ohhhhhhh not again

Friday, May 1st, 2015 09:49 am
darkoshi: (Default)
My dogs killed a rat in the yard. I don't know whether to be upset or pleased.
Oh please don't let me have rat problems in the house again this year.

On second thought, maybe it died of other causes, and the dogs simply found it. Who knows. It's small to medium sized, based on the carcasses I saw last year. I thought they lived in trees... maybe it fell.

poor little things

Thursday, May 29th, 2014 06:59 pm
darkoshi: (Default)
The wildlife company found droppings in the attic too. I hadn't thought to check up there lately.

Yesterday, they placed snap traps in both the crawlspace and attic. Today upon checking them, I found 2 dead rats in the crawlspace, and another in the attic.

What I had read indicated that rats tend to avoid new objects. I wasn't sure there were any rodents still here to be caught, and certainly wasn't expecting any to be caught the first night.

Now I'm a premeditated killer of roaches, fire ants, and rats.

I wonder why they come into the house. There isn't any food they can get too, that I'm aware of.
The wildlife company is going to better seal the crawlspace vents, and gaps along the roof line.

rat a tat tat

Tuesday, May 27th, 2014 05:26 pm
darkoshi: (Default)
Rodent - I found droppings in the crawlspace. Likely rat. But I haven't heard the noise in the wall over the doorway in over a month, so I'm hoping it's gone away on its own. I've caulked along the wall in the room that was having the odd smell, as I think it was coming in through cracks along there. I've scheduled an inspection from a wildlife control company. But if I let them do the work beyond the $75 inspection, it will probably cost a lot and it will include them putting out snap traps to make sure the rodents are no longer present and/or dead before doing any sealing. The guy said that they aren't legally allowed to catch rats and release them elsewhere. That makes sense.

This UK document: Guiding principles in the Humane Control of Rats and Mice, indicates that in the UK, it is illegal to release black rats, doormice, and even grey squirrels (?!) into the wild.

But if I was ok with using snap traps, I would just use them myself, right? Why pay someone else to do it? And why pay them to come out several times to check the traps when I could just do it myself? Do I really trust that they'll do a better job of finding and sealing any entry points, than what I've discovered on my own so far?

I had been planning to get an infrared motion-activated wildlife camera to stick in the crawlspace to see if there still is any activity down there, but haven't gotten around to it yet. I was planning to seal 2 of the crawlspace vents better. But the rodent must have been getting from the crawlspace into the walls. That's what I'm not sure about. I found 2 possibilities, but neither seems very likely.

So I should let the professionals do their thing. Even though I worry that they're no more pro than me. Just pay them and don't worry about it. Just let them kill and don't worry about it.

Just be a grim reaper and don't worry about it. After all, death is the most humane solution for everything, right?

.

Enough of this. I'll go cut some grass.
darkoshi: (Default)
Sometimes I feel it would be better if I only posted creative interesting things. If I left out the boring, rant-ish, whiny, and/or unimportant posts. If my journal were inspiring and intriguing rather than mundane. If I didn't use it simply as an outlet for whatever was on my mind at the time. But then there wouldn't be many posts, and it wouldn't really reflect my life, which is mostly mundane.

.

I don't recall having allergies as a kid. Not the runny-nose, sneezing, itchy eyes kind of allergies that I started getting as an adult. Yet when I was about 10 years old, I had a persistent cough. I was tested for allergies, and was given some kind of desensitization treatment.. shots or skin patches; I don't recall it well.

I never quite understood how having a cough could be due to allergies.

Yet a couple years ago after having been sick, and still having a persistent cough and sore throat, a nurse told me it was due to post-nasal drip. That surprised me, as I usually only notice post-nasal drip when it is thin and runny - like when I'm having a runny nose kind of allergy attack.

The kind that makes my throat itch, by contrast, is thicker. It's just now in the last few years that I'm able to recognize this sensation. Realizing that my throat is tickling due to thick slime oozing down back there, as opposed to tickling for an unknown reason. It's odd that this wasn't something I was able to recognize to begin with.

..

I'm staying up late to see Boy George on Jimmy Kimmel... Hadn't planned to, but upon hearing that BG would be on, I figured I shouldn't miss that, right? Like old times, staying up to see an appearance. Gosh, how long is this show? Figures that he'd be the last person on.

Aw. Just one song, and not even an interview.

I've listened to clips from his latest album, but none of the songs really appealed to me. This one he sang didn't either.

..

Yesterday while eating lunch, something buzzy flew into my hair. I put my hand up and flinched away when I felt something up there. So I brushed it off with my sandwich container. I turned to look at the picnic table, and there it was, some kind of cute bug. Looked like a youngster. I blew at it, and it lifted its front legs (arms? pincers?) up in the air as it to ward off an attack. So then I let it be and ate my lunch. But I turned back to look at it several times. It didn't move away. I began to feel a camaraderie with it.

Such a small thing. And yet it has a brain. What is it like, to be that insect? What is it thinking? Is it watching me? Is it feeling camaraderie with me too?

It's all in my mind. That feeling of camaraderie would quickly vanish if I saw it doing something like eating another insect.

..

It's so hard, living. One has to feel compassion for anyone who's managed to stay alive, to make it so far... to stay fed, stay clothed, live to adulthood, and everything else. Even if they aren't making a very good impression. Even if they're arguing, or drunk, or conniving, criminal.

..

Break on through, break on through.

How can this life be anything other than a puzzle to figure out? And if so, it isn't without merit to wonder who made the puzzle and why.

Or this life could be something without any meaning at all.

It's all up to what one manages to believe.

..

There's an odd smell in this room. Like... old cat litter, maybe. Seems to be coming from the brick wall. Or maybe from one of the electrical outlets. Or maybe the edge where the brick wall meets the floor. I wonder if it is related to the rodent in the wall, though I haven't heard it in a couple weeks.
darkoshi: (Default)
I've gone through a few more old family documents. A couple are written in an old German cursive script that was hard for me to decipher. But I was finally able to read them using the charts shown at the top of this page.

.

There are so many weird noises in this room. I saw a cockroach a few days ago; it hid before I could catch it. I think it must be making some of the noises. Several times over the last months, every once in a while I hear a distinct chewing/crunching noise from inside the wall at the top of the doorway to the kitchen. It usually happens late at night. I've wondered if a squirrel could have gotten in between the walls. Or a mouse or rat. But maybe that is a cockroach too; it's weird how small things can make big noises sometimes.

Tonight, while watching Downton Abbey, I heard a noise to the right, looked over, and even saw the cup on top of the small cabinet move/shake! I picked up a flashlight (there are bunches of flashlights in this house) and carefully peeked behind the cabinet. Nothing there. I peeked into the cup. Nothing there.

If I believed in ghosts, I'd think there was a ghost in this room.

.

Sherlock season 3 is being aired on our local PBS station on Sundays right after Downton Abbey. It starts at 10pm and is scheduled for 2 hours each episode. That would make me late for bed. I decided to watch the rerun instead, which starts an hour earlier on Thursday. Last Sunday I was tempted to stay up and watch part of it anyway, but had to nix that due to dealing with a malfunctioning washer.

I ended up watching it online on Tuesday and on TV on Thursday. For the TV broadcast, I turned on closed captions, to catch some of the dialogue I missed during my first viewing.

Today I was good again and turned off the TV before Sherlock came on. I'm still up late for other reasons, but I'll surely be in bed earlier than I would be otherwise.

.

Oh gosh now a noise is coming from behind a different cabinet.

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