JCC Rat Jihad

A week ago there was a pretty serious flood in our basement. The insurance company insisted we turn off our water, and they sent a plumber.

The plumber pulled up the kitchen floor, and found that rats had chewed a two-inch long hole through out water pipe.

A day later a new leak started in a different part of the cellar. We turned off the water again. We waited for the same plumber to return (he’s great btw). This time he pulled up the floor in the living room, and identified that the rats had chewed through the boiler pipes.

Then the nightmare began...

Then, after inspecting each and every pipe, he found that since we shut the rat’s drinking pipe off earlier in the week, they have systematically chewed through the entire length of our underground pipe system - our boiler pipes, more sections of the water pipe, a waste pipe and even the dishwasher.

He’d never seen anything like it.

We got a pest control guy in yesterday. I went around the building with him lifting up drain covers, and looking for points of entry. Turns out there are clear signs they have gained access through the drainage system.

Looks like we could be without running water or heat for weeks. We have bought electric heaters, and have gas fires in some rooms, so we can deal with the heat. It’s the no water though. You just don’t realise how much you take running water for granted.

 

undoubtedly the rats were hired by perverse free cat activists

punky i can fedex some south carolina water to you tho. it tastes like bbq sauce. just how we do

 

We have some cool neighbors who are letting us fill buckets, and I have an apartment above my storage yard nearby that we’re using for showers, and washing/drying clothes.

 

Yikes, sorry to hear of your rat infestation.

 

Lol

 

Just told that joke to Mrs Punk, her response was “I’m not in the mood”.

Which is pretty much her answer to everything

 

We have two. The house has not been breached. Under the floorboards is where the party’s at.

 

To be fair, because the floor has been pulled up in the kitchen, we’re isolating them to there overnight - just in case the rats figure out a way in.

It feels a bit like there’s one smart rat getting the others to do stuff for it - like that raptor in Jurassic Park.

 

Batastrophe '14, while dramatically altering my life, was not nearly as devastating as a rat infestation. Did hundreds of bats scream and scratch behind all my walls? Did countless of them flutter about inside my house? Yes. But, to this day, I love seeing bats and recall fondly when my family were unwilling landlords to roughly 300 of them.

This story, on the other hand, causes me to want to burn the thread, burn the forums, burn Punk's house and the continent it is on in hopes of some semblance of mental cleansing of someone else's ordeal.