My house is a small adobe structure, with a tile roof and wood ceiling. When it rains heavily, water can drip through and for this reason there is plastic immediately under the ceiling in a few strategic places throughout the house--my bed, my shelves with clothing and food and my table in the kitchen. While this keeps me dry, it also creates a space for some unwanted guests to set up shop--vermin.
While I've been here, I've had the pleasure of housing a few mice, rats and what I believe to be a possum. I've been able to get a few mice with my machete, they take a risk and run out from wherever they are hiding across the room and when they do, they suffer the consequences.
A couple of weeks ago, as Katie and I were sleeping, from the nylon above my bed we heard something crawling. I took my walking stick, jabbed at the nylon and whatever it was took off. After some more jabbing, I realized that this creature had built a nest in the nylon above my bed. We harassed it long enough to see it stick its long, disgusting nose out from the nylon and then scurry away to the side of the house where it can leave. This is what I believe to be the possum. I then started setting poison around the house for him to hopefully consume and die from. He has returned once, but I think he finally got the message that he is not wanted.
Last week, I walked into my kitchen and saw that a good sized furry guy, definitely not a mouse was perched on my stove, eating something. Grabbing my machete, I headed in for the kill. I took a swing at him and he ran into a space between my chimney and the wall. Blindly, I stuck my machete in the space and hacked away. After a few good blows, I was able to extract him from the space and see that he was dead. That was my first and hopefully my last rat.
