orShould I Say a Mouse!!!Man, I'm Such a Chicken Shit Girlie

[kcjodih]

Or should I say A mouse!!!

Man, I'm such a chicken shit girlie girl! A few minutes ago I hear some bangs, and then a big crash. I walk down the hall towards the bedrooms to see what the noise was (thought one of the kids had to get up to go to the bathroom) and there is our 11 year old cat (an INdoor cat) sitting in my daughter's doorway staring at the wall. When I call her name, she looks at me and gives me a pitiful little meow. She looks to be staring at a pile of beads and craft stuff that my 12 yo DD had stacked near the door that is now all over the place. As I squat down to try to coax kitty, I see something dark and then some sort of HORRIBLE, BONY looking little claw/feet type things!

I of course scream, and run into the MB and yell at hubby to get the hell up and get whatever is in our daughter's room. The poor man has been asleep an hour and has to get up in 6 more and is totally out of it. He stumbles down the hall, there's dead silence (I am of course up on the bed) and then he starts closing my son's door, the bathroom door etc. He comes in and I ask what is it, he says a mouse, and heads slowly off down the hall to find 'something' to get it with.

Comes back with a TW container and then after a bit says 'I need some help', at which point I holler 'not on your life, wake up our 9yo DS', he sighs, theres some banging and then he asks me to AT LEAST turn off the house alarm. He then hollers for me to open the kitchen/deck door and I do ONLY after insisting he go far away with whatever he has. I run in the kitchen, fling back the locks, throw open the door, and boot it back down the hall to my room, UP on my bed.

He comes back in, locks the door, comes in the bedroom, sets the alarm, washes his hands and gets into bed. I ask how he caught it, he says a container over it and then he somehow slid a thin hardcover book under it. He had wanted me to put weight on the container in case it tried to get out - NOT!!!

I sooooo want to move RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!!!!

Oh ya, I AM moving. Beginning of July, to a house in the woods, 10 minutes out of town, with alpacas across the street, goats down the road AND a neighbour who just found bear tracks bigger than his foot in his back field! Think I'll be free of mice way out there?!?!?!

ARGGGGGGGG

 

[The_Kitchen_Guy]

Oh, yeah, moving to the country. THAT'LL solve your mouse problem.Hee, hee, hee, hee, ha, ha, ha, ho, ho, ho!

 

[The_Kitchen_Guy]

I found your problem.

A cordless mouse can get away from the computer in the middle of the night, but a corded mouse has a leash.

 

[chefann]

Mice are a fact of life. They aren't a sign that your house is dirty. They're just a sign that your house has some little (and I do mean LITTLE) hole through which they are getting in. They want to be comfy and live indoors, too.

Put out some traps. You can use traditional ones, or live traps, if killing them bothers you or you think your kids will get into them. The best places to put traps is along baseboards, because generally mice won't come out into the open unless there's something they really want. Bait them with peanut butter. Mice can smell it, and they can't easily steal it from the trap.

We've had mice in both our homes. We put out traps, dealt with them, and sealed up any holes we could find in the foundation, brich, siding, etc.

BTW- if you use live traps, drive them several miles away to release them, otherwise they'll be back in the house before you are.

 

[kcjodih]

Ha ha KG...when I finally went to bed I thought hmm....betcha KG has a hayday with that thread

Thanks Ann, we have had mice in the garage and my hubby did in fact use peanut butter. I had never heard of it but he use to live in a old house with lots of mice. So he hid traps where the kids and I didn't even know they were there and used good ole peanut butter. However, we've never had one in the house (not to MY knowledge anyway ) and the house is only 5 years old! Guess even the so called 'best builder in town' doesn't built a perfect house aka no holes. Believe me, hubby has a job assignment tonight - looking for holes! As for the dirty/clean house thing, at least I know my house is clean. My office is major cluttered but that's another story. Clean and organized for the rest of the house though....except for the mouse!

 

[pamperedlinda]

Jodi, Thanks for the laugh this morning. I used to live in an old house and have had both a mouse and a snake in there.....and they were both quite scarey! I feel for you girlfriend!

 

[chefann]

Hopefully it was just the one. If you get nothing in the traps for a couple weeks, that's probably a safe assumption.

One freaked out my parrot one evening. We were getting ready for bed and Beaker started screeching. We went into the living room, and she was on top of her cage, staring down like she had x-ray vision and could see to the floor below the cage. DH saw something under the runner (we put down vinyl runners below the cage to keep the flooring clean). He took a closer look, and it was a mouse, who had apparently tried to get the food Beaker had dropped. DH ended up taking care of it (trust me, you don't wanna know). But it was pretty funny to see the bird all freaked out about it.

