Rats
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Big Magilla
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It took four years but they've finally found the hole in my roof. They had no choice but to look this time.
On Sunday, November 7th I woke up to sounds of dripping in the hall at the top of the stairs near my computer desk. Sure enough rain was pouring down from the light fixture just a couple of feet from where I sit at the computer. I called the HOA's emergency phone number and got the roofers to come within a couple of hours. They discovered a broken roof tile behind where the HOA hired company installed mesh to keep pigeons from nesting under the eaves in 2005-2006. Ironically, it was behind the mesh in the front of the house, not the back as I had previously thought. They removed the broken tile and temporarily put up tar paper, came back the following Wednesday and installed a replacement tile. For the first time in four years I don't hear any sounds over my head.
It was really crazy this past summer. After another infestation in June, I kept traps up there until I left for Italy at the end of September.
I would periodically hear a loud pop like that sounded rat jumping on metal, scurrying and then leaving. They wouldn't go near the traps and I found no droppings. As late as the day before the rain came pouring in, I would hear these noises. It was like something out of Gaslight. I thought maybe I was going insane. Now I suspect the noise was caused by rats falling through the hole as they ran across the roof and being frightened, quickly figured out how to leave.
I've asked them to inspect the attic for water damage, but thus far they are stalling. Today I will paint over the stain myself and hopefully never have to go back up in the attic again.
On Sunday, November 7th I woke up to sounds of dripping in the hall at the top of the stairs near my computer desk. Sure enough rain was pouring down from the light fixture just a couple of feet from where I sit at the computer. I called the HOA's emergency phone number and got the roofers to come within a couple of hours. They discovered a broken roof tile behind where the HOA hired company installed mesh to keep pigeons from nesting under the eaves in 2005-2006. Ironically, it was behind the mesh in the front of the house, not the back as I had previously thought. They removed the broken tile and temporarily put up tar paper, came back the following Wednesday and installed a replacement tile. For the first time in four years I don't hear any sounds over my head.
It was really crazy this past summer. After another infestation in June, I kept traps up there until I left for Italy at the end of September.
I would periodically hear a loud pop like that sounded rat jumping on metal, scurrying and then leaving. They wouldn't go near the traps and I found no droppings. As late as the day before the rain came pouring in, I would hear these noises. It was like something out of Gaslight. I thought maybe I was going insane. Now I suspect the noise was caused by rats falling through the hole as they ran across the roof and being frightened, quickly figured out how to leave.
I've asked them to inspect the attic for water damage, but thus far they are stalling. Today I will paint over the stain myself and hopefully never have to go back up in the attic again.
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Big Magilla
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- Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 3:22 pm
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No, it's harmless but is supposed to disorient rodents and insects so they run away.
https://www.riddexplus.com/flare/next
https://www.riddexplus.com/flare/next
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Big Magilla
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- Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 3:22 pm
- Location: Jersey Shore
Cam, Riddex works by reversing the current in the house. Alternately the current flows left to right (or whatever the normal direction is) for three minutes and in the opposite direction for three and back again. I installed three of them, one on each level of the house.
Either they don't work or they don't work on all rodents and insects as they are supposed to. The exterminator found another rat this morning. He'll be back Monday.
In the meantime I await the call from the HOA management company regarding the steel mesh.
Either they don't work or they don't work on all rodents and insects as they are supposed to. The exterminator found another rat this morning. He'll be back Monday.
In the meantime I await the call from the HOA management company regarding the steel mesh.
First the Ugly Renters now the rats! Pete, I feel for you. I know roof rats--we had an" entrance" that was securely meshed over and no problem since. However, I want to warn you. Give them NOTHING that will make them die in your walls( I don 't know what Riddex does). There is nothing worse that the smell of dead rodent in your wall..renders the room/house uninhabitable. Warfarin makes them hunt for water, so that might work.
Two years ago we had scurrying in our (working) chimney. The fireplace at that time had a glass door. My wife was in the living room one day and shrieked because there was a squirrel with its little paws on the glass. I reached in and slammed open the grate. I think I brain-damaged one. We called the wildlife people and they removed mom and six youths. Boy did they scream! ( And one was wobbly--I think that was the one I injured.)
Since then, we installed gas.
Two years ago we had scurrying in our (working) chimney. The fireplace at that time had a glass door. My wife was in the living room one day and shrieked because there was a squirrel with its little paws on the glass. I reached in and slammed open the grate. I think I brain-damaged one. We called the wildlife people and they removed mom and six youths. Boy did they scream! ( And one was wobbly--I think that was the one I injured.)
Since then, we installed gas.
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Big Magilla
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No Willard, no Ratatouille either, though I'm not as revolted as I was the first time.
These are roof rats, which are a different breed. Although they can access an attic through the walls they prefer to climb the side of a house or a tree to get to the roof and into the attic.
There is a fenced off empty lot owned by the HOA behind my house where they apparently reside during the day but on cold nights look for an inviting house around dusk and leave around dawn. Sometimes though, they come earlier and stay later.
