Last time, there was a rat

[lolane]

If it were truly a rat, I would not go back. If it were a mouse, I'd consider it if I knew/thought that the hostess would take care of it. Although rats and mice are different, I find that many people use the terms interchangeably, so that's the only reason I bring it up.

Perhaps my opinion on this is colored by my experiences and the area I live in, but the only time I've ever known someone to have an actual rat in their house was when their apartment was next door to a hoarders that had open food and garbage strewn about. Mice on the other hand are quite common, especially field mice. I don't like them, and I'd freak out if I had one in my own home, but I wouldn't write someone off completely for having a mouse every now and again.

[jmarvellous]

So they live on a farm, right?

In certain areas, any farm will have rats. And with an indoor/outdoor house, they get inside. It doesn't have anything  to do with the house's cleanliness. It just happens.

We lived in the country for 20 years. One year we had mice all through the house. It was really, really annoying. But it was only for that year.

It's an urban half-acre surrounded by apartments, homes and commercial businesses. "Farm" is generous but essentially true.

[doodlemor]

We live in an old house beside a creek, and keep poison in the attics and cellars all the time.  After an unfortunate infestation when we first moved in, that is what we have to do to take care of the problem.  I'm sorry to say that your friends have likely been careless about prevention. 

It seems to me that her reaction was very mild - like she was accustomed to seeing the rats.  Even though we wouldn't want guests to be alerted to the presence of rats, I think that most of us would be very startled to suddenly hear that a rat was in the kitchen.  I know that I would probably lose any social "cool" that I had, and reflexively make some very loud noises.

I would not want to eat in that house for a long, long time.  Rats carry nasty diseases, and leave their droppings and maybe fleas around.  I googled up "diseases carried by rats," and just the search page was sickening, much less reading any of it.

As another poster said, there is probably more than one.  I don't think that a week's time is adequate to thoroughly clean that house, providing that the owners even want to do it.  If you must go there, eat beforehand and watch where you sit and so forth.

[TootsNYC]

Excellent point. Unfortunately, there's no polite way to ask if it's been caught, is there?

Oh, I don't know. Is it really that rude to say to her, not in front of others, "Hostess, I could help but overhear Bob telling you there was a rat in the kitchen. Did you get rid of it?"

Also, farm rats are a tiny bit different from city rats--not a LOT, but a little. And farm people may end up with rodents in ways that city and town dwellers do not.

[jpcher]

I don't know much about rats, but I have had mice in my home. Maybe the sight-seer saw a mouse and called it a rat. Either way a rodent was spotted.

Which really concerns me. In my limited knowledge of mice, they never appear while people or noise is around. I've only known that they were in my home because of droppings or nibbles on cereal boxes, bread loaves, etc. or when kitty is running around crazy in the middle of the night.

A rodent showing itself in the middle of a human-infested party? Tells me that there's something wrong with the rodent. (I may be completely off-base, here. Just my thoughts.)


Please do talk to the hostess.

[exitzero]

Rats that are not pets are filthy--F I L T H Y-- creatures. I agree with the poster who said "no way, no how, not at any time." I'd never go back regardless of the social or business cost.

And almost more than the sight of the rat--because where there is one there are plenty more--I am thoroughly squicked out that the hostess was calm about it; that means she's seen enough that the sight of one doesn't phase her.

That's what gets me. Houses sometimes get pests, but the homeowner should at least act like it's something out of the ordinary.

It reminds me of a bakery my dad went to once. There were cockroaches on some of the things in the display case, and when he pointed it out, the counter person looked confused and said, "so?". He walked out. It wasn't the cockroaches that squicked him out, sometimes bakeries get bugs, it was the cavalier attitude.

[wolfie]

Rats that are not pets are filthy--F I L T H Y-- creatures. I agree with the poster who said "no way, no how, not at any time." I'd never go back regardless of the social or business cost.

And almost more than the sight of the rat--because where there is one there are plenty more--I am thoroughly squicked out that the hostess was calm about it; that means she's seen enough that the sight of one doesn't phase her.

That's what gets me. Houses sometimes get pests, but the homeowner should at least act like it's something out of the ordinary.

It reminds me of a bakery my dad went to once. There were cockroaches on some of the things in the display case, and when he pointed it out, the counter person looked confused and said, "so?". He walked out. It wasn't the cockroaches that squicked him out, sometimes bakeries get bugs, it was the cavalier attitude.

