Rats!

My father was telling a story last night about rats, which he says are the smartest animals in the world. He always has said that if you have chickens, you will have rats. Well, this was a story of when he had chickens!

A guy at work had told him that rats hate pink fiberglass insulation, because it made them itch. My father decided to give the theory a try, got some insulation, ripped off the paper, and stuffed a prominent rat hole in the coop with a bunch of the stuff, ramming down and packing the hole. It was evening, and he went in to watch t.v. He went back out during a commercial to see what was going on, and the rats had un-stuffed the hole, and made a tidy pile of the insulation off to the side. So much for the insulation theory! My dad then went and got a trap, and set it right outside the hole. Next commercial break, he went out and he had already caught a rat! He re-set the trap, went back in the house...and the next commercial break he went out to check again. And he had ANOTHER rat! He was pleased. He re-set the trap, and next commercial break...he had trapped another rat. He thought he had a nice little scheme going, and the rats were going to just keep going in the trap. However...next time he went out, a different sight met his eyes. The surviving rats had, in 15 minutes, completely buried the unset trap with chicken litter, and re-stuffed the rat hole with every bit of insulation, and did not use the hole again. This all happened within an hour! Rats.