February 18, 2017

"We came up with this ridiculous plan to get this rat out of our house and IT ACTUALLY WORKED!!!!"

64 comments:

Tank said...

Amazingly, we tried something like this once with a mouse in our apartment (long, long ago). The plan: the mouse is behind a bookcase; Tank moves the book case; the mouse runs out; Mrs. Tank kills the mouse with a broom. The result: Tank moved the book case; the mouse ran out; Mrs. Tank ran out of the room screaming.

So, the plan only worded to get rid of Mrs. Tank.

Bob Ellison said...

The woman with the broom at the bottom of the stairs should try out for Major League Baseball.

Curious George said...

That last broom sweep....LOL.

Quayle said...

Althouse is Drudge tag goes here.

Her daily selected postings combine to a purpose.

(Remember, she is BFA Michigan, so in retirement we can expect her to continue to gravitate back to her first love.)

I see this as an artistic rendering of the Washington press corpse in their dreams.

Quayle said...

Panicked shrieking unaltered, of course.

David said...

The broom from nowhere.

Scott said...

Using the b-word as an epithet to denigrate rats is offensive to women.

Or it's speciesist.

Or something.

Ann Althouse said...

The broom was the funniest part.

I felt sorry for the rat as it succumbed to its own fear and went from running downstairs to tumbling. But the broom resolved the emotional arc. All were saved.

Ann Althouse said...

Now, what Meade would say about that is that if the animal has been in your house, he'll get back in. If you don't kill the rat, you haven't solved the problem.

Temujin said...

1) That rat will be back...with friends.
2) Hockey skills are very underrated and can be used on all areas of life.

Quayle said...

If you don't kill the rat, you haven't solved the problem.

Better fix tea for the Secret Service.

Jean-Paul said...

The guy in me laughs at the sound, but I'm also a "results" kind of person, so as long as it works...

And he gets to squeak another day, so even better!

Quayle said...

he'll get back in.

The rat only came for the meatloaf.

Bob Ellison said...

You're right, Temujin: that was a hockey shot. She got just enough lift on the puck to get it over the sill and into the net.

Trumpit said...

Rats are intelligent, sociable animals, and can be trained. They get a bad rap. They are, surprisingly, short-lived - on average 2.5 years. We had them as pets as a kid. They began to reproduce and we didn't know what to do with so many rats. We eventually lost interest in them as pets and gave them all to a pet store. Their ultimate fate unknown. Remind me to tell you about our pet iguana.

rehajm said...

They're easily startled but they'll soon be back...and in greater numbers.

robother said...

Wife and daughter find the mouse that started appearing under our backyard bird feeder last week so cute, they won't let me deal with him. "He's an outdoor mouse." Until the next snowstorm. And then it'll be my problem.

Scott said...

"If you don't kill the rat, you haven't solved the problem."

We don't know that. The rat could have learned its lesson. Just because the next rat looks the same to you as the last one doesn't mean that rats are naturally recidivist. This is an injustice to rats, because racism.

Bob Ellison said...

Rats have a PR problem. Charlotte's Web made it worse. Rats should own their rattiness, kinda the way Trump does. Just say "I'm a rat and a brat, so to you I say splat!"

Gonna have to send that chant for re-write.

Roughcoat said...

Now, what Meade would say about that is that if the animal has been in your house, he'll get back in. If you don't kill the rat, you haven't solved the problem.

Life is hard, then you die. Meade knows this.

MaxedOutMama said...

I just use traps, but I do want to congratulate the Broomwielder on the Bottom.

Also I think all involved (except the rat) deserve kudos for the teamwork.

But yes, that rat will be back, either in that house or one nearby.

Robother - Whenever I am north and feed the birds due to snow/ice on the ground, I immediately put out the traps. Feeding birds draws mice, and they always get in.

What I find works is to leave a few unset traps around baited with peanut butter (almond butter works, but not quite as well). When the peanut butter disappears, I put more on the next night. Then the third night I set the traps.

