Sometime in the ember months of last year (2010), man’s most destructive house mates – rats – launched an assault like no other I’d seen before in my compound. I and my family woke up one morning to find a portion of the cemented ground of the compound excavated. The point of excavation was a small hole in the cemented ground; the hole had housed the foot of one of the logs which supported the lever used to draw water from the well in the past. From the looks of it, someone had been responsible for the act but reasoning made us doubt that as we couldn't think of anyone in the house who could have done it. The next day’s development however cleared any remaining suspicion of someone being responsible for the destruction; the excavated soil of the previous day had more than doubled in quantity. It didn't take much speculation to come up with the culprits; the thing is: it was quite hard to believe that rats were responsible for this.
Day after day, we woke up to find more and more excavated soil on the compound floor and I wondered if these filthy rodents were in the process of creating a ‘rat colony’ in our compound. It was even scarier because their excavation site was directly beside our potable water well and I was sure hell would be let loose if they successfully dug all the way to the well’s rings; rats in my drinking water?
About a week after the debut of the rats’ sinister quest, mum – the head of the house – finally decided a course of action. She returned from work that day with a sticky board, made specifically to curb stubborn rats; as an alternative to the food poisoning approach. I and my sisters breathed a sigh of relief as the menace of the rodents had sure seen its last day. Without further ado, I – under the cover of the night – went on to install the glue-board near the site of excavation and imagined the sight of nabbed criminals that I would behold the next day.
The next day came and as my mum made to leave for work, my sister who had accompanied her to the car called me to come see what our trap had done. I arrived downstairs and was both amazed and disgusted at what I saw.
NB You probably don’t have the stomach to view the upcoming images, so I advise you employ someone’s service to help you scroll past.
