My Vlogs and Blogs EP 3 - Rats,Mice or a Hedgehog?
If you like to read here is my Blog based on my Vlog, you choice, you can watch the vid or read the story below. Or do both.... Welcome to my Blog & Vlog, Trs Vids
Before I get in to this 2 part Vlog/Blog, if you like the channel consider subscribing and if you want to know how to support, try clicking the links below for my affiliated program (Links to some great films and gear as well as some rat/mice/pest products of course) or even feel free to buy my a coffee, all much apprenticed and goes back in to the channel.
https://paypal.me/therileyshot or check out my Amazon links below, all really helps
Rat poison -
Rat Traps - https://amzn.to/2QRBeX2
Mouse trap - https://amzn.to/2PHRVni
Pest repliant (ultra sonic)
General Photography things I use.
Kodak Gold
Kodak 200 colour plus
Back to the story.
Bee and Bruce (if you haven't watched any of my vids, these are my pet cats) decided about 3 weeks ago to focus all there attention on one corner of the house. The down stairs bathroom skirting boards, which backs on to the garage. Hmmmm, strange we thought.
Fast forward one week and I grabbed a bag of cat food (the biscuit ones) from the garage and...... well, I inadvertently produced a bread crumbs moment with cat biscuits as we had a big hole in the bottom!
Now, to throw a red hearing your way, at the same time as i opens the garage door, a ginger cat named Neil decided to jump up and run out under my legs. So, any reasonable person may presume the hole in the cat food was caused by said Cat. The tail continues.
Fast forward another week, the Cats are still paying far too much attention to the wall. Then about 2 am on a Friday, I am still gaming with some friends in the conservatory (after a few beers) and my wife shouts down. SCOTTTTTT! I run upstairs fists clenched, adrienne pumping ready to fight for our lives for what I only presume is either a intruder, a large spider or a black hole sucking everything into it. What I discovered was in some ways (but not all) much more concerning. 2 cats trying to rip through the skirting board, a wife very much sat upright with a look of fright on her face and some fairly loud and clear scratching from the wall!
Ok, we have something don't we I said, to which Vicki replied, YES! something I have been telling you about for 2 weeks, sort it! The next morning I did just that. In fact I did what I do best, I took my go pro camera (for those who don't know what that is, its a tiny camera that is unbreakable) stuck it in my mouth and climbed down to our foundations under the house to take a look. Filming it all with the big camera and narrating it of course! What did I find, well, a very damp, spider infested brick laden dump of a space. Ohh and an old fag packet from about 40 years ago.
Now its worth noting I do not like small spaces, a fear derived from a small boy, when my ex friend used to wrap me in a bed sheet and punch me and sit on me, usually because I won at Fiffa 95/96 ha. At the time, just a couple of kids messing around. When I look back, I now se it was more like a bigger friend showing off his muscle over a slightly weaker friend. Funny enough, friends no more, thanks to move to high school and a me being a finder of new friends.
Anyway I digress, This has led me to be very nervous about closed spaces, particularly when i cant move my arms. So, in to the hole I go,I gap no bigger than the size of my dad bod belly, and I would ned that belly to crawl on in a second. Its safe to say the adrenaline was pumping. My house, in fact many house in West Yorkshire, UK are built on very steep hills, being that at the top of the valley is the wild Yorkshire Moors, Barron of any housing due to its height, terrain and all round pain in the arse bogs. Thats great for nature by the way and just how I like it. Anyway, that means all our housing and settlements are on the hills down to the valley floor.
So you either live on a hill or live at the bottom and get flooded each year. Our choice is very high up on the cusp of said Moorland on a steep hill! Why do I tell you this, well, because when I am climbing down in to this space. The first part is about 25 cm high, no lie, it was just enough to slide my body downwards, then turn over on to my belly and army crawl towards a bigger space.
Lucky for you you can see this in on the vid, the rest of the house then slides downwards so by the time I had crawled a few feet it stated to open up. Not enough for me to stand but enough to sort of crawl upright!. The further your face is away from the floor the better. However, this made my head far too close to the millions of spiders and cobwebs above. Or so it felt.
So, the adventure is well and truly away, I am crawling around on bits of brick, metal, dirt, dust and patches of wet. However, I could see no foot prints, no droppings, no mice or rats, nothing really apart from the fag packet and some screws. Which by the way, still hurt your knees after 40 years of been down a hole! Then, out of the corner of my eye I spotted something, not eyes, not fur, but a hole, a hole. I moved closer for an inspection. It was a hole from a pipe in to the wall cavity. Now, this could be where these little buggers are coming and going maybe, either way it was enough to see a gap in to the wall and in to the garage. My entry point is now confirmed, or so I thought. My time in this hell hole was over.
After this mammoth expedition I rose with the knowledge I couldn't find a single dropping, or footprints etc. However, I did see they could get in through the pipes!
So on to the next plan. I grabbed our pet cams from the living room, took a quick ride to the inlays and picked up a wildlife camera and went about setting up a trap!
I took a small mouse trap, some cat biscuits they love so much and lined it up in the middle of the garage. Placed the cameras either side and waited with bated breath!
The sun fell that evening and there was a clear air about that struck me as the fresh start type of air :) . Would this be the night I finally got rid of these pesky creatures. I woke the next day to the footage. 7.32am the camera triggered. In the black and white footage, you see the pile of food in the middle of the floor, the wildlife camera at the back. In the dark the infrared light appear like little rat eyes peering through the dark air.
The time ticked on, nothing....... Then in a flash a bright light stuns the room. The wildlife camera has triggered, but nothing...... Then from the lower bottom hand corner. Movement................ And .......................... To be continued .
Check out the vid above, and ill be posted part 2 on Sunday night. Thanks for reading, Scott