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| Sahl Hasheesh's local cormorant |
So, the plastic bags technique hadn’t worked as a deterrent.
I’d done quite a bit of walking the day before, with going to the owners’ meeting, wandering round blocking holes in my flat, showing the pest control people round, and going to the security person and then walking round while they put down the glue mats. Consequently, I rested my leg in the morning as I thought my toes had swollen a bit.
Today, I was going to try the peppermint oil technique. I should really have done that the day before, but I had been too tired to walk to the shop by the end of the day and I had hoped that the plastic bags may have done the trick.
There is a perfume shop in El Andalous, so at least I could go and get the peppermint oil myself. I already had incense burners in my flat. The websites recommended cotton wool balls soaked in oil, placed strategically by the rodents’ entry points. I didn’t have cotton wool, but reckoned toilet paper would do just as well.
The shopkeepers, as usual, were very interested in the progress of my foot, so we stopped and talked about that for a while. I was then able to bring into conversation as to whether they stocked peppermint oil. The perfume guy showed me into his shop.
He asked me what it was for, and I guess my response wasn’t exactly what was anticipated. He suggested eucalyptus as another alternative. I could see where he was coming from, but said I would stick with the peppermint since that was what had been explicitly mentioned. I didn’t haggle over the price – maybe I should have, but I was just feeling grateful that he was so close to my home and that I may have the solution to my problems. And he needed the business.
After I’d eaten my supper, I turned on the TV in the hope that the noise would deter the rats from coming out. My plan was to go to bed at 10pm, so that I could get to sleep before the mice came out to play. I started making balls of toilet paper soaked in the oil and placed quite a few strategically in the bathroom, where I suspected there could be several entry points. The room soon began to fill with the smell of the oil. I was worried about oil drying out, but I guess oil doesn’t (at least, not as easily as water does).
I planned to intertwine some of the peppermint-soaked toilet paper with the plastic bags, in the hope that this would comprise the supreme defence against the entry of rats into my bedroom. At 9.30pm, with the TV still on at this point, I heard a noise and a rat or large mouse was just jumping off my kitchen table top. It looked at me mid-flight, panicked, and on landing immediately scuttled away in the direction of the dishwasher. I promptly put one of the soaked sheets of toilet paper by the dishwasher. Nothing else appeared within the following 30 minutes.
I deliberated as to whether I should protect my bedroom or place the peppermint items predominantly in the kitchen. I plumped for my bedroom in the end; it would be a disaster if the rats charged through the pong in the kitchen and promptly headed for my bedroom for refuge. I didn’t want to stink the whole place out.
In addition, I put some oil in the incense burner and put it in the bedroom, too. I deliberated putting some soaked paper under my bed, but decided against it just in case it turned out to be totally ineffective, or even worse, an attractant.
No more rodents had appeared in the last half an hour, so I was brave enough to go into the bathroom and clean my teeth and then to fetch myself a glass of water in case I was thirsty during the night (I am too scared to venture into my kitchen at night when rats may be there).
By the time I went into my bedroom, it was stinking of peppermint and I then remembered that you aren’t really supposed to use the pure essence; you need to dilute it. I just had to hope that it wasn’t harmful in such a concentrated form.
I went to bed, and for the first time felt quite cool. I decided I must be relaxing a bit more. I lay there, with the bedside lamp on, listening out for the rodents. I couldn’t hear anything. It was like magic. I lay there for an hour or so, but still I heard nothing. I eventually fell asleep, although the intensity of the peppermint smell was giving me a slight headache.
I woke up at some point in the night. I heard the plastic bag move and I sat upright, but couldn’t see anything. Again, I heard it move. I sat up, but still nothing was to be seen. I eventually drifted off again.
I didn’t get up until after 9am, which, these days, is quite late for me. The edge of the plastic bag by the door now left a gap. I wasn’t sure if this had been a mouse or whether it had just moved due to a random gust of air. I suppose the likelihood was a rodent, but there was no evidence anywhere. Maybe it had poked its nose in and then done a runner when getting the smell full-blast.
My main aim had been achieved, which was to get a relatively peaceful night’s sleep.
I wasn’t sure what intensity of peppermint smell I really needed. My sense of smell will be far less acute than that of a mouse or rat, so I suspect I overdid it. I guess lower intensity would be better, so that if they adapt, you can increase the intensity, although why they would bother continuing to go somewhere where there is a horrible smell when they could go elsewhere is beyond me. On the other hand, they adapt to the ultrasonic noise, so unpleasantness for some reason still isn’t a deterrent.
But at least it looks as if I may have a solution for the time being!
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