 

[Teresa Lynn]

Look on the bright side........ you don't have snakes!!!last year at this time we had 2 small snakes come in our kitchen thru the weepholes and under the dishwasher. Yes they were small & much more scary than my geckos but I'll take mice anyday.

It was kinda dark in my kitchen and I started to open the DW and looked down and thought to myself hmmm that looks like a snake on the tile. open start loading the DW, close it and it's gone so I'm like crud it had to be a snake cuz it's gone so I get my 16 yo to look he gets a flashlight and sure enough it comes toward the light so he says be right back mom & leaves me!!
He goes off to search for a small rope and a dowel and tries to "lasso" it like the croc hunter. My other 2 kids are standing by with a rubber mallet and he wont let them near it so I suggest we block off the 2 doorways so he can't get in the rest of the house, they laughed as I secured it with 2 science project boards & my oldest says to my daughter don't back up he's behind you, she said very funny and Zach said he's right here idiot so I look over the board and sure enough there is one behind her almost at the dining room door!!
We called my husband to come home from work (again) to get them. he plugged all out weepholes with scotchbrite pads.!!

Our neighbor has had a skunk come in her house thru her doggie door!! We live in the country in a neighborhood we have seen everything but armadillos!

good luck with your move!

 

[aried]

We had a dead possumm in our garage in the summer up in the insulation, that stunk to high heaven! My poor DH had to get it. Put in a baby sled with 3 trash bags around it.

Ann R.

 

[raebates]

Yeah, Jodi, moving out into the woods is not likely to alleviate your rodent problem. We live in the country. Hello mice, voles (think short-tailed mice), chipmunks, squirrels, raccoons, possum, and Lord only knows what else. Every time we get a mouse with one of the traps, I sing this little song:

(Sung to the tune of Ding, Dong the Witch is Dead)

Ding, dong the mousey's dead.
The mousetrap, it snapped his head.
Ding, dong the little mousey's dead.

The worst is when the poison we put in the drop ceilings gets one. The smell is horrible, and it usually happens when we're expecting company.

 

[Teresa Lynn]

Rae,
have you tried bar bait it doesn't smell when they die

 

[BethCooks4U]

I've heard that there is never just one mouse. Get those traps out and find the hole!

 

[raebates]

Teresa, I wasn't baiting for bars, I was baiting for mice. (Sorry. Couldn't resist. I'd blame KG's influence, but I was like this years before encountering his humor.)

I'll mention bar bait to The Furry Guy. He's in charge of killing critters.

 

[MissChef]

Now that I've successfully almost wet myself and spit coffee through my nose, I can go about my day!!!!!!!
I have had more mice try to take up residence in my home then you'd care to know about and I've have more mouse traps go off then I'd care to admit to! I have done some stuff to my husband regarding these mice, that I'm surpised I still have a house to live in, cause I'm surprised he didn't kick me out! I will tell this story after my kids go to school and I can figure out how to type, cause I'm making more mistakes right now then I usually do in one day!
And I do have a snake "living" in my house, I have a son and my husband made a really cool cage for it.(the snake that is! ) But I don't EVER touch it and I've let my son know that if it ever gets out, I'll throw him out too! LOL!!! J/K!
Our house has a wooded area down the street and my neighbor has quite a bit of trees in her backyard, I think that's where they come from! Man I hate it when they get in and I ask my cats why I keep them around! They are outside cats and luckily I see quite a bit of dead mice outside, but I get upset when they don't stop them! Before my daughter was allergic to cats, our one cat we have prevented mice from coming in for 6 years! Oh I wish she wasn't allergic!

 

[raebates]

The critters are also a kind of cool part about living out where we do. Currently we have a family of foxes living in our brush pile. They are really fun to watch. The Furry Guy went out to take a look at the entrance to their den the other day. They've evidently been dining on rabbit, birds, and at least one local cat. They leave the leftover fur, feathers, and bits at the den entrance. We have the whole circle of life thing going on just yards from our front door.

 

[lacychef]

Oh how funny!
When my dh & I got our first apartment, we were looking for cheap furniture at garrage sales that we could afford. We found a decent one at a house that was next to a field......and we brought home an added surprise--a field mouse We chased it all around the apartment & finally caught it & threw it outside.

