Casualties of War

As I've posted before I have a problem with rats here in Arizona.  They've gotten the wires on my car twice, my husbands once and now my son's car once as well just in the past year alone.  So we bit the bullet and got a pest service to help "control" the situation as best as possible.   The main problem we have is that we have 3 strikes against us:

     1)We live next to a vacant lot

     

     2) We live across from a wash(where the water goes during a monsoon to avoid flooding, but is filled with trees and bushes and critters!)

     

     3) We have an unpaved driveway

So, it's almost like fighting a losing battle.  I'm more than willing to leave the critters be....as long as they leave our stuff alone.  But after two airconditioning units and three cars, the gloves have come off and it's now war.  There is no more Mrs. Nice Guy or would that be Gal? Anyway.......

The last time the pest guy came out (last week) he gave us a rat trap, only one as that is all he had at the time.  So last night I put some peanut butter in the little hole, place the trap under my car and hoped to find a warning sign for other the varmints in the area the next day.  When I checked the trap this morning I saw that is had been tripped, but there was nothing in it. So I left it there when I had to leave this morning figuring I would take care of it when I came back.  But as I backed out of the driveway I noticed that I in fact had "gotten" something......but it wasn't a rat or a mouse....it was a bunny!!!  I killed a bunny!!!  I'm a bunny-killer!!!   The bunny looked so peaceful just lying there, which gave me hope that it didn't suffer.  Needless to say this time I put the trap back, but put it in my engine, so as long as the bunnies stay away from my engine they should be okay. 

Oh and before you say anything, we are keeping mothballs in our engines, alternating with drying sheets. I'll also be investing in some Peppermint oils and rubber snakes.  Yes, I said rubber snakes...rats don't like snakes and will stay away or so they say.  I'll also get a couple more traps for the other cars.  The only step after that is to some how rig my car so they get "shocked" if they touch it or hire a hit man!  I tried to play nice with them, but no more.

I am sorry my bunny friend that you had to be a casualty of war.  Blame the rats, they started it, I just have to finish it.