Kill. Hohum.

This morning, the missus saw a rat in the garden. A few hours later, I saw the Zapper flashing. I didn't see any tail sticking out of the chute, so I thought it was an FP. But it was a rat, probably the same one.

The rat was noticeably smaller than our recent kills. That makes me hopeful that we've accomodated the parents, and we're reaching the kids now. If we can get the kids before they become parents, finis.

Kill

Another twilight mission accomplished.

On other fronts, I saw a mouse in the house this morning. I think we'll leave the RZ for the heavy lifting outside, and use more conventional weaponry against the mice - snaptraps, poison, steel wool in the perimeter gaps.

Servicing The Zapper

Sounds like the title of a Ron Jeremy movie. The reality is a good deal less glamorous, I'm afraid: after a series of sidfips, I soaked the Zapper this morning. But, even after a good soaking, the Zapper still had a lot of slime on the killplate. So, rubber gloves and paper towels, to scrape it reasonably clean.

Our original theory was that slugs were entering the Zapper and leaving their slimy trail behind. Based on the slime quantities, however, I think we need to revise the second part of our theory. I think I now know what a jolt of electricity does to a slug.

Kill!

After a quiet week of sidfips (Slug-Driven False Positives), we bagged an afternoon rat.

Based purely on the situation on the ground, we will be instituting a Partial Zapper Withdrawal. Going forward, the Zapper is relieved of night duty. Nighttime ain't the right time for rat patrol.

The Zap Is Back!

A kill!

But first, a recap: a couple of weeks ago, we had the Zapper in the house for a few days. Nothing. Then, about a week ago, we noticed at least one rat -- maybe more -- in the backyard.

As it happens, our friend Jim was down from Manhattan for the weekend. Jim knows his rodents. He said rat, definitely. No mouse about it.

So we put the Zapper in the backyard, and we had a bad run of false positives. A couple of slugs gummed things up. Reset, false positive, clean, repeat. It got old fast.

But we gave it one more try. And the missus overruled me on placement. I wanted the Zapper where it had worked well before. The missus wanted it on the other side of the yard, near the new holes.

Yesterday, the missus moved the Zapper. This morning, we woke to a false positive, but at least the reset took. And today - a kill.

Sometime in the early afternoon, we think. Early enough for nature's undertakers to get busy before I came home and did the bagwork. When I dumped out the rat, a cloud of flies exploded from the Zapper.

The only downside is that the city picked up trash this morning, so the deceased will sit in the can for a week. Double-bagged, but there's definite ripeness potential nonetheless.

Still, we're back in the groove! Stay tuned.