One, the rats are not nested anywhere in the main ductwork under my floors, nor is there an entry point along these. So the opening is by the main AC unit, and much simpler to find... for someone who can go under the floor, not a claustrophobic artist.
Two, the noise that so rudely has woken me up and deprived me of sleep yet again is an attempt to create an opening by tearing the ductwork, more or less under my head as I sleep. It isn't large yet, which is fortunate.
And thirdly, and most satisfying to my need for vengeance, the rat did not escape wholly unscathed. At 3AM the scratching started up again. I finally managed to drift off, and shortly afterwards, at 4, the plastic trap went off. LOUDLY. It's loud normally, but it was ungodly in the metal ductwork. Scared me, plus the pets. But then I smiled, tried to go back to bed thinking he was dead (after wondering how he got past the glue traps), until I heard more rustling. I was hoping he was just dying and dragging the trap, but no such luck. But, it seems that either the trap clipped him or he ran straight into the sharp piece of metal he had torn up, as there was a spot of what appeared to be blood against it. As for evading the doubled up glue traps blocking the path, he seems to have touched his foot to it a few times, then, presumably, jumped over.
He also stole the bait from the one traditional trap I can get into the ducts, without setting that one off.
So things are rearranged a bit. Thanks to the photo, I now know where the rat comes from to get to the trap he stole from, so that is reset, and with better bait attached in a different way, facing that entry. There are also now two layers of traps between the entry point (the path to the AC that is). One is a barricade of metal screening. He could easily chew through it or possibly move it some other way, but there are a pair of glue traps there, which he cannot jump over without hitting the screen and landing on them. For good measure, there's some bait pressed into one of them. Beyond that, since I've underestimated him once already, there is the plastic trap, set with the bait wedged under the trigger to be a bit harder to evade.
If he gets past all of that, he will have my sleep-deprivation enraged self to deal with if he makes so much as a peep that keeps me up or, god help him, wakes me up. I have no plan whatsoever, and I doubt there is anything much I can do, but I will be extremely furious and racking my brain for any ideas. If he strays too close to a vent, I'm not above dousing him with whatever I find that's flammable, lighting a match, and grabbing the extinguisher to put it back out. I'm tired, I haven't had adequate sleep, and I'm starting to feel the results of it.
So ha, I got first blood, rodent.
Of course, that's not been the only blood. In the process of fully prepping my studio space, I've gotten a number of wounds of my own, and then I had to go and whittle some for a separate project. Between the two hands, I have a bump that grows back when I cut it off, a cut from dishwashing, a long scrape on the tip of one finger from a big staple on a box, a small slice on the tip of another from something I remember happening but then forgot what it was I did as I didn't see any immediate blood, a small gash from a rat trap, a blood blister on my palm from said rat trap, and what seems to be five blisters, two of which are on my pinkie and one just below it, and another on the pad of my thumb, all of the blisters being on the same hand. Actually, everything but the small gash from the rat trap is on my right hand. But the left has two small cuts and a rather long one, none of which I am able to account for.
I think it's a race to see which happens first; the rat dying or my hand falling off from owner abuse. But I'm tired, it's starting to hurt to type or use the mouse, and I don't want to think anymore. I'm going to go watch American Dad with a knife beside me in case that damn rat gets stuck in the glue trap and makes a fuss about it.
Scary thing is, I'm not even about that. Not even a bit.
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