So far they've caught only one, but then it's been warm again.
Edited By Big Magilla on 1233810107
These are roof rats, which are a different breed. Although they can access an attic through the walls they prefer to climb the side of a house or a tree to get to the roof and into the attic.
There is a fenced off empty lot owned by the HOA behind my house where they apparently reside during the day but on cold nights look for an inviting house around dusk and leave around dawn. Sometimes though, they come earlier and stay later.
So far they've caught only one, but then it's been warm again.
Edited By Big Magilla on 1233810107
Sorry about your travails, Big. There is nothing more odious than rats -- I once lived in an apartment (in a good neighborhood) in which you could hear rats in the walls and it was horrible.
I guess you won't be watching Willard any time soon.
I guess you won't be watching Willard any time soon.
"Y'know, that's one of the things I like about Mitt Romney. He's been consistent since he changed his mind." -- Christine O'Donnell
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Big Magilla
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- Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 3:22 pm
- Location: Jersey Shore
--Big Magilla wrote:I purchased my current home, a townhouse in 2003.
Hey isn't that the year Samina and I visited you here? We even have pictures with you outside and inside the townhouse.
What a lovely house.......and so sorry that you have been facing so many problems. Hope things work out.
Edited By Big Magilla on 1290080270
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Big Magilla
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- Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 3:22 pm
- Location: Jersey Shore
No, this isn't about Christian Bale, it's about me who is about to go off like Christian Bale on the management company of my Home Owners Association.
I purchased my current home, a townhouse in 2003. The first couple of years were pure bliss. Then in 2005 my next door neighbor sold to an investor and I had to endure a series of renters from Hell until the property was foreclosed on last year, but that is another story.
Some time in 2005 or 2006 we had a big pigeon problem so the management company for the HOA hired a pigeon abatement company that got rid of the problem and as part of their program installed steel mesh in various places around the roofs of the houses where one eave leaves off and another doesn't quite begin, i.e. prime nesting places for birds.
In late 2006 I saw an occasional squirrel playing in the cul-de-sac. At the same time I could hear what sounded like squirrels running on my roof while I tried to sleep at night. I reported this to the management company. They ignored me.
Then last winter, December 18, 2007 to be exact, my heating stopped. The first company I called to look at the furnace in the attic sent a man who literally told me was too fat to get around the furnace to determine what the problem was, and to call someone else and insist that they send someone "skinny", which I did. In the meantime since the first guy discovered signs of a rodent infestation which thankfully turned out to have nothing to do with the heating problem, I called the exterminator before calling another heating company.
The exterminator set traps and caught four or five rats over the course of three weeks - a lovely Christmas and New Year's for me. He also told me that the most likely access route was one of the trees in my backyard which were within 8 feet of the roof - rats can jump 8 feet onto a roof. I cut my beautiful trees down to stumps and in so doing noticed that the steel mesh - the only one the bird people had attached to my house - was loose, secured only on the left side and partially on the top and bottom, leaving about half on the right side exposed. This was right next to my bedroom window. The rats, as best I could tell, were entering in that area as I always heard them coming and going over the ceiling leading from the window.
I wrote to the management company enclosing pictures and followed up with an e-mail. Again they ignored me, but did publish a notation in the monthly newsletter the following month saying that if it was found that rodents are entering your property through an HOA maintained area of responsibility such as a roof a written report from your exterminator was required for the HOA to do something about it.
In the meantime I purchased three Riddex Plus zappers but didn't install them until I heard rodent activity over my head a few weeks ago. It had been quiet for a couple of weeks, which may have had as much to do with the warm weather as it did the Riddex zappers. Then I heard them again and called the exterminator.
This time I got the exterminator to provide me with a written explanation that the open mesh could be the point of entry. I sent another e-mail to the management company of the HOA, in addition to faxing them a copy of the exterminator's findings, this time copying the owner of the management company, reminding the rep that this was the fourth time I informed her of this problem beginning with the report of hearing squirrels on the roof which she should have known was really rats in the attic given that there were other homes here with the same problem.
Copying her boss got the expected result from the rep. It was a cover-your-ass response saying that had I talked to her or anyone else in 2006 they most certainly would have told me rats in the attic were the homeowner's responsibility and that she would have the bird people look for birds nesting on my roof.
I then responded more forcefully, asking her what it was she didn't understand, that I had a rodent problem that I was taking care of at my expense, not a bird problem, but I also had a bird block mesh problem that was the HOA's responsibility.
She then told me mesh was secured from inside the attic and therefore the homeowner's responsibility, but she would ask someone from the Architectural Committee to visit me to take a look at what I was talking about. I thanked her (politely this time) but told her that this particular mesh was not secured from inside the attic but outside the house and was put there as a bird block. She then finally got it and admitted that was done by the bird people she hired and said she would have the bird man contact me directly, which he did.
The bird man and his assistant visited this afternoon. They looked at the problem and said they would provide the HOA with an estimate to replace the current mesh with a stronger one and climb up on the roof and look for any other problems. The bird man insisted that the mesh would have been secured by his men and suggested that the rats jumping from my tree unsecrued it.
