You may remember how I feel about ladybugs in my house (not good). Now think how I feel about mice in my house. Oh my gosh. I feel like my blood pressure has gone up since we noticed little mouse droppings in the kitchen. (Why do mice have such loose bowels anyway?!)
I feel so gross just admitting we have a mice problem cause it makes me sound like I am a bad housekeeper, like our house must be messy. Well it's not dirty. I promise we're not disgusting. We called our landlord. He did some "research" and then dropped by with some ultrasonic machines that apparently produce a high pitched noise to scare rodents away. They scared the ladybugs away. I really wanted to believe it was scaring the mice away too.
This morning was my first actual mouse sighting. Black, speedy little demon. Ran from behind the fridge, about 10 feet down the wall to behind the arm chair in the living room. Now the kitchen is easy to sanitize every day but now they've invaded my relaxing space?
I made Brian get out of bed. Mouse in House must leave House. We devised a plan to prop the front door open, then scare it out from under the chair and somehow it would run towards the front door and out of the house (cause the rainy weather is so inviting?). Brian approached the chair armed with a broom and I was on the other side of the room armed with the swiffer in case the mouse needed encouragement towards the door. Brian made some swings at the underside of the chair. The mouse did not come but with each swat, a long lost toy of Elliott's would appear. Elliott thought this was a really fun game. We have ikea furniture that we of course got in the "as is" section so there may be some holes in the underside of the sofa and chair. "Oh my gosh he must be living in the chair!" I exclaimed. Brian made some raucous swat/upward thrusts with the broom at the underside of the chair but to no avail.
Whew. Mouse must have left already when we weren't looking. A sense of security settles on us. Until I turn on the vacuum and watch the furry beast take off for behind the entertainment center and then vanish. So gross. I guess it's not too surprising when there is a forest behind your house. Did you know a mouse only needs a hole the size of a dime to squeeze through? There's probably a few in this old house!
Brian went and got some "no see" traps and some poison. I know it's dangerous to have poison with a toddler but we just put it behind the stove and behind the fridge and then in the basement where E never goes.
And no, I'm not humane. But you know what, they're not human! I tried with my humane little sonic boom machine and it didn't work so no more nice wife!
Any successful mouse poachers out there in cyberspace?
6 comments:
You should get Brian to tell you about Mark killing and mounting on a board when he lived with Paul. If he knows that one. If not, I'm sure you can imagine it. You've met Mark.
Maybe he can come kill your mouse for you- I can just picture his gleeful look!
oh, how awful! (but you told it in such a funny way ;)
i'm glad you got the mousetraps and poison - the only way to get rid of mice is to kill them. i know because my parents, in their old house, had a mouse problem when they first moved in, too, and my mom told me "the only way to get rid of mice is to kill them. and it's hard, b/c when they're little babies they look really cute, but you have to. you can't just shoo them away, b/c they'll come back, guaranteed." so there's no two ways around it.
and don't feel "inhumane" (if anybody gives you any grief, just have them see me. ;) besides, which is less humane: keeping mice alive in your home, or exposing your son to all of the diseases which mice carry? mmhm.
oh, and don't worry - NOBODY would think you had a messy, unclean, slob house just b/c you have a mouse problem! these things happen to even the best of us! so don't worry ;) love ya!
Ugh. I feel your pain! We had mice in our SLC apartment and I had a dog at the time that chased them all during the night. Yegads!!!! If there is one thing worse than having little scurrying rodents, it's having a big beast scratching at the places they hidden and then whining the entire night because she can't get to them. Ugh. We eventually got traps, too, and I never looked back. Like spiders and other bugs, critters are welcome to exist OUTSIDE my house, but once they enter...game on.
How do you feel about cats? Maybe someone could loan one to you??? Good luck! :)
I would loan you my cat in a heartbeat, if she would stay...she's very temperamental.
I know this old house has rodent issues. As we've been cleaning a redecoration, we've come across what happens to the poisoned ones! I'll spare you the details. I don't even have a cat inside and I've never seen a mouse inside. She hunts them outside and in the garage before they even get in. The scent she leaves all around the outside of the house (and probably in the crawl space) probably helps a lot too.
I say you feed a stray in your front yard. Or get a free cat somewhere and feed it in your backyard. (please provide a place of shelter for said cat, mine has full access the garage she must share with the dog)If you keep feeding them, they'll keep coming 'round.
That was smart to get the no see traps!
Er, well,
my limited mouse experience was my much braver and very much tougher roommie Coral setting one of those old school, you know cartoon traps with peanut butter (NOTE: This would kill YOU, not the mouse. I don't suggest it!!). It worked in a grisly way. Since my kind, tough roommie had set the trap, I hid in my room as said kind, tough roommie cleaned up the remains.
Happy hunting!! Ugh. I'm getting the jibblies in sympathy. Jibblie jibblie jibblie. eeeeegggh.
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