I caught my pesty little nightly visitor

This started several months ago when I opened my round pantry & saw nibbles out of a package of batter mix, with little mouse doodles all around between the boxes & cans. I cleaned that out & put everything in the up above cupboards.

I had some bread out drying & then found he was nibbling there....oops....hadn't thought of that. I cleaned that up & moved the bread......so he found my covered baked goods next to the stove on the cutting board.....he didn't nibble through the container....he just opened it up, got in there & enjoyed the tops of my glazed donuts.

That ended my keeping anything on my counter.....so what did I find then? Little mouse doodles in the trays under my puppy pens that I keep my doggies in the house....sure enough, they eat their food & a few of the pieces drop into the trays under the floor grating. I keep that cleaned up all the time.....but would notice every once in awhile, the dogs would go off in the middle of the night.....warning signal.....mouse running around the kitchen.

I didn't hear much after that & after I had heard him scurring around my oven area....when I started baking a few weeks ago, he decided the hot oven wasn't a good place to be. I hoped there weren't any little babies around either.....but didn't seem to be.

I didn't see any sign of him for quite awhile until I opened up the door of my entryway closet.....there on the floor was the bird seed bag with the ends chewed off & seed all over the floor.

Early on, I had talked to my friend about not wanting to trap the little guy as I couldn't kill him. She had one of those humane traps that you put food in & it closes behind them with the weight....she said it never worked for her, but I could give it a try. Everywhere I found that the mouse was, I would put the trap, but was always just behind him & never caught him.

I picked up the bird seed bag & put in on top of the toilet seat in the down stairs bathroom along with a bag of dog food. I went a long time without any sign of the mouse & left the trap in the entryway closet.

Well, the other day, I walked into the bathroom & there was an end chewed off the bag of birdseed right where I had taped it up. I moved everything around so he couldn't jump up onto the toilet seat, taped it back up & set the harmless trap on the floor of the bathroom ready for him......a few days went by & nothing. I walked into the bathroom to get some dog food for my doggies last night & looked at the trap....it was closed. I thought maybe Destiny had bumped it of something when she ran in there......so I picked up the trap slowly. I rattled it to see if the food was still in there & it felt a bit heaver than the food did & nothing rattled. I held it in my hands & felt a little movement......ah.....maybe he really was in there. I decided not to take any chances as I didn't want to open it & have a mouse in the box pop out at me, so I went & got a bright flash light (as it was 2am at the time). I walked with the trap across the street to the gate of the cattle farm & opened the trap. I shook it a bit & a couple of pieces of dog food came out (that I had previously put in), but no mouse????? The trap still felt a little heavy, so I held it upside down & shook it harder......out plopped mister mouse onto the driveway. He looked at me, I looked at him.....told him never to come back to my house again or I would take him so far away he would never see Harrodsburg again......he ran off into the bushes & I went back into the house with the trap......set up with a few more pieces of dogfood, not believing that he will stay away for long, but hoping that he won't show up ever again.

I have a scraggly looking ground hog that has made his home in my wood pile....he really looks ratty....don't know if he is ill or not, but I have never seen any look that scraggly before.....his fur is sparce & his tail is thin......hoping he doesn't have rabies of anything like that. One never knows what they will come across with here in the country, but at least there is one less mouse in my house & I was able to get rid of him without killing him!!!!!

You can't take that city part of not wanting to kill even a mouse out of me no matter where I move to!!!!!

Debbie

Might be Mrs. Mouse...

Mice in the house are quite funny

The was one in the house here too, and that too ate at the bird food stored in the spare room. I think it went to live outside (or there is another one) My dad blocked up the possible entrances into the house. A few weeks ago I became paranoid there was one in my room, thinking I could hear one moving around, but never found any evidence, and when on holidayI also thought I could hear noises but again no evidence, so idk if there ever was a mouse or not in either place lolol.

You tell a great story, Debbie! But you know...

I hate meeces to pieces!

I think I would try feeding the ground hog, though, only because he's so scraggly. Once you have him looking good THEN chase him off! LOL

Could have sent you my dog Caleb, he's a great finder!

Hi Eskie -- I have had some country mice visitors and some city mice, too. Very often, there is not just one, especially if the problem had been going on for a while. Keep an eye out. Stuff all chinks around pipes and in cracks with steel wool, a non-chemical way to keep them out.

the ground hog could have mange. their fur drops out when they get mange.

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eskielover said:
so he found my covered baked goods next to the stove on the cutting board.....he didn't nibble through the container....he just opened it up, got in there & enjoyed the tops of my glazed donuts.

