Interesting comments. I was going to make a thread but I'll just add here.
Wife said we had a mouse. Found the droppings near the garbage can. (yep)
Later, she (who is prone to getting overly excited) exclaimed that we had a HUGE RAT in the garage and opens her hands up to illustrate to me it's probably 10" long.
I kind of ho-hum that because she can get excited.
Set trap near garbage can, caught a mouse. (this is in kitchen). Saw a dropping in garage that is a LOT larger than the mouse in kitchen so go out to buy a bona fide rat trap.
Week goes by, the bait (usually peanut butter or cheese) gets eaten but nothing trips the trap.
Several days ago, I open door to go into garage....and "omg" what do I see sitting still right in front of me? What I'm told is a "woods rat" (is there really any difference??)
Was minding its own business and MANY places to hide.... it was still so I immediately looked for a weapon. I found a shoe (ha) I figured if nothing else, I could maybe stun it with a good thwack on the head....and I managed to give it a good thwack.
It slowly meandered under some shelfing and just sat there to sort of recollect itself.... meanwhile, I'm looking....looking.... I find some gloves, no, these won't work, too thin. I find a thicker pair.... can't find the mate, there it is, put them both on.
Get a stick and scoot the varmint out from under the shelving....NOW what am I going to do??? I just grabbed it with my left hand. It immediately started to wiggle and fight back, attempting to bite my hand several times. Well, that was a mistake. I took my other gloved hand and gave it a good whack on the head....tried to bite again, another whack. Finally, it was almost like it realized I wasn't going to torture or kill it (though I wanted to kill it my wife would have been crushed had I done so since it's only trying to survive....)
March down towards the lake. I was going to toss him/her (the rat, not the wife lol) into the woods and realized we're too close so kept going. Got to lake and was going to toss into water and let nature take its course, to whatever end. I ended up tossing it onto the beach where the water has been drawn down.
Turned around and came home. Told wife what had just transpired and now I'm in trouble because I didn't contact her. She would have helped me by driving us down the road to get said rat further from the house. I shouldn't have stopped at the lake (blah blah blah.... I knew I should have just drown it)
So I let her know that it was an action with a reaction and no time to sit down and deliberate my move since I had the nibbler in my hand.... and I gave it a chance at life.....should it return, it will be to its demise. (which is generic enough for me to terminate the next one since for all I know it's the same one)
No signs of any brothers/sisters in the garage. Reset the big trap and the bait is simply sitting there, starting to dry out as it gets old. I'm beginning to think we just had the one.
(all I had on hand was chunky PB)
