Wait ... Did I Get Taken Again????

WARNING!!

GRAPHIC DEAD RAT PHOTOS

I always thought I was a smart cookie.  I've discovered I must be closer to a slow piece of eggplant.  After a couple days of dealing with the sewer smell again, going around the house and putting water in every hole I could find, I was hit right in the face with the smell of something DEAD!

I followed it to the air conditioning intake filter.  Of course I removed the filter, only to be wafted with the lovely scent of rot ... of something yucky melting into the ground under my house to the munching sounds of maggots.  My head and shoulders dropped six inches.  Really??  I don't need this when I'm trying so hard to remember everything I need to do before leaving.

I halfway crawled under the house to find the dryer vent that was once so nicely up off the ground, to be back laying ON the ground.  I thought Superior Repairs fixed that!!  And WHAT is that SMELL??

I called the air conditioning company because I was sure it was in the big vents.  The nice guy came out with lots of equipment and found nothing, but agreed he certainly could smell it.  He volunteered to crawl under and see what was up.  I was very appreciative.  TOO appreciative I suppose.

"I found four dead rats and your dryer hose completely disconnected" he stated.  Are you kidding me?  Why didn't Superior find those dead rats?  And apparently they stretched the hose so tight, it came undone at the other end.

I grabbed some bags, the AC tech grabbed his gloves and went back in, along with a roll of what he said was VERY expensive tape to fix the dryer tube.  I again thanked him.

By the way he said, you should have a maintenance contract on your AC unit.  With this company, it would cost $1,000 for four years.  HE however, would give me a great deal of only $500 for four years.  To make it even better, he is a maintenance man, plumber, electrician extraordinaire and I should call him for ALL my maintenance work, which includes checking under the house for dead rats. THIS time however, it was going to cost me!!

Here I thought he was being so nice.  Okay ... I grabbed $50 from my wallet.  At least I'll offer him that.  Sure enough, there were four dead rats in the bag he brought out.  That's when he said he REALLY needed to be sure no rats crawled up the OTHER end of the dryer vent and died.  Of course that will cost a little more.  

I'm sure it's fine ... I can easily check the back of the dryer, thinking this wasn't going well for me money wise.  

Now on to the service the air conditioning unit which I requested, since he was going to be there anyway.  I'm not kidding ... all he did was pull the circuit breaker, spray some stuff on the outside, then washed it off with a hose.  That was the entire service!!

I couldn't get him out of the house fast enough.  I had my check ready.  How much do I owe you??  The service call to Desert Aire was $55.  HIS charge to get the rats out was a whopping $120!!!  I about threw up, but what could I do??  I wrote another check and ushered him quickly out the door.

What about that maintenance contract with me, he asked.  I don't have time to even think about it.  Give me a couple of months and I'll call you ................... as in NEVER!!!!!!

I guess it just goes to prove there are no honest people around any more.  There's always someone trying to take advantage of you.  

To add insult to injury, as soon as I walked back in the house, THIS guy was parked on the INSIDE of my window.  Perfect fishing bait I thought, but NOT something I want flying around my house.  I grabbed a huge bath towel, smothering him while I raced outside and shook it out.  Off he flew.

I think I'll be glad to get back in my other house where the only thing I have to worry about is black widow spiders.  In the meantime, I've added rat traps under the house.  

I have a pest control service, but since he never seems to show up, I went online to find the exact same rat traps and the same bait he uses.  I'm going into the pest control business.  YOU GOT RATS?  I GOT TRAPS!!!

Since I couldn't find any way possible for the rats to get under the house, here's what I think MAY have happened.  When I was here previously, I DID find a hole chewed through the boards.  I got a can of that foamy spray stuff and filled up the hole.  It is entirely possible that the rats were underneath the house when I filled the hole.  They eventually died and have been laying there ever since ... I was just never in the right spot at the right time to smell them.  

Anyway, I'm on my own ... and the WAR IS ON!!!!!