The war on vermin

This war started about 3 weeks ago when I reached home after work one Monday evening and was looking at my ceiling at some mysterious holes left by some bug that black tiny sand like droppings come from. Now I like to keep my kitchen mostly clean so when I come home to a counter full of this sand like droppings I was pissed. I then look in my cutlery draw to see a large grey flash! Upon further inspection my worst fears were confirmed, it was a rat and he just moved in. He was trying to build a nest in the draw using old plastic forks I get from the chinese food I often buy and also pissing all over the draw. I didn't want to poison this unwanted guest as he would die in some inaccessible area behind/below my kitchen sink but I took my canned bug spray and sprayed like I never did before back there, I could still hear his tiny footsteps landing slowly.

I assumed that was it for him so I cleaned out the draws with bleach and moved the cutlery to a safer inaccessible(by rats) cabinet in my kitchen, but of course when I came back the next day it was full of rat urine again. That Saturday I decided to get some glue traps and set them in the draw. When I woke up on Sunday the only thing I saw on the trap was a roach, that was half eaten by the rat(which I then named Jerry). The roaches don't disturb me much anymore as I have always suspected that they were there under the cabinets where I couldn't see but Jerry was just pushing it using my trap for him as a feeding ground. Other than that roach there was nothing for Jerry to eat in that cupboard below the sink.

Jerry: 1, Adrian: 0

This didn't go over well with me so when I went to visit my parents that day and she suggested getting an old fashioned spring loaded rat trap. I noticed I started smelling something funky in my kitchen but couldn't identify the source, I asked my friend if she smelt anything but she said no so I just ignored it. So the next day, Monday, I went out to my hardware store and bought a hammer and some rat traps. I used the hammer to remove some boards in the cupboard under my kitchen sink to reveal who ever lives/died back there, I saw nothing so I just set my spring loaded traps baited with cheese and hope for the best. At that point in time there are three spring traps and two glue traps and up until this yesterday, many weeks later, nothing was caught.

Last Sunday morning came and I went into my kitchen to find it infested with flies.. I realize then what had happened, Jerry got poisoned by my spray or maybe ate the roach that had too much poison on it and died back there in some other place that I still couldn't see. This would explain the faint foul smell I detected a few weeks ago and then these flies came from the maggots that ate his body after. To confirm my theory I looked in the cupboard to find about 8 flies locked away, yep they were born back there and I was disgusted even more. At least he lost that battle and my kitchen is now rodent free.

The next set of vermins are the lizards, my apartment has lots of geckos in and about the place. I personally don't have much of a problem with them as they eat the bugs that fly in at night when I turn on my lights but when a girl wakes you up screaming in the middle of the night that there is a croaking lizard over the bed is not cool. I also used to have a large one that lived outside my window that made the loudest noises ever, he would often wake me up at night with the croaking. I have recently found out that bug spray is effective in getting rid of them. It doesn't kill them instantly but it seems to blind them and prevents them from climbing walls. I have gotten rid of a few this way, up to Sunday night I saw one before I went to bed and sprayed him. He fell to the ground and ran about the place and I just went to bed as I couldn't bother find him and throw it out. When I woke up the next morning I saw him bucking on my closet door trying to get in without success, I glanced away and glance back.. it was gone. I guess I will search for its body later :-( Anyway since the spring loaded rat traps were not catching anything at all I moved the largest one from my kitchen out to the ledge below my living room window last night. Now when I woke up this morning much to my surprise it caught a large gecko, why was it trying to eat the cheese I used to bait the trap? I felt bad for the creature, it was still alive and breathing when I took it off and reset the trap but its back and ribs were snapped.

I figure the score is something like: vermin 1, Adrian 4. Here is the breakdown..

When I first moved here I found 3 different type of ants, they are now mostly gone now.
vermin 0, Adrian 1

Jerry using my draw as his bathroom, me killing him, him leaving flies after death:
vermin 1, Adrian 2

The war on lizards:
vermin 0, Adrian 1

Add up that score and it looks grim for the vermin.. this is sad, I need to move.