Covid Support Thread
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So my home office where I spend all my time, has a window A/C that was still in. Yesterday I heard this loud scrabbling, and I look and there’s a big fucking rat looking in my window. It was on top of the AC unit sniffing around. And could have easily busted right through that plastic accordion-thingy on the sides of the unit if it wanted to. I read a news article the other day that said rats are taking over Cambridge and Newton MA. I’ve seen them on my early morning walks lately too. We also have a turkey problem.
Oh, we totally have a rate problem here in Chicago. We have a feral cat program for it. I think we were named the “rattiest” U.S. city (what an honor!) a few years back and know a few people who have found them inside. A friend’s ex and his roommate broke a lease over it a few years back.
The other night when I was walking the dog, I went to throw the bag of waste into a trash can. As I was lifting the lid, I noticed a rat on top of the adjacent dumpster and only THEN did I notice the rat on the lid I was lifting. I got spooked, threw the bag aimlessly, and it accidentally hit the rat as it was scurrying away. Snatched up the waste bag, got it in the trash, speed walked home. Last fall, again while walking the dog on a poorly lit side street near me, I felt the weight or something against my shoe as I was walking and realized I’d given a rat a light, accidental kick.
Oh god. That’s creepy.
The worst story I heard was years ago my friend was in the T station after a Red Sox game and it was so packed she couldn’t move, and a rat ran right over her foot, which was in a flip-flop. Then I guess because rats like to retrace their steps, it ran BACK over her foot again, and she couldn’t move or do anything. I’m a lot more of a bug-phobic than a rat-phobic, but that’s pretty rough.
I went to a French eatery and the chef had a rat in his hat giving him cooking instructions. I complained to the city but they said that the restaurant was too popular and wouldn’t do anything.
So, this is real: this girl in my high school had a pet rat, and either her mom didn’t let her keep it in the house so she kept it in her car, or she just liked bringing it everywhere, but in Culinary Arts class she had it on her shoulder, under her hair, while cooking.
And then later she had a duck! She came to this beach house we were staying at and brought the fucking duck and let it swim in the tub.
So she was basically Ratatouille?
Washington DC was the rattiest place I ever lived, with the exception of my mom’s house in Florida. It was baaaaad. Every morning I’d check the traps and several times a week we caught something. The pest control guy found a big mamma in the crawl space over the garage; we thought that was the end of it.
Nope. Several months later one started to dig through the ceiling in my mom’s bathroom. Turns out the roofing guys left a vent completely uncapped and so the rats had just been coming in and filling up the inaccessible attic space with poop. I thought there was some lingering smell from my dad who had been ill for quite some time. Nope. Rats.
They cleaned out the attic, fixed the pipe, sealed everything off, put in four access points to the attic space. No more smell, no more rats. Much happier everyone.
Rats on the street don’t bother me. Rats when I’m in a towel about to take a shower… oh fuck no.
My mom would have left and burned the house down. She has a phobia. She’s like, a bug I can just put a glass over. Whereas I can’t get close enough to a bug to put a glass over it.
Here in nyc, my kids think it’s cute when they see a rat walking down the sidewalk next to them. ?
My mom’s house gets the occasional mouse. The cat will become OBSESSED with a room and that’s usually the giveaway, but I guess at least it’s good that someone in the house has fun while the situation is handled.
One building I lived in, I’d find the rare roach. Always just one, dead or dying, always in the same spot in my bathroom. Always on the larger side. The first time it happened, I grabbed a broom to sweep it up figuring it was dead because it was on its back. Nope! As soon as the broom touched it, it started skittering up the handle and I freaked out, dropped the broom, and ran in the other direction to find my Raid. My sister, who at one point lived in a building in DC where she’d frequently find roaches and learned to just deal/handle it, came over to help. Bless her. I don’t do well with bugs. I still stayed in the building for a few years even though I know that one roach is never really one roach. Though I do think I’d prefer to find a roach over a rat inside my home. Some of the rats I’ve seen in U.S. cities are basically the size of house cats. Either way, glad to currently live in a place where I have yet to experience any kind of pest situation.
