I have been waging a war for months.
My enemy?
The furry, furtive little creature known as the mouse.
They have established a command post next to the dishwasher.
The make midnight sorties into the utensil drawer and gnaw on my pastry brush.
They infiltrate the pots and pans cupboard, leaving a trail of mouse turds in their wake.
Our cats have proven useless at capturing the mice.
We have laid out glue-traps, but the cunning creatures evade them.
We have plugged in devices that emit a high-pitched frequency that is supposed to deter rodents, but they just put in ear protectors and keep coming.
My sister suggested that Tom pee all around the foundation of the house. Oddly enough, the man who likes to pee outside whenever he gets the chance declined.
Instead he purchased something called "Mouse Magic", a potent mixture of spearmint and peppermint oils that is supposed to repel rodents via a more organic, humane way.
But to no avail.
Just the other day, I pulled out a pot, and filled it up with water to boil some pasta. Imagine my dismay to find, as I was draining off the water, little black flecks of mouse droppings adhering to the pasta.
We have set the standard issue, spring loaded mouse trap with peanut butter. But they send in their bomb disposal unit to remove the peanut butter without setting off the trap.
I believe we are dealing with a Rats of NIMH situation here.
We may have to abandon the house.
Or get a black snake to patrol the premises.
Any suggestions will be taken under advisement.
9 comments:
We have a seed moth issue at my pad. They traveled in a bag of dry bird food a couple of years ago, and have stayed ever since. Not a day passes where we don't have a couple of moths hanging out on the ceiling of the bird's room.
I've made my peace with them.
Mice are a different story, and I have no new ideas for you that you haven't tried. Maybe there is a rogue cat herd out there that can be commissioned specifically for jobs like this.
i like the rogue cat herd idea.
kind of like the a-team!!
DO NOT use D-Con. Mouse poisoned, mouse dies, cat sees easy meal, cat dies.
Are you putting the traps in their running paths? Have you tried putting a tiny dollop of pb on a sticky trap? The mouse would have to step on the trap to get the pb...
I HATE mice too! They are a curse from the begining of time. I rinse out every pot and pan before I use them! No turds sticking to my pasta! UGGHH!!! That would throw me into delirium!
What to do? I have no answers other than to have a hissy fit and get over it 'til the next time.
When they start getting in your bed while you are sleeping, then get a black snake! ...oh my! *%#@%
My cat's of no use with the mice either. Occasionally she'll play with them until they have heart attacks and die, but that's only if she's not feeling lazy.
I thought I they had gone away, but yesterday I saw a tiny turd on my stove. Will have to start planning my attack. No advice here, unfortunately, but let me know what you end up getting to work.
(I may now have to get Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIHM from the library because you've triggered a childhood love for the book.)
The comment about them sharing your bed totally reminded me of the Laura Ingalls Wilder story about the mouse snipping off Pa's hair while he slept. I think it was LIttle Town on the Prairie. Yeah. Whenever I have mice, that story seriously causes me to lose sleep.
We get them in the basement. Mihai set up those glue traps a few months ago. A few weeks ago we were in the basement and the kids saw a mouse that had been stuck on the trap a while... quite dead of course. I walked by the basement door an hour later and in green marker in big letters directly on the door it read "DO NOT ENTER" and then below it, with an arrow pointint to the doorknob.. "dead rat"...
and here I rescued the cutest brown eyed big eared field mouse from the driveway. it was hopping mad (literally) at being at the center of a 2-cat gauntlet run. I scooped him up, distracted the cats (look over there!) and catapulted him over the neighbors fence where a) I hope he landed softly and b) I hope he stays.
Jennifer your blog posts get funnier as each day passes! However I have no suggestions on your mouse problem. My cat Charlie catches mice...and plays with them until they die. Once in a while one gets away from him and it turns up dead somewhere. He is very good at mouse patrol, but he needs to make a quick kill and look for the next one!
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