I don't know. After being here for 7 years and having a mouse or mole try to come in about once a year I don't really think it is out of the ordinary because I kinda know its going to happen some time. But I also once saw Willis realize a mouse made it into the house and catch it in less then two minutes so that might be influencing me a bit - I know they won't last for very long. On the other hand when I saw a mouse in my office that did freak me out.

[camlan]

Looks like you have two choices--say nothing and continue to attend the events you are obligated to attend (I admit I don't understand the nature of this obligation--why can't you decline to attend them?) and be nervous about the rats all the time you are there OR ask your hosts before the next event what they are doing about the rats.

You can always explain that you have a phobia about rats and you will not be able to be comfortable in their house until you know that something is being done about them.

Really, if this couple is hosting events that people are obliged to attend and other events that they charge money for, they really do have a responsibility to address the rat problem. And if you are obliged to attend these events, you have the right to ask that they be rat free.

[Venus193]

Unless they are specifically allergic, I highly recommend they get a couple of cats.

[Lynda_34]

I just discovered a field mouse problem in my house and I have two cats.  They aren't reliable but I'm going to get agressive on the mice.  They aren't rats, I live in the country but I don't want them in my house.

[Goodness]

I live out in the woods. We expect wildlife to wander in now & then, but we also expect them to leave. Last year, for the first time, we had a wood rat family invade our kitchen, a mother and a few pups. When we and the cats were unable to persuade them that this was not a good place to hang out, I reluctantly called the exterminator. NIMK!

[cicero]

Excellent point. Unfortunately, there's no polite way to ask if it's been caught, is there?

Oh, I don't know. Is it really that rude to say to her, not in front of others, "Hostess, I could help but overhear Bob telling you there was a rat in the kitchen. Did you get rid of it?"

Also, farm rats are a tiny bit different from city rats--not a LOT, but a little. And farm people may end up with rodents in ways that city and town dwellers do not.

i agree with this.

having a rat/mouse/rodent/snake enter your home - does not necessarily mean that your home is dirty. in some areas it's a fact of life.

having one of the above in your home and doing nothing about it - would definitely squick me out.

when i moved into the apartment i live in now, third floor apartment, we had a *something* (not sure what it was) - ds named him Houdini because he managed to escape all the traps. we laid out humane traps - he ate the bait and left the trap. we laid out the sticky glue traps - he ate the bait and fought with the trap. finally we figured out where he was coming in from, cleared out the storage room completely, sealed all possible holes and windows, and never saw him again. we then cleaned out the kitchen, washed all the drawers and flatwhere that houdini may have touched. in the house we lived before, we would sometimes get snakes.

[Iris]

Excellent point. Unfortunately, there's no polite way to ask if it's been caught, is there?

Oh, I don't know. Is it really that rude to say to her, not in front of others, "Hostess, I could help but overhear Bob telling you there was a rat in the kitchen. Did you get rid of it?"

Also, farm rats are a tiny bit different from city rats--not a LOT, but a little. And farm people may end up with rodents in ways that city and town dwellers do not.

i agree with this.

having a rat/mouse/rodent/snake enter your home - does not necessarily mean that your home is dirty. in some areas it's a fact of life.

having one of the above in your home and doing nothing about it - would definitely squick me out.

Yeah, this. I have had mice/rats enter my home or my yard in various places that I have lived, particularly during the colder months. I don't get hysterical about it, but I DO buy traps, poison etc and put them about to immediately deal with them.

[oz diva]

We had a holiday house and we often found evidence of rats and mice in the house (and kitchen) when we arrived. But that's when the house was empty. We just wiped the surfaces when we arrived. We had that house for 40 years and no one ever got sick. It was impossible to keep them out completely.

In a house you live in full time, it's a little odder to have them wandering around.

[exitzero]

Rats are really smart. It's hard to get them to eat poison (they can't throw up, so they rarely eat large amounts of unfamiliar food since they can't purge it if it makes them sick), and if you do manage to poison them, another animal might eat them and get poisoned, too, or they might go into a lake or river and spread the poison there.

If you use a humane trap and put them outside, I promise you they will be back in your house before you are!

The only way to get rid of them is to clean up all spilled food, put any other food in containers that they can't get into, and seal up any holes that they might come in through. The last part might be difficult with an older house, but keeping food away from them will go a long way towards the problem.