Last night The Old Girl drew my attention to some scuttling sounds up in the roof space. "Rats" she said. "Rats" to you too I said and went back to reading my book - Fatherland by Robert Harris.
"You'll have to sort that out" she said.
"I'll hold the ladder for you" I said but knew that I wouldn't win this one.
"That's your job matey" she said so I got the extendable ladder out, found a couple of torches that worked and proceeded to take out all of the shelves in a cupboard at the rear of the house. This double door cupboard - 'Narnia' I call it, provides the access to a kind of chute that goes up along a chimney into the roof space. I removed the cupboard's false ceiling and looked up. The space has always been narrow but since we had the house insulated with white polar bear type fluffy stuff it is even more narrow.
It's also a long way up as we have high ceilings.
The ladder can only go so far as it can't be fully extended and still allow room for climbing up. What I have to do is stand at the top of the ladder and reach up to find a joist or something to drag myself up. There aren't any footholds so it's a case of using arm strength and bracing my back against a wall.
When I get the HRV service people in to change the filters in the two HRV units we have in the roof-space I have to ask for the smallest (and most agile person).
I reached the top and looked about at a sea of white. It's a large house so the roof-space area is vast. The height in parts is high enough to stand but because there is no floor, only joists that are covered by the insulation, it is a bit too dangerous to wander about. God knows how the HRV people manage.
I shined both torches around (one for spare just in case) and sure enough spied some tell-tale rat droppings. Little bastards. I guess it's to be expected in winter in an old house in the country.
I shimmied my way down again and headed off the Mitre 10 to buy some industrial strength rat bait. The cat can't get up there so I asked for the strongest stuff they had which I've positioned up there in 3 containers. I'll have to check each day over the next week to see if it's being eaten.
Tomorrow I'll check under the house and all around to see if I can spot how Mr Rat got up there although I read that they can squeeze through gaps of a couple of centimetres.
If the rat bait doesn't work I could try one of these:
But If I'm resorting to that I may as well go the full hog and use music from one of these.
1 comment:
That a rockabilly bass. Should do te trick, but wear some Brylcreem.
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