Nightmare on Not-Elm Street

Nuthin' more I'd like to put behind here:

than this:

The rat is (rats are) doing nightly scritching as we speak.

See the screws? They hold that heavy board onto which is mounted the light fixture to the ceiling. It covers a large cut providing access to water pipe repairs.

Removing it requires a ladder, a power drill and two strong individuals. For a while, the landlords came daily or often to open it up and check the rat traps set with peanut butter. It was an ordeal and mess.

And unsuccessful. The rodents are too smart. Never took the bait.

So the landlords tried an odor deterrent — tipping over a bottle of bleach and leaving it up there.

Ha! That didn't work either. The rat(s) appeared that night, looked, asked what's a stupid plastic bottle doing there and went about their business.

Landlords and I agreed to not set poison to avoid a worse problem of carcass stench inside walls.

So I live with the rats. I often climb onto the sink to pound the board to drive them away but of course they laugh as they did at the bleach bottle.

That there's a plastic bag wedged into a crack to keep out grossities or rats who can squeeze through hole the size of a quarter.