I have been totally E-RAT-icated!!!! It cost me $4000, and is worth every penny! I still haven’t adjusted my thinking that there will be NO MORE RATS in my house!!!!

Now $4000 is a lot of money. But here’s what they did. First, they sucked up all the old insulation out of the attic, full of rat pee and feces, and the remains of nests. OH God, that so gives me the creeps! They were really living high on the hog inside my house. Next, these guys went through all my ductwork and repaired every hole in it with stainless steel wire mesh, sealed in by foam. There were LOTS of holes. Then they went to the hardware store and bought me a new length of dryer vent hose, and installed that because the rats had eaten holes in that, so the dryer was venting into my attic. YIKES!! Once they had all those repairs done, they found out that I had drywood termites up in the attic, so sprayed the wood down for those. Then they sanitized the whole attic so there is none of that horrible rat nest smell left up there. And then the last thing they did was blow in all new insulation throughout the attic. And, before they left they set up 4 bait stations around the house and will monitor them monthly.

So…the smell is gone, the accesses have all been closed up, and they can’t get back in unless they come with wire cutters to cut away the stainless steel wire mesh. I am so happy and so grateful to have found someone who could do something about this. Last week I went to a meeting of our writer’s group, and was talking about the rats, and what I was doing to e-rat-icate them. One of the 6 girls was shocked I had rats. The 3 more chimed in that they too had had rats, and that meant that 2/3 of us had dealt with them. It’s just a thing here in FL. They nest in the trees, jump on the roof, and find their way in.

Dan came and kept me company while they worked. We sat out on the deck and it was so nice out today. 80° and very low humidity. We took the strobe light out of the attic, and took all the rat bait stations, and traps out of wherever they were, and now I am just sitting here ever so delighted that my house smells good. Not like an old house, but like a clean one. I thought that it just smelled like an old house. But it didn’t. Well, it’s old but it smelled like nasty critter nests and whatever else.

I think the spraying for termites scared a bunch of palmetto bugs (you know, those gigunza cockroach things) out of the attic because Dan and I kept seeing them on the deck while we were out there, and it’s not something we usually see. Usually, we only find them in the morning, laying on their backs dead, or almost dead, and just sweep them out of the house.

Tomorrow I will begin really cleaning this house, vacuuming, mopping floors, dusting, etc. Since I came home from CO I’ve spent a lot of time deal with the rats, plus a lot of time on dr. appointments that needed to be done, like a dentist appointment for the tooth I broke in CO, and some other stuff. And I had to get my debit card re-instated. I’d forgotten to call the bank and tell them I was going to CO so they stopped approving charges on the card. Oh well.

I have a bunch of company coming in March. Friends from up north, and my sister from Austin. I haven’t seen her in 3 years, (due to Covid of course) and my other sis and I are so excited to have her here! Also, my friends Peter and Linda who used to put all the gong baths on that I went to up north. I’m really excited and feel kind of honored that they are spending time with me. All the friends are only staying a couple nights, and at AirBnB’s too. That makes it very nice for me. Of course, my sis is staying here, and then we will all go to my older sister’s new house for the rest of the week.

Now, my house will be ready for all the company. Can’t wait to see them all. Life is good!

Love and light to all.