restrictions would not let us in a hotel, despite our not being able to go back to our house due to an unknown agent making us all dangerously ill.
Can anyone say mental?
I even tried the police just to find us emergency shelter but was told they are all closed due to covid.
Myself, my 76-year-old mum and my three teenage children were properly homeless in a pandemic.
Thank gods for friends, we were given the use of a caravan parked in a back yard while we tried to sort any kind of housing which we did, in the next town over from where we started. 1,000 miles of driving and the huge cost of the van only to wind up moving less than two miles away.
Our sea view with large yard front and back has turned into three beds on a main road with no front garden at all and only a concrete courtyard in the back and goodness, is it noisy.
But while we were sorting housing we were also researching what on EARTH could be wrong in our house and did you know hundreds of people every year die from gasses seeping into their houses from mine workings below them?
Nope, neither did I.
The environmental health agency says there is a shaft 75m right under the house and says the Coal board is the proper place to get help, the Coal Board say the NHS is where we need to get help and the NHS say the Environmental Health agency is who needs to help us.
Can you say run around?
Having read LOTS now about the effects of the various mine gasses Carbon Dioxide fits the symptoms best and, despite the loudness of the people on the road right now I am grateful down to the tips of my toes to be here and all of us to be alive.
If I had not been there when my kids went down in the kitchen they would have died right there on the floor. It takes my breath away just thinking about it.
Working now on finding the proper people to survey the house to find out what gas we are actually dealing with and how to fix it and if that is even possible and worrying about our other neighbors, they could be in mortal peril but no one seems to care and they all think we are insane. :roll:
Oh, and now that we have a roof over our heads the housing people have made contact to offer us housing. *sigh*