[notfarnow]

Great advice, thanks.

I seem to have put a stop to the squirrels in the attic, but the rat thing has me freaked. Squirrels are nasty, but cute. I view them as troublemaking rascals. Rats, on the other hand, are nasty.

Finding where he (they?) got in is going to be tough. The house has had several additions with intersecting foundations and a fair bit of wonkiness. Plus, the back 1/3 of the basement is just a crawl space with 10" of clearance. That's where I caught the rat. I'll have to find his entryway from the outside, methinks.

I think I'll put the beagles to work. They have incredible noses, and will likely be able to sniff out the rat hole. The beagles are also the reason I want to avoid poison... they occasionally sneak into the basement when wifey or I are getting firewood.

I know they aren't getting food, there's nothing in the basement other than shelter. It's getting cold, and they are looking for warmth. That crawl space in the back 1/3 of the basement is an area they could hang out without being noticed.