El Andalous - Rats, Second Night

El Andalous - Fountain

I went to greet the pest services people, who had to be signed in before entering any further into the building. It was a German guy and an Egyptian, the latter carrying a big container of poison. My optimism waned on seeing it, as what I really wanted was a quick fix of some kind. The German guy explained that he had an appointment on Monday with the management to provide advice about eradicating rats in the entire resort, since there had been a lot of problems.

They went through all the cupboards to inspect for droppings and to lay poison wherever they saw fit. As I intimated before, I’m not a fan of poison, because I’m not convinced it works well and it is also dangerous. However, it was a step up from those glue traps. To my relief, they replaced the glue mat in my bedroom with poison, so that was one nightmare scenario (a writhing, angry, rat hissing away all night in my bedroom)  eradicated.

I explained that I really needed to be able to sleep and so I wanted them to check where the rats could be coming in. I asked them to check behind the fridge, the sofa, and my wardrobe, since these were the places I’d seen or heard the rats.

They dutifully pulled out the fridge and confirmed that there was nothing there; they also brought the dishwasher out. I asked whether there were holes behind the cupboards, but they said they would need to dismantle the entire kitchen to be able to see properly. They pulled out the sofa, but there were no holes. The same held for my wardrobe, although I was grateful that they pointed out that at least this all confirmed that at this precise moment there were no rodents in my flat. They also checked my bathroom.

I pointed to a few holes in the walls where electrics could go, so they advised me to use plastic bags to block them for now, since the rodents don’t like the rustling sound and it can deter them.

And off they went, until they next came to check on progress. I felt happy to know that the rats weren’t nesting in my actual flat and, particularly, that there was no nest behind the wardrobe, or a hole to their happy home. I could only pray that the poison would mean instantaneous death for the rats.

I checked my email to see if Sara had replied, but she hadn’t. I needed to eat and it was getting late. In the end, I decided to stay in my flat and I went to bed early, partly because I was tired, and partly because I wanted to get to sleep before any rodent activity started. I stuffed the gap under the door with plastic bags. Maybe I wouldn’t get interrupted tonight.

This time, I kept my bedside lamp on rather than my room light. This was at least a bit easier on my eyes and still enabled me to see. I used the mosquito net, thinking that it might make it more difficult for the rats to get to me.

I lay there, eyes wide open with fear. Not long afterwards, I heard a scratching noise up in my air conditioning. A tail swung down from the crack. The scratching continued. I felt as if I was on “I’m a celebrity, get me out of here!”, only I wasn’t a celebrity and there was nobody to get me out. In the kitchen, I could hear a clanking of the utensils. I imagined the rat dying and collapsing onto my table top.

Next, I heard a rustling sound. Something was trying to get into the bedroom. I sat bolt upright. The plastic bag was dragged, bit by bit, from under the door, and a rat scuttled in. I screamed and it ran straight back out. With trepidation, I got out of bed and replaced the bag, trying to make it more firm this time.

In the next room, I could hear something sliding about – maybe it was one of those glue pads, maybe a rat was stuck on there and it was trying to free itself?

I was so tired that I was feeling nauseous.

Another rustling sound, and again, I sat up to look. A mouse was heading straight towards my bed. I shouted at it to go away, it stopped, looked at me for a second, and then went back out again. Once more, I got up and replaced the plastic bag.

The scratching continued in the air conditioning. I was feeling really hot, but didn’t want to put the air conditioning on, because this would open up its vents and the rodent might fall out.

And then there was another sound of the bags moving from under the gap in my door. A different coloured mouse entered, also heading for my bed. Again, I screamed (apologies to my neighbours), and it made a hasty exit back to the lounge. Once more, I replaced the plastic bag. Won’t these rodents learn that there isn’t anything in the bedroom apart from a scary human and quit trying to get in?

Despite all this, I think I slept a little better than on that first night. At least I knew that my task was to keep my bedroom rodent-free, I could hope that rats were dying as I lay in bed, and the bedside light was a lot softer than the light I’d had on the previous night.

I finally got up the next morning and opened my lounge door with trepidation, half-expecting to see it strewn with bodies of rats. It all looked normal and no bodies were to be seen. The only thing to shock me was all the wood shavings by my front door where the rat had evidently spent time gnawing.

At least nobody could dispute now that I was suffering from an infestation.