Disturbing Findings
When I moved back into my apartment in mid July, I managed to find a dead bat in the garbage can in the washroom. That freaked me out, I jumped back because it might have been alive. I had dealt with a bat the previous winter. I quickly threw another identical garbage can over the inhabited one and crushed the bat (it seemed surely dead at that point) and then when I took the cans out to the front yard, I just tossed the cans out on the grass to rid my place of the bat. It kind of bothered me that somehow while I was gone, another bat found its way into my place, and likely died from exhaustion trying to get out of my “prison”.
Just a few minutes ago while clearing the kitchen of garbage, I pulled out the garbage bag to find a dead mouse at the bottom of the garbage can. It didn’t freak me out nearly as much as the smell threw me back. So out I went and tied up the garbage bag, and tossed the garbage can out on the lawn, let it roll a few times and cleared it of any rodent mass. I just rinsed the garbage can of the droppings with some water and dish detergent now and it’s sitting in the cold room disinfecting. Not fun, not at all.
I had known of the existence of a rat or mouse in the kitchen since when I moved back in mid-July and found some of the rubber-handled tools and kitchen utensils chewed up. I rinsed out all my cutlery and dumped the drawer of the rubber chewed bits, and found a small hole in the back of the cabinets where there was a pipe coming through (but still there was hole). I stuck some sort of box or cardboard there to block the hole. It seems that wasn’t enough of a deterrent for the rodent from getting out to investigate my especially pungent garbage.
What do I do? The rodents are gone. But I have no guarantee that the source has been taken care of. Is the landlord responsible for this? One bat, coincidence; two bats, there must be a trend. One rat, likely one too many.
Maybe I should move out at the end of next April find myself some property.
September 2nd, 2008 at 12:46 am
Hmm, yah, I think the landlord would be responsible for stuff like this… I hope these pests aren’t diseased!
September 2nd, 2008 at 9:26 pm
we live near a field and have found a mouse stuck in one of our garbage cans. If you remember my response to the infamous North Africa Rat incident, you can imagine I was REALLY upset by this.
You could ask the landlord to spray foam the holes around pipes and stuff. Mice, rats and bats can get in through the tiniest of spots but this foam can help with air sealing as well as animal protection. We got a couple cans from Home Depot for somewhere between $5 and $10.
September 4th, 2008 at 1:10 am
the landlord’s responsible.
that’s nasty.
September 30th, 2008 at 5:59 pm
hm we had at least 3 mice running around in our kitchen with poo all in the cabinets and my housemates were pretty nonchalant abt it. it was so frustrating.. people being indifferent to getting rid of them.
certainly need more than just cardboard.