To feel ashamed that we had a rat living in the piano

[flower68]

We have a lean-to side room that has had loads of junk in it and housed the cats food and the piano. 3 weeks ago we had a big clean up, moved stuff upstairs but didn't move the piano. On Thursday I was doing my accounts in there and realised it smelled rodenty plus droppings near piano. DH investigated and discovered a live rat hiding in the piano. Mass panic ensued, called out pest control who put down poison and told us it would take a week to get rid. No way was that OK so I bought some snap traps, DH laid them and rat was dead next morning. Thing is I feel really scuzzy that we actually had a rat in our house who may have been resident for a while. The cat - usually a good hunter - was sod all use. Not clear how rat got in maybe from garden. I keep house as clean as 3 kids and a busy job allows but what if that's not enough? I'm also worried that there may be more than one rat although the pest control person said no evidence. Am very rodent phobic.

Dh had mice once. He spent days setting elaborate traps up using the old stick, piece of cheese and Tupperware container method. He then drove the mice several miles away and released them into the wild

Tbh, ratmaninov was best pun summer

I love my YABU mugs (I have two! One official one and one I did on vistaprint), I have a wine mug too It usually has wine in it as we don't have wine glasses

chicken :) he had to have a hat, it was NYE ;)

Pixie I want to rub noses with Ashi - look at that face! :-D

How the hell did you get him to keep still with the hat though?! I can't even get a decent pic of any of mine, they never stop ...

He is actually a poorly boy, he was the runt of a 17-strong litter and as a result, he is very lethargic. He also has other health issues and seizures. The lethargy means that we get a lot of cuddles and can get lots of posed sleeping shots, but obviously he's not like a normal rat. It's why he's a lone boy and therefore spends a lot of time on me or with me. Our breeder gave him to us as she knew that we'd look after him and get him vet care no matter what the outcome would be. Another of her customers has the other runt from his litter and the runt from my older girls litter and they have similar issues.

My others are just mad, I have two of his older sisters as well who are the perfect pet rats, scatty and beautiful and very fun. We're lucky to have an amazing breeder nearby! My other three aren't from that breeder and there is a noticeable difference IMO.

Green!!!! Mouseorgan...

I really don't think it's anything to do with cleanliness. I lived in some student houses where the level of cleanliness was pretty disgusting (in hindsight) and we never had rats or mice.

In my twenties I lived in a flatshare where we kept the flat pretty clean, and suddenly we had a mouse problem. After that we became OBSESSIVELY clean, hoovering and sweeping constantly, disinfecting and wiping down surfaces all the time, all food in airtight containers, and we still couldn't get rid of the mice. Our landlord suggested it was because we weren't clean enough, but that was just his excuse, it was definitely not the problem. Eventually only professional pest control sorted it out, and blocking up ALL the little cracks in skirting boards with wire wool.

So, in brief, don't feel ashamed. It's likely to be more to do with the structure of your leanto and the unluckiness of being in proximity to somewhere where rodents live outside, than your cleanliness or lackthereof.