This is total nonsense of course. Rats couldn't wedge open steel netting. They didn't gnaw at it. There are no teeth marks or paw marks. These people obviously didn't do a proper job in the first place. They should repair it at no cost to either me or the HOA and hopefully the management company will tell them so, but the way it's been going I fully expect them to support the bird man and say it's my fault because I was responsible for maintaining the trees from which the rats jumped onto the roof and opened the mesh. If they do I am going to go into a Christian Bale rant for sure. I can probably do it without resorting to too much profanity - no use of the "f" word, but I wouldn't be surprised of the first word out of my mouth is "bullshit". On second thought, maybe "ratshit" would be more appropriate.
I purchased my current home, a townhouse in 2003. The first couple of years were pure bliss. Then in 2005 my next door neighbor sold to an investor and I had to endure a series of renters from Hell until the property was foreclosed on last year, but that is another story.
Some time in 2005 or 2006 we had a big pigeon problem so the management company for the HOA hired a pigeon abatement company that got rid of the problem and as part of their program installed steel mesh in various places around the roofs of the houses where one eave leaves off and another doesn't quite begin, i.e. prime nesting places for birds.
In late 2006 I saw an occasional squirrel playing in the cul-de-sac. At the same time I could hear what sounded like squirrels running on my roof while I tried to sleep at night. I reported this to the management company. They ignored me.
Then last winter, December 18, 2007 to be exact, my heating stopped. The first company I called to look at the furnace in the attic sent a man who literally told me was too fat to get around the furnace to determine what the problem was, and to call someone else and insist that they send someone "skinny", which I did. In the meantime since the first guy discovered signs of a rodent infestation which thankfully turned out to have nothing to do with the heating problem, I called the exterminator before calling another heating company.
The exterminator set traps and caught four or five rats over the course of three weeks - a lovely Christmas and New Year's for me. He also told me that the most likely access route was one of the trees in my backyard which were within 8 feet of the roof - rats can jump 8 feet onto a roof. I cut my beautiful trees down to stumps and in so doing noticed that the steel mesh - the only one the bird people had attached to my house - was loose, secured only on the left side and partially on the top and bottom, leaving about half on the right side exposed. This was right next to my bedroom window. The rats, as best I could tell, were entering in that area as I always heard them coming and going over the ceiling leading from the window.
I wrote to the management company enclosing pictures and followed up with an e-mail. Again they ignored me, but did publish a notation in the monthly newsletter the following month saying that if it was found that rodents are entering your property through an HOA maintained area of responsibility such as a roof a written report from your exterminator was required for the HOA to do something about it.
In the meantime I purchased three Riddex Plus zappers but didn't install them until I heard rodent activity over my head a few weeks ago. It had been quiet for a couple of weeks, which may have had as much to do with the warm weather as it did the Riddex zappers. Then I heard them again and called the exterminator.
This time I got the exterminator to provide me with a written explanation that the open mesh could be the point of entry. I sent another e-mail to the management company of the HOA, in addition to faxing them a copy of the exterminator's findings, this time copying the owner of the management company, reminding the rep that this was the fourth time I informed her of this problem beginning with the report of hearing squirrels on the roof which she should have known was really rats in the attic given that there were other homes here with the same problem.
Copying her boss got the expected result from the rep. It was a cover-your-ass response saying that had I talked to her or anyone else in 2006 they most certainly would have told me rats in the attic were the homeowner's responsibility and that she would have the bird people look for birds nesting on my roof.
I then responded more forcefully, asking her what it was she didn't understand, that I had a rodent problem that I was taking care of at my expense, not a bird problem, but I also had a bird block mesh problem that was the HOA's responsibility.
She then told me mesh was secured from inside the attic and therefore the homeowner's responsibility, but she would ask someone from the Architectural Committee to visit me to take a look at what I was talking about. I thanked her (politely this time) but told her that this particular mesh was not secured from inside the attic but outside the house and was put there as a bird block. She then finally got it and admitted that was done by the bird people she hired and said she would have the bird man contact me directly, which he did.
The bird man and his assistant visited this afternoon. They looked at the problem and said they would provide the HOA with an estimate to replace the current mesh with a stronger one and climb up on the roof and look for any other problems. The bird man insisted that the mesh would have been secured by his men and suggested that the rats jumping from my tree unsecrued it.
This is total nonsense of course. Rats couldn't wedge open steel netting. They didn't gnaw at it. There are no teeth marks or paw marks. These people obviously didn't do a proper job in the first place. They should repair it at no cost to either me or the HOA and hopefully the management company will tell them so, but the way it's been going I fully expect them to support the bird man and say it's my fault because I was responsible for maintaining the trees from which the rats jumped onto the roof and opened the mesh. If they do I am going to go into a Christian Bale rant for sure. I can probably do it without resorting to too much profanity - no use of the "f" word, but I wouldn't be surprised of the first word out of my mouth is "bullshit". On second thought, maybe "ratshit" would be more appropriate.