I Smell a Rat

I've had an ongoing rat saga near my house (just to be clear, it's not in my house). For those of you that are unaware, I will fill you in. Last week I started to pull out a hose from the reel box which has sat for a few months. What I thought was a small bunny ran out....guess what....small, furry, cute bunnies don't have 8 inch tails. It wasn't a small bunny. It was a rat. (excuse for a moment while I shiver and run screaming like a little school girl). The varmint ran off with Dax chasing him and I thought maybe it was a fluke seeing him. I'll be honest, I've never seen a rat outside of movies and pictures. They are big, hairy and creepy (kind of like the 50 year male that hangs out in his windowless van outside of the elementary school or the lady that works behind the counter at the bureau of motor vehicles). I immediately put out glue traps and lots of bait blocks. The problem should have been solved right? Wrong! Fast forward to two days later. I'm standing out in my driveway talking to Rich at 8:30 pm. I finish telling him the rat story and within minutes, we see a rat jump off of the bumper of my truck and run across the drive. He advises me that I have a problem. I had it, so I brought out the big guns...bigger glue traps, more bait blocks and the old school rat traps. Imagine the old school mice traps, but about 5 times their size. I loaded one up with peanut butter and sprinkled tortilla chips around it and set it (hey, Speedy Gonzalez surely likes tortilla chips, right?). It took all of an hour to catch a monster. Check him out....

You would think that this would be the end of it right? Wrong! I get up the next morning to dispose of the rat and guess what? He's gone. Not gone completely, but he had been drug around the yard and his face was eaten off....I would have to assume that another (bigger) rat did it. Anyway, my garage and driveway now look like a mine field, littered with bait blocks and glue traps every 2 feet and I've set the giant old school rat trap again. It's been 5 days and I haven't caught another one. Maybe they were just passing through on their way to Miami for the Super Bowl!