Pest control.

I'm going to make this quick, because it's not a topic I like to dwell on these past few days... it causes me nightmares!  I'm actually just pretending I live in a dreamworld filled with bubble baths and organic gummy candies & chocolates, and a personal organic farmer/chef.  A world with no uninvited "guests" in my home.

Alas, the true story, much as I hate to confess it, is that I WANT ALL THE RODENTS IN A 5 MILE RADIUS OF MY APARTMENT TO DIE.  Yes, I said it.  Ok, long story short, we've had a mice problem in our apartment in the past month or 2.  And, I regret to inform the blogosphere, that's not the worst part.  We knew there was a small (we thought) problem and kept telling the landlord and he didn't do anything.  I think every time I called he thought I was some helpless and hapless wimpy girly girl who was afraid of one little mouse being in the storage unit behind (and attached to) our  rented townhouse.  I don't like them, but I wouldn't have cried wolf (or "MOUSE!") at just one, trust me.  I mean, is there ever just one anyway?  We'd  been trying to handle the issue ourselves as he suggested, keeping all food put away, setting traps.  We'd seen a few out in the storage unit, heard them inside our walls, seen evidence that they'd been in the kitchen and bathroom (who knows why).  Apparently they were nesting, as they stole corners of my kitchen rug and pieces of a box from the closet and insulation from in the walls.  Wonderful.

Then I saw one the other night 3 times.  Evidently getting brave, one just darted across the kitchen floor NEXT TO ME while I cooked, then under me while I sit on the couch! I'm like crying myself to sleep and having nightmares at this point.  I told the Hub that the next day HE was calling the landlord and threatening to call the health dept. or whoever will listen to us if the problem is not addressed ASAP.  Finally last Wednesday a pest control guy comes and I tell him the sordid tales of invasion, and start trying to show him where we've seen them and believe they are entering, and I go to show him behind the washer, and I see a huge one, just laying there!  NOT in a trap.  I scream and tell him and run and jump up on the couch like the wimpy girl I admittedly am!  And he says.........wait for it.............. "that's not a mouse it's a RAT!"  So I start losing it, screaming and crying and having a panic attack and not breathing!  I call my hub at work (yes I was there ALONE!) and exclaim,  "WE ARE MOVING TODAY!  I CAN'T LIVE LIKE THIS!  I FEEL LIKE MY LIFE IS OVER!  EVERYTHING HERE IS TAINTED NOW!".  He tried to calm me down, but honestly he was as disgusted as I was, minus the fact that he DIDN'T SEE THE RAT WITH HIS OWN EYES!  Now, lest you think less of me and my home, let me assure you all, it's not like I live in the dirty city ghetto amongst trash cans and open sewers.  We inhabit nice townhouses in a nice small town.  I vacuum everyday, sometimes more than once.  I mop the floors, sanitize the counters, never leave a mess.  Both myself and the Hub are germaphobes for crying out loud!


So immediately we packed up and moved into his parent's house for the time being.  The landlord and pest control are supposedly exterminating and patching up holes or wherever they are coming in.  Upon further investigation of my complaints (which started at least a month ago), the landlord found that the mice had chewed a huge hole in the drywall between the storage unit and our apartment.  And I swear that had better been the only rat.  But when do they ever travel alone, like I said of mice?  Not likely.  We are NOT going back until I am assured in every possible way that no corner has been left unchecked, no doorframe has an extra quarter inch of space inviting a rodent to slip through, and they are completely gone from my home.  And that the entire place is sanitized from top to bottom.  Even then, I'm not sure I can ever feel safe there again.  We may be moving sooner than we wanted to.

At least my in-laws have a comfy big house and we've made ourselves at home in the whole second floor of their home.  But all of our furniture and stuff is back at our apartment with the mice and other...  

UGH!!  Who needs a(nother) drink??