[WillowTheWhisp]

I wouldn't set much store by that poison if I were you Less.

When we had an empty house next door and the mice camping under the fireplace feature in there ran out of food which the previous occupants had left under there they decided to move en masse to chez Whisp. They came up under the skirting board by the fireplace.

We called in the council "destructors" as my Mum used to call them and they put down poison. It was blue. We began to find blue mouse droppings and many a happy cheery looking mouse scampering back down under the skirting boards. We blocked up holes - they found new ways in.

At the time we had a Jack Russell (well half of him was a sheepdog) and people said "good little ratters them". Maybe so but good little mouser he wasn't. He couldn't catch the wretched things for love nor money.

Mimi caught one once. She speared it with a nail file and came into the dining room triumphantly displaying it aloft like a shish kebab just as our dinner guests were sitting down to a meal.

Once when I moved the fridge to clean behind I found a mouse picnic site where they had taken dog biscuits up onto a ledge at the back of the fridge above the motor - neatly stacked biscuit supply, accompanied by blue pooh.

One night my late husband sneaked downstairs to where we'd left a cupboad door open with an open box of dog biccies inside - it was full of meeces. He slammed the door shut then taped a clear plastic bag over the front before opening it again and trying to trap the mice in the bag. Some escaped and they ran around the kitchen with him chasing them and whacking at them with his slipper - reminscent of a scene from Tom and Jerry! Mimi and I just fell about laughing.

We did manage to catch some in humane traps using mars bars as bait.

Eventually we resorted to borrowing a friend's cat!!!

These days we have cats of our own and narry a mouse to be seen.

Best of luck in the showdown with your rat.