AM I SEEING THINGS OR DO I HAVE A RAT?

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New Member
Joined
Jul 19, 2021
Messages
1
Location
Indiana
So first of all I’m not a greenhorn and have had experiences with rodents. Grew up on a farm and we had tons of mice in the barns and corn silos and the occasional rat.

40 years later now I’m in more humble dwellings and live in a small town in a very average sized ranch house. anyway last week (it was after sundown) I open the door to my computer room to play a game and flip on the light and right there is a rat moving to an open heater vent! It goes out of sight and I can hardly believe my eyes. I investigate and just about the time I think I’d imagined the entire thing I find a dry dropping that seems to be rat sized. So I set out a huge rat trap by the vent and poison in the crawl space under the house and haven’t seen anything in a week. Just now the house is quite and my wife went to bed reading and I glanced over and I think I just saw a rat sized shadow move down the hall! The thing is various lights are on and the hall is somewhat shadowed but dimly lit from a light in the kitchen.

Are rats crafty enough not to leave many droppings or chew marks? Will they actually move around when lights are on, fans and a TV? The trap is still baited and cocked and I haven’t seen any new droppings, urine trails, chew marks or anything. Am I jumpy and seeing things or have rats evolved to be extremely stealthy?

(just in case you wondered I don’t live in a “dump” with trash and food everywhere , it is an older house)

Signed—Tom

PS could it be something besides a rat that would normally not leave droppings etc…? It was moving fairly fast the first time and I didn’t get a clear look at it.
 
It could be a rat, they're extremely intelligent and aren't spooked easy like people think. Either way I have to strongly recommend you remove the poison even if it is a rat, the poison is extremely cruel and they suffer slow and painful deaths. You can try to set a live trap then call a wildlife sanctuary/rehaber or a local animal control...
 
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