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LOL! Reminds me of the squirrel in my yard that occasionally tries to chew through the plastic lid of the birdseed (I have little blue bits of plastic around the bin) but has also sometimes figured out how to get the lid off after which he jumps inside and eats all the sunflower seeds, so kindly leaving the empty shells behind :-)

we once had a mouse find a rice crispy treat on hubbies bed side table. he actually stood his ground and wouldn't let go of it till hubby picked it up. he ran in the bathroom (about 6' x 5 ') where hubby stuffed a towel under the door and chased him for 2 hours before finally giving up. when we caught him in a trap like yours i took him in the car about 10 miles away before i released him.

lost

I had a mouse infestation in my apartment building a few years ago and the darn landlords wouldn't call in an exterminator. They'd just keep putting out traps for the mice, so every morning I had dead mice to deal with. They had a field day in my kitchen. I even had them popping out at me when I openned kitchen drawers. It got so bad that I had to wash my plates and cuttlery before I'd use it to eat. Now everything is locked up tight in really heavy duty plastic tupperware containers. I particulary enjoyed it when they'd run accross my living room floor while I was watching TV. I finally got rid of the mice by installing these sonar device thingies. You plug them into an electrical outlet and they emit noise on a frequency that humans can't hear, but that mice really don't like. I now have one in my kitchen and my living room. I forget what they're called but I found some on-line when I googled mice deterents or something like that.

Cats are very effective, too. But usually the mouse doesn't survive.

My mother told me of mice in the first house she and my dad bought in the 1940's. The neighbor's cat came over and caught the mother. Pretty soon, lots of babies were coming out of the woodwork, looking for food..

What a darling story. Have you ever thought about writing children's books? It sounds like your daily life is full of charming goings on.

My daily life is definitely full of experiences......not always as cute or with as wonderful of endings as my mouse story......I defnintely have enough stories to fill several childrens books.

I loved your suggestion of loaning me your dog Sky, but mind you, this mouse boldly walked through my kitchen which has 3 dogs in it & even walked under the grating in the puppy pens where the dogs are laying to get to the pieces of dog food that were laying there......don't think Caleb would have much better chance of scaring off the mouse than my Destiny, Chinook, & JoGI.......I know that had to have been what would set them barking in the middle of the night....bold little mouse.

He/she.....lol.....hasn't come back yet. I am sure it will find it's way back from across the street & the field I dropped in into....pretty hard to disorientate a mouse I'm sure, but will see how long I am mouse free.

I love all the mouse experiences everyone has.....mice are definitely good for many experiences & stories.

My first mouse experience was with a mouse where I worked as an engineer......very very late 2am.....I was sitting at my desk, trying to solve a problem......all of a sudden, I heard a munch, munch, munch.......I looked where the sound was coming from in back of some boxes I had sitting in my office......there was a little mouse with a cheeto that I had dropped earlier in the day, eating his little heart out on it.......he took one look at me, threw down the cheeto & ran behind the door, then out into the hall just as the cleaning crew came by.....a couple of screams from them & the mouse ran under the vending machines down the hall.

Another mouse experience was also in another office I was in...during normal working hours. I was walking over to my secretaries desk & several of the guy engineers were hollering about a mouse in their office. I told them to get out of my way & I took an empty trash can with the plastic liner in it. Held it up to the back of the book case. Another person tapped on the other end of the book case with a ruler & the mouse went flying into my trashcan. I took him in the plastic bag, way outside the building & into the bushes & then came back it to finish what I was doing........one of the managers took the plastic bag I had the mouse in & opened it over his secretaries desk....hollering mouse.....got a scream & jump out of her. When I went to pick up the papers I had been holding....I realized the mouse had taken my attention away from a classified document I had been holding & wasn't supposed to let out of my sight without locking it up......oh well, as you see, critters have always had my minds priority even when I was an engineer.

My favorite experience was when I was in my second NO PETS appartment. Then said I could have a pet rat & the previous manager had a hamster that I adopted when she moved out. I let the hamster run around the appartment in one of those huge plastic balls & I let my rat (Gus) just run around the appartment free while I was watching him. Well, I had a problem with my stove & the new manager came to the door. I let him in & he looked at the stove. On his way out, we were standing in the frontroom talking & down the hall came the plastic ball with the hamster in it........he had a bit of surprised look on his face. I just chuckled & said....it's only a hamster in there.......a few seconds later, out ran Gus from under the TV & under the tables I had along the wall. Talk about surprised......."what's that???" That's only Gus....my pet rat........with that, he could only whisper out....."you got any more of them running around????" We had a good laugh over it especially after I told him the hamster came from the previous manager & that my critters had been ok'ed.....& no, there weren't any more little critters running around.....wasn't what I had enough????

At the end of my living at that appartment, I had added a daughter & 2 kittens to my rat & hamster family in a no children, no pets appartment.
Debbie

I currently had caught 5 little mice in the humane trap. Only one I didn't realize was there until it had died.....How sad.

I realized the other night when I was laying on my air mattress in my upstairs bedroom, that the russling sound in the attic must be a whole bunch of mice in the attic & then come down through the wall & out the whole for the pipe to the kitchen sink, into the cupboard.