One time a whole bunch moved in at once, and the night I set the traps I turned out the lights and headed for bed. Literally, within five minutes I heard SNAP 20 secs. SNAP 25 secs SNAP. They must have come shooting out of cover and headed for a feeding station. I waited another five minutes and got up and disposed of the traps and mice. The next morning, one more.

Ron said...

Ah....rat curling....when Canadians move to NYC....they bring their culture with them!

mezzrow said...

Bye, bye, Basil... see you soon.

"ees hamster!!"

I would give anything to be able to paste in the picture of Polly offering the biscuits to the inspector right now.

"would you like a biscuit, or perhaps some rat with that?"

They will meet again.

bagoh20 said...

I don't kill them anymore. I employ unpaid assassins. I have a trap that catches them alive. Then, I move them 100 yards to a field behind my house where the foxes, hawks, and coyotes teach them the laws of nature. I still feel a little guilty, so my plan is to build a wall and make the rats pay for it.

Big Mike said...

... and IT ACTUALLY WORKED!!!!

It worked if and only if the rat doesn't come back. Part B has to be discovering how the rat got in and then closing it off.

clint said...

"Scott said...
Using the b-word as an epithet to denigrate rats is offensive to women.

Or it's speciesist.

Or something."

Offensive to female dogs, definitely.

Dogs are far, far superior to rats. So much so, that it feels silly to say it.

According to Wikipedia, the proper term for a female rat is either "doe" or "cow". Of all of the animals the only non-canine permitted to style itself with the noble title of "bitch" is the female weasel. Not coincidentally, another animal that assists us feeble humans in ridding ourselves of unwanted rodents.

M Jordan said...

Deportation of a rat. And somehow it's okay.

Sad.

lemondog said...

That rat will be back...with friends.

Plug up all possible openings with peppermint oil. and, of course, use the Althouse portal to order.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

I wonder how many times they had to practice that, moving the cheese a little closer to the door each time, before the rat was able to find its way through the maze?

Scott said...

Man: What's for afters?
Woman: Well there's rat cake ... rat sorbet ... rat pudding ... or strawberry tart.
Man: Strawberry tart?!
Woman: Well, it's got some rat in it.
Man: How much?
Woman: Three (rather a lot really).
Man: ... well, I'll have a slice without so much rat in it.

--Monty Python's Flying Circus, Episode 29

Bob Boyd said...

Put these ladies in charge of the Daniel Ramirez Medina case.

Ann Althouse said...

I'm trying to read the sleeve of that first woman. I think it's 53 lat — the 53rd parallel. What's the longitude. Here's a list of what's at the 53rd parallel, including some Alaskan islands.

Ann Althouse said...

No, it's Lat 43, and it looks like 59 longitude.

Ann Althouse said...

"The parallel 43° north forms most of the boundary between the State of Nebraska and the State of South Dakota. The parallel formed the northern border of the historic and extralegal Territory of Jefferson."

But if it's the 59° longitude, it seems as though we're in Uzbekistan.

MD Greene said...

Rats, schmatz. A good-sized bat got into our house during a construction project, and I chased it out with a broom -- 3D curling, if you will. Still pretty proud of that one.

Michael K said...

the night I set the traps I turned out the lights and headed for bed. Literally, within five minutes I heard SNAP 20 secs.

Thanks for the memory. I had a rat in the attic one time. I set a trap and about 3 AM, I hear SNAP! Then petter-patter-pitter-patter.

The rat is alive caught in the trap.

I thought, "He'll die in a minute."

Time went by, pitter patter pitter patter.

Finally I had to get up and push up a corner of the attic access door and the rat and trap attached fell into the hallway.

I had to beat it to death with the broom.

Skipper said...

They should take up curling.

cronus titan said...

Good for them. Clever, and it worked, at least for now.

The permanent solution is to get a dog, especially a terrier breed, and leave it in the house for a day. There will be gory clean up involved but rest assured you will never have a rat showing up again. The lady of our house set the women's high jump record when our beloved Genny dropped a large field mouse at her feet while she was working on her laptop.

