Rats Invade Homes in Cuba
HAVANA TIMES – The situation in this country is very bad in every way. Nothing works properly—from hospitals to garbage collection—which is why we are being invaded by rats. Cuba is a gigantic dump.
I have a friend who lives on a corner where there is a garbage pile that takes up the whole street. Neither people nor cars can pass.
This has led to the proliferation of animals like rats. Now they’ve even moved into her house, and she doesn’t know what to do to get rid of them. They are literally on top of her since the house is made of wood and the roof is made of French tiles. The rats walk all night—and even during the day—on the wooden beams and drop feces, fruit peels, and dried mango seeds on her. She can’t even sit in her living room without being showered with garbage.
As soon as she gets up in the morning, she has to sweep and clean before she can even have her coffee and head to work.
All the food—or rather, the little she can get—must be stored in glass jars or tightly sealed cans, and also in the refrigerator, so the rats don’t eat it.
In the bathroom, she keeps the soap in a closed soap dish because that’s one of the rats’ favorite snacks for making bubbly burps.
One day she got up and went to the kitchen and found a guayabito (small rat) swimming in the oil bottle. It had eaten through the plastic cap. She had to throw away the rat pool and, from that day on, started storing the oil in the refrigerator…
I know what you’re thinking—a cat would solve the invasion. But she has two dogs that are cat killers. They also go after all little animals that fly, crawl, or jump, including rats. They’ve already caught several. But the rats are very clever and walk around in the penthouse, so posh, those rats.
One night my friend was sleeping and two rats fell on her while apparently mating, since they were stuck together. Horrifying! The dogs, who sleep inside the house, immediately came running. Let me tell you how unpleasant the hunt got—dogs running and jumping over the bed, rats squealing and running into the living room. In the kitchen. They caught the biggest one. A full-on horror movie at three in the morning. Of course, after that nightmare, my friend couldn’t get back to sleep.
She has bought rat poison, which is now as expensive as a pound of chicken. She places it in strategic spots, and the unwanted tenants eat all the little blue pieces that look like soap—and die. It’s effective. But she doesn’t know where they die. She smells the stench, and since the rats walk in the rafters, the stench fills the whole house. My friend can’t stay in her home until she finds where the rat died. Sometimes she calls a good friend, and between the two of them, they find it.
This poison works only once because the rats learn to recognize it and won’t eat it again. So she has to change tactics.
Old-fashioned rat traps? She’s tried those too. Once a rat is caught, no more fall for it because they leave their blood behind and rats have an enviable sense of smell.
So what do you suggest?