I live with these too!
I don't know if "rataphopbia" is a word, but it should be as it concerns my rectory and me. In short, we have rats in the rectory. You've heard of the old saying, "while the cat's away, the mice will play?" Well shortly before I departed for vacation, we became aware of rat, not mice, droppings in our kitchen. We called the exterminator who checked the building for all openings. He set rat traps, etc.
Well, my first day on vacation, our parochial vicar, Fr. Justin sends me a picture of a large rat killed behind our stove! On return from vacation, I was informed by him that three more had been killed!That's a total of four so far! These are large rats, not pitiful mice!
On top of that, we renovated an antiquated bathroom while I was away. On taking the tub out (which is next to my bedroom) the workers found a large rat nest nestled beneath the warmth of the tub! Yuck!
I want to know if there is an exorcism prayer for rats! Because if I see one in my room, I'm the one who will be exorcised to a hotel!
But, Fr. Justin did inform me that confession lines remained long and that by himself, he was kept extremely busy. So I'm off to help him hear confessions. It usually takes two of us for about an hour and a half to hear them!
Living in the south means making friends with roaches (what are really palmetto bugs or water bugs), they are huge. But I don't think I can make friends with rats. Call me unChristian!
10 comments:
Don't feel bad, Father. Years ago, I had a girlfriend who was a strict vegan. She would eat NOTHING that the slightest animal product in it. She wouldn't wear leather or wool. All that aside, she made an ethical exception to kill rats and roaches. :-)
On National Public Radio some weeks ago - there was mention of the famous sewers of Vienna and how the sewers were rat filled. By chance, during a music festival during which bagpipes were played -rats fled. Alas, only while the pipes played but it would give you time to spray an irritant such a pine oil or bleach.
Father Zuhlsdorf has posted the deprecatory prayer against rats and other vermin over on his blog, WDTPRS. Hope the info helps you out with your problem!
Oh Father...I could tell you stories about my mid-night rat hunts during my days as a missionary in Western Africa. Some of them were very comical...bon courage avec les vôtres!
As for roaches, I have had them. The only thing that worked (until the building really got the pest control going) was diatomaceous earth.
See, if you sprinkle diatomaceous earth anywhere, all the little diatoms work their way into insects' exoskeletons. So insects generally either refuse to ever walk across diatomaceous earth ever again, or they go off and die.
So if you sprinkle diatomaceous earth around your walls and in your dark corners, it will work against cockroaches just as it does against other pests in your garden. This really really works!
I love how the pest control people call those roaches "palmetto bugs." Call them whatever you will, they are giant flying cockroaches and we have plenty of them in North Carolina, too. I woke up one night because I felt something crawling on my back. Half asleep, I reached back and grabbed it. I felt it crunch in my hand and in a panic I threw my hand out. I lay there and thought to myself that I could turn the light on to see what I had just killed, but that if I saw it I might not be able to go back to sleep. I decided to pretend nothing had happened, close my eyes and go back to sleep, which is what I did. The next morning when I woke up, there was a huge crushed roach stuck to the bedroom wall. I thought I would never sleep again...
All southerners have tales to tell about these monsters we call roaches, some of which do fly. There is nothing like going up to one on a wall or the floor to kill it and then it flies towards you! And yes, I have awoken in the morning to find a dead one next to my face! And yes, in the very same kitchen where we have killed four rats, I was eating lunch only to feel a roach crawling up my leg underneath my pants, catching it through my pants and having a stroke over the fact that I knew what I was holding through my pant's leg! They're disgusting, huge, fast, and ugley and a fact of life for us southerners. You can only imagine how a gentile southern woman feels when inviting a house full of guests over for a nice southern meal at a properly set table, to see one of these monsters crawling up the dining room curtains in front of all the guests who are eating, some of whom are from the north and don't understand how these things get inside one's home! Fr. AJM
Great, now my skin is crawling.
You are right Fr. Mc, we ALL have nightmarish tales of those big, shiny pests.
And while I am sure there is a reason, I am not sure why God created them (unless he finds it humorous to watch our reactions... but I sorta doubt that.) :)
I once found several roaches in my raisins about half way through enjoying a box. So I guess within reason they are harmless. However, mice and rats eat roaches, so there is a balance there. Cats eat the rats and give good company. I would get a cat.
rcg
Ah Palmetto bugs. Nothing like running screaming through Charleston streets while being chased by a giant flying roach. It's funny now but I darn near killed myself trying to get away from that thing.
Post a Comment