 

[chefann]

My house is in the "first-ring" suburbs. I'm about 1/3 mile from the Detroit city limit. (You know the movie "8 Mile"? I'm about 1/3 mile north of 8 Mile Road.) But our yard is pretty big for a city lot (2.5 acres), and there's a river running through a ravine in the back. We've got a woodchuck who lives in a stick pile. We call him Chucky.

Yesterday morning before work, there were 3 deer hanging out in the yard. One of them walked out into the front, and I told DH that people were going to think that we had tacky plaster deer like the people down the street.

 

[raebates]

We often have deer in our yard. We laugh at the deer hunters who spend hours waiting for one to stroll by. If they would just hang out in our spare bedroom for a while, they'd see lots.

There have been several goundhogs live in our brush pile. The Furry Guy usually kills them. One was really wiley, though. He would only come out for The Furry Guy to see him when TFG was on the riding mower. It would come out, sit on top of the brush pile, and watch him mow. Actually, I think I saw it put its paws up by its ears, wiggle them, and say, "Neh, neh, neh, neh, neh, neh!" at him several times. (I saw it lots when The Furry Guy was gone, but I rarely shoot things. I mean, you really don't want me armed.) Our baby boy finally shot it. It obviously didn't realize that the furless one was just as dangerous as the furry one.

 

[The_Kitchen_Guy]

From a previous post:I had a raccoon take a nasty turn when I tried to chase him out of my kitchen at 12:30 in the morning. The little bas7ard bit me - once that happens, it's out of your hands. Animal Control came in to catch him while I went on a $400 cab ride (you know, the big red and white taxi with the flashing lights and siren) to the ER.The raccoon's head went on a one-way trip to the state lab and his body went to the Mad Hatter. I proudly wear that little bas7tard in the winter, complete with tail.

 

[Paige Dixon]

I've decided that the only thing I miss about having a husband is someone to pick up the dead mice! (I guess picking up a dead mice is a small price to pay, though). My cats kill them and often leave them under the bed. I have drawers under there, so I can't see them without taking the whole bed apart, but I can SMELL them! Yuck!

The Orkin guy thinks they come in through my garage. When your garage doors are closed, see if any light shows through from the cracks. Everywhere light shines through is enough space for a mouse to get in. Then, if you leave the door from the garage to your house open while you bring in groceries, PC crates, the mice run in.

 

[The_Kitchen_Guy]

Think "dryer sheets."Mice don't like dryer sheets.

 

[genburk]

The critters are also a kind of cool part about living out where we do. Currently we have a family of foxes living in our brush pile. They are really fun to watch. The Furry Guy went out to take a look at the entrance to their den the other day. They've evidently been dining on rabbit, birds, and at least one local cat. They leave the leftover fur, feathers, and bits at the den entrance. We have the whole circle of life thing going on just yards from our front door.

This is so cool. I would love to watch the foxes, although I would not like to know they are eating someone's pet.

 

[MomToEli]

Oh ya, I AM moving. Beginning of July, to a house in the woods, 10 minutes out of town, with alpacas across the street, goats down the road AND a neighbour who just found bear tracks bigger than his foot in his back field! Think I'll be free of mice way out there?!?!?!

Ah .... no.

 

[MomToEli]

We've lived in the country a lot, so mice are close neighbors. I was the most startled when I opened up my silverware drawer one night and a mouse jumped out of it - he was so scared. Forget the fact I almost went in to cardiac arrest. Needless to say, I learned really fast to wash everything BEFORE I used it!

One night (and this was living in town) I opened up my french doors and screen door and a squirrel ran in. We were getting ready for my dil's baby shower ... My girlfriend blocked the way into the rest of the house, and I had to chase the little guy out from under the furniture and back out the door with a broom

Then there was the night (back in the country now) that the bat woke me up bumping into the window - from the inside. That time I locked myself in my ds bedroom. Dh was locked in our bedroom - in his boxers, his leather gloves, his untied boots (no socks) and with the broom. Bats are an endangered species here and it is illegal to kill them. I think dh just stunned him but I never asked for the particulars.

 

[raebates]

This is so cool. I would love to watch the foxes, although I would not like to know they are eating someone's pet.

If it makes you feel better, it probably wasn't a pet. We have lots of half-wild cats around here. While we do have a barn cat, our neighbors who have cats tend to keep them as housepets. Plus, between the coyotes, raccoons, and other predators, the fox are the least of their worries.