We also had a camelback cricket problem. No matter how hard we tried, we could not get rid of them. Our son brought home a kitten. One month later, no more camelback crickets.

Kate said...

True story: When we lived in a hippie commune in WA (...don't start) rats lived in the walls. In the bathroom the rats had gnawed a hole in the wall board. We nailed a piece of 2x4 over the hole, but the rat kept gnawing. Imagine going to the bathroom in the night and hearing that sound.

Finally, the rat gnawed through the board. But it had, apparently, starved in the process. It died with its head poking out of the hole, unable to get its body through.

whitney said...

I was screaming too :)

Fernandinande said...

That's crazy as an Althouse rat.

rehajm said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
chuck said...

> One time a whole bunch moved in at once,

I had a bunch set up housekeeping under the stove. It was cute for a while, especially when they moved a bunch of glass wool insulation from around the furnace and packed it across the bottom front of the stove. It took a couple of days, with the ball of wool slowly making its way across the floor.

Eventually I got tired of cleaning mouse shit out of the drawers and set traps in their runs and over a couple of days caught 13 of the little buggers. BTW, a lot of the modern mouse traps are complete crap, the old fashioned wooden variety were better. I eventually had to order from Amazon as none of the local stores carried the ones that worked.

Wince said...

Where is Ernest Borgnine when you need him?

Original Mike said...

Madison is 43-degrees latitude.

Yancey Ward said...

I almost missed the last hockey broom at the door. This video is fucking funny on so many levels.

Meade said...

Humans can be such sentimental fools.

lonetown said...

He'll be back and he's bringing his friends - Ben

Amadeus 48 said...

I hate to make this political, but that was a perfect illustration of the 2016 presidential race, with Trump, Conway and Bannon setting up this crazy plan to rid America of the Clintons, right down to the surprise exit.

I'll go back in my cage now. Time for some cheese.

MaxedOutMama said...

Chuck - the bait-first-trap-later method and the old fashioned wooden traps are by far the best. I hate it when the trap only catches them and doesn't kill them, but by baiting for a few days first they lose all caution and get killed immediately.

Yes, it is so irritating that it is hard to find those old traps in the stores. In my experience the new-and-improved ones don't work nearly as well.

mezzrow said...

I showed this to my cat. She wants to know the 'locate' coordinates for the rat.

Live rat or dead trophy, your pick.

rcocean said...

Sorry to be a bigot but there's a difference between a field mouse wandering into your home and a rat.

Rats need to be exterminated.

Unknown said...

I had a rat hump me once, it was very traumatizing.

chuck said...

> the new-and-improved ones don't work nearly as well.

The best I found were the Snap E mouse traps. The trigger is a bit stiff so you have to make sure the bait is stuck on -- otherwise the mouse will run off with it -- but apart from that they were quite effective.

Roy Lofquist said...

Well, ammo IS pretty expensive these days.

Paco Wové said...

"No, it's Lat 43, and it looks like 59 longitude."

That doesn't work, because a longitude wouldn't end in "N" or "S". It looks like the whole thing is the latitude: 43° 59' 1** N. Which corresponds roughly to Boise, Idaho, or Rutland, Vermont.

David said...

Lat 43 north goes right through Milwaukee.

David said...

Madame Trollyou said...
I had a rat hump me once, it was very traumatizing.


You missed a chance. It's worse for the rat if you hump it back.

Big Mike said...

It's 43 degrees 59 minutes and I think 19 seconds north latitude. That might be the latitude of Minneapolis (and any tows due east or west of there).

rehajm said...

It looks like the whole thing is the latitude: 43° 59' 1** N.

Yah.

Cape Elizabeth, ME? Or some dove bar thereabouts?

PB said...

Nice slap shot at the end.

Merny11 said...

i don't know what is funnier, the video or the comments. The only thing that I hate as much as a mouse in the house is a centipede. Ugh!

David said...

"We eventually lost interest in them as pets and gave them all to a pet store. Their ultimate fate unknown."

Think well fed snakes.

Henry said...

The woman with the broom at the bottom of the stairs should try out for Major League Baseball.

Or curling.