Eek, A Mouse
Aug 26th, 2006 at 8:46 pm by Susie
Other than that I have no job and I’m running low on money, I’ve had a pretty good week. Today broke the streak - first, when I was pulling my drill out to install the shutters Cos gave me, I knocked a heavy picture frame onto my big toe. “Fuck fuck FUCK!!” I screamed, holding my foot. (I could hear my father’s voice as he warned us a thousand times: “What the hell did I tell you kids about running around the house in your bare feet?” Dad - YOU WERE RIGHT.)
I’m not a crybaby, but this was excruciating pain - so bad, I could hardly stand to touch it. Then I gulped four ibuprofen and tried to put an ice pack on my poor throbbing toe, but the ice sent hot shards of pain into my brain.
So I was sitting on the futon with my foot elevated on the coffee table, taking deep breaths.
That’s when I saw the fucking mouse. (And of course, if you see one, you have ten.) This will make me a wreck until I catch them all, because every little movement is going to freak me out. I have to hobble out to the supermarket before they close because I will not rest until the enemy has been wiped out.
You gave me a chuckle because I thought I was the only one who set about heavy duty tasks requiring heavy duty equipment in my barefeet despite the fact that I too usually end up sitting on my futon with one foot propped up on the coffee table after hopping about on one foot exclaiming things my poor young animals should never hear.
As for the mouse…I can relate to the urgent need to rid your home of them. I’d suggest using a cat, but my cats are afraid of mice and usually ended up sitting on the kitchen counters calling for me to rescue them. So, I’ll wish you much luck with store-bought aid, which is what worked for me.
Use glue traps; they work the best. I had a pack rat invasion this spring and they totally eluded the traps. The glue boards did the job before they chewed through the entire garden.
It’s a shame you’re allergic to cats - I’d lend Mayor McCheese to you for all your mouse catching needs. He has proven to be a champion mouser.
Nevermind the glue traps… or in addition TO the Glue traps… Get plenty of good ol’ spring traps, and SLATHER them with peanut butter…
They are mice… Lure them, kill them and dispose of them.
Peanut butter… Mice go NUTS for it… Pardon the punniness! But, it’s true.
Peanut butter in your traps is THE answer to your new-found mouse problem. I wouldn’t steer you wrong, Suzy.
–mf
I already used peanut butter - and all the traps are empty this morning. :<
Glue? Spring traps? Nah!
Catch all your mice with this: http://www.amazon.com/Ketchall-Mousetrap/dp/B0002ZUFTO
No bait — unless you count the fact that once one mouse has been spanked into the holding chamber the little critter squeeks come hither noises to all the others. I once caught nineteen mice with one setting overnight. Just took them outside and down the tracks to release them back into the wild.
–
Firstly, love and appreciate your site. Sue, I also have a little mouse at home. I’m having a hard time getting around to killing it. If you can believe it, I dropped something heavy on my toe when I was at BestBuy. I am finally rid of the purple ridge on the cuticle. I actually wanted to kill that store clerk for not having things on shelves safely. I am glad to be over that anger.
Good luck with the mouse.
I hope Gore is drafted by numbers hard to ignore. What a President he would make!
i have a mouse problem too. since my landlord won’t patch up the holes though it’s impossible to stay rid of them for long. i can’t deal with traps. oh well.
If you can find the holes where they’re getting through, go to Home Depot and shove plain old steel wool into the holes. Or, if you don’t want to incur the extra expense, use Brillo or any other metal pads. Mice can’t chew through them.
Hardware stores sell a can of expanding urethane foam equipped with an entended nozzle. Insert the nozzle in the hole and the foam will fill the hole with something rodents won’t chew through. The hole used by the mouse is most likely near a plumbing drain pipe-you’ll notice darkened areas around the hole where their nasty, little feet have gripped as they struggled in and out of your space.
You mean, the large hole next to the hot water pipe I jammed full of Brillo last night? I’ll try the foam when I can pick some up.
If you can’t abide spring traps (even catch & release traps like the one linked to above) (and yes, peanut butter is the best mousebait in the world), and you’re allergic to cats, you might try something like “Rode-trol” bait traps. Our local farm store stocks it, but I’m sure you could find it at any home & garden joint; it comes in a big red box with some little plastic bait trays. It’s an entirely non-toxic dessicating bait that the critters fill up on. Then they go back to their nests, fall into a painless dehydrated coma, and quickly waste away wth a minimum of decomposure odor.
Er, a note of caution. Before you start using an impenetrable foam, be sure whatever you’re plugging isn’t venting something critical like a dryer exhaust. Fires can result from blockage of those things.
OK This morning I stepped outside to walk the puppy and there was a dead mouse on my doorstep. I don’t know if it’s a weird message from one of my neighbors or just a strange coincidence…