I've just come in from the garden, site of the infestation, and I'm very pleased to say that there's been no uptake of bait for the past three days; even the "point of entry" at the back fence has seen the bait left for forty eight hours now, so I think I'm on top of it. I'm extremely pleased and relieved that this seems to be over and they haven't come near the house at all. I've been thinking, if this had happened back in the time when I might have been away for a month or more it would have been a very different story judging from the numbers I was seeing within a day or two of the start of it.
I'll need to get out there for a day with the gloves and boiler suit and do an extensive clear up, but I see there's rain forecast for a good few days coming up so it might have to wait until next week. I'm not happy to have had to use the poison, but needs must and I have to say that with a bit of care and preparation it's not the chemical nightmare I had thought it would be.
Chatting with my neighbour just now we realised that less than twenty years ago there were four different people within a couple of miles of here that specialised in ratting, using terriers and ferrets, who would have come and taken care of the problem very efficiently for a bit of dinner and an evening's cider! The times they are a-changing, eh?