Wednesday, September 1, 2010

When Home is... mice, rats or any rodent



Everyone seems to have a strong aversion to at least one uninvited wildlife guest in their homes. For some it’s cockroaches, for others it’s spiders (particularly huntsmen who seem to appear magically on walls after it rains). What’s it for you?

For me it is definitely rodents.

I’m not sure when or why this aversion began but I do remember never wanting a mouse as a pet when I was younger, despite loving the Beatrix Potter tale of tidy Mrs Tittlemouse. And I loved guinea pigs. An animal that looks like an overgrown mouse.

Moving on.

When I was 23 I was offered a job with a major book publishing house in London. With a salary that meant it would be nigh impossible to live in London. At the time I was offered the job I was there on work experience. While in the photocopying room I began talking to an editorial assistant about what it would be really like to live and work in London.

‘Well, you’ll have to get your boyfriend to move over from Australia,’ she began, ‘and then you both may be able to afford a room in a big terrace house.’

Sharing a house with maybe four other couples and one bathroom didn’t quite appeal. Let’s just say I was never a backpacker.

‘Or, you might be really lucky like me.’ She continued, her eyes sparkling. ‘My boyfriend and I have just moved into a basement flat. It’s so cool having our own place.’

This sounds more like it, I thought.

‘Yeah, it’s really great,’ she said as she collected her photocopying from the tray. ‘Although we do have quite bad damp. And rats,’ she added as an afterthought. ‘But we’re so lucky having our own place!’

Back in Sydney my biggest concern was cockroach invasions, which never disgusted me as much as the thought of mice or rats. But, judging from the news recently, mice and rats are becoming more of a problem in the city centre and near the harbour. Interviews with homeless people complaining of rats scuttling over them while they slept at night haunted me.

This conversation recently came up during my daughter’s ballet class. While standing outside waiting for the class to end the three-year-old sister of one of the girls in the class rushed up to my friend and me.

‘We caught a mouse last night in our house!’ she exclaimed. ‘It was living under the fridge and we could hear in making scratching noises all night. It was really cute.’ She looked so excited about this discovery while her father looked less cheerful.

‘Yes,’ he said, ‘they’re pretty hard to catch.’

My friend laughed. For one night she had come home late and the rest of the house was sleeping. She opened the kitchen cupboard to put something in the bin and there, sitting on the lid on its hind legs, was a little brown mouse sniffing the air curiously. She shut the cupboard door quietly and went to bed nervously.

The father complained of his veggies growing in the garden being eaten by rats and I commented we had similar problems with our strawberries. Although I assumed it was a possum. He smiled and shook his head. Thankfully the ballet class then finished.

One morning, a few weeks later I was chatting on the phone looking out into the garden. The back paling fence began wobbling and I wondered if a cat had jumped on it. Suddenly, from behind the tree ran a grey animal with a pointy nose and a long tail. It ran across the entire length of the fence.

A rat.

A rat in broad daylight.

Broad daylight!

So much for rodents scuttling under a cloak of darkness...



Photos by Ned Leece

5 comments:

Claire said...

And all I can think about is the huntsman in Old Adaminaby... although the day a mouse looked at me whilst on my pillow and then ran under my duvet at 5am also springs to mind... I don't think I've ever run so fast in my life!!! I love George - my pest control man!

Anonymous said...

We had daily visits from a monster who we nicknamed 'Ratticus' when we first moved into our current house (though thankfully only in the garden).The Mother-in-law arrived for a visit 2 weeks later from NZ and Ratticus hasnt been seen since.

The foxes are leaving a calling card now.

Oh, and great photography Ned!

Germaine Leece said...

I wonder if the fox ate Ratticus?!

Claire, have you seen the movie Truly, Madly, Deeply? With the wonderful Alan Rickman? You should, although in this movie it's a rat in the bed in the middle of the night! The rat disappears when Alan Rickman's ghost is around though...

Anonymous said...

Really enjoyed this article G, and of course Ned's pix! We have a resident mouse who moves into the kitchen every winter...we've got used to him/her. Also have a blue-tongue in the garden who sometimes tries to investigate the house, had a few amusing moments trying to get him/her to leave... and the possums make a nightly pilgrimage across our iron garage roof, sounding like Dumbo and friends. Love it! X

Germaine Leece said...

It's funny but I could handle a blue tongue and a whole possum family so much more easily than a mouse or rat. Strange, I know! Sadly, we never see blue tongues here...

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