So I went to Lowes, & decided to purchase one of those Sonic high frequency things that says it has more than 2x the power output of standard units. I pulged it in & could hear some of the sound, so know it's working.

The instructions say that it doesn't go through cupboards, so i decided to place it right in the cupboard below my sink.....then I put the humane mouse trap with food in it right next to the sonic unit.

I came back this morning & all the dog food in the trap was gone.....the dang little mouse got in there & ate the dog food right net to the high frequence unit......must be one desparate little mouse.

I don't want to use poison.....as I wouldn't want the smell of all the dead mice in my house. But these brave guys are really getting me aggrivated. I emailed about what happened to the company that makes the sonar.....to see what they have to say about the situation. You can't get the sound much closer than within 5 inches. The high frequency should have been bouncing all over inside the cupboard.

I will find a solution.....just not sure right now what it will be. I can't find all the holes & plug them up as it's a huge house. Always some kind of challenge here.

Debbie

Debbie, get yourself a coon cat! I know. That's all you need with your doggies!

I'd set the old fashioned traps wherever you can reach them. I can't abide mice! EEWWWWW!

aww i could never kill them either, im too softhearted. Thanks for sharing eskie.. that was a lovely read even if your having problems(which im sorry you are) you sure tell it well!

They are just so cute......I can't kill them....just take them far far far away from the house....otherside of the road...other side of the river. Too far for them to find their way back.....so this means I am overloaded with more in my house.

When I open the little humane trap, they hang on for dear life. I have to smack on the back to get them out. They land on the ground....some little some little bigger. They sit there for a few seconds, getting used to the light. Huge brown eyes popping out of their head.....cute little round ears & the longest tail......sitting there, trying to figure out where they are, they they go bounding off into the woods on Anderson's farm to keep the cattle company. They are just too cute to hurt.....maybe it's always been my love of Mickey Mouse & Minny, but I have always had a collection of mice figurines when others were collecting horses, frogs, & unicorns....I stuck with a whole curio cabinet full of mice. I should tell these guys that if they don't find another home, I will find a home for then in my curio cabinet with the others......cast in porclean....lol. (think I saw a TV show about that).

Right Tomi......all I need on top of 6 dogs would be a cat....yikes!!!! I hear my dogs going on at night & am sure it's the mice runing around the kitchen with them.....knowing just how safe they are.....ha ha, can't catch me.

I can just see Chinook. He has the gated location in the kitchen with food & water right there. He is a bit blind, so the little mice could run in there, eat his food & he wouldn't even notice unless it bumped into him.

Debbie

Debbie,

It is just a thought, but you might look on line for other humane approaches to getting rid of mice. I know that mothballs in the attic will repel squirrels from nesting in the house - might it work for Mickey and Minnie?

Some of the "green living" websites may have some humane non-poison approaches.

Good luck, I would have a very hard time killing little critters that look like the white pets my daughters had as children. They look so innocent when you don't see them wreaking havoc on your home or pantry.

Leslie

Debbie, I totally agree with Doh 2007. You would be so good at writting children books. I love reading your posts; they are so heart warming I admire your love toward Creation Thanks for your posts!
Lily

For one Islamic theologian's take on mice, see

http://www.religiousintelligence.co....s/?NewsID=2771

As for me....anyone who wants to exterminate Mickey Mouse (a staple in my home from the time he was born at Disney studios.....my great uncle worked for Disney & was one of the cartoon character atrists...the one who created Donald Duck)........knowing that....I think the only extermination should be the sheik.......definitely more Satan than Micky Mouse ever could be....lol. Not getting into politics here or religion......just pro Mickey Mouse all the way.

I will find a way to chase these unwelcome characters away.....Mickey can stay as long as he wants along with Donald & his nephews & Minney Mouse.......I will fight off the evil foes if they come anywhere around here to touch a hair on Mickey's head.....lol

The defender of mice,
Debbie

Had to laugh. I got an email back from the sonic mouse chaser company....told me I needed to choose my mouse extermination methods......that was funny because the only reason I put the humane trap there was because I just jokingly wanted to see if the mouse would come back & if the high pitched sound really worked. Guess it takes 2-4 weeks to chase the mice out of the house with the sonic noisy thing.....but you would think that no mouse in it's right mind would come right up to the noisy thing, go into the humane trap & eat from it.......the noise at that range should keep the dang mice away no matter what......desparate little creatures.

Funny thing is that I threw some old stale pretzel/penut butter crackers out into a pot on my back deck.....they haven't even been touched.....all the little mice have to go is go out there & they could be fed for a year....lol.

I am thinking they might be getting the idea as I put peanut butter on the back of the trap so they would have to get caught.......rather than outsmarting the trap......there have been no signs of any mice for 2 days now.......will see.

I appreciate all of you who suggest my writing children stories.....I have a lot of fun writing about critters & things. Who would ever think that my technical writing from my engineering days would ever turn into something like this...lol. Maybe that was why the military liked what I wrote....because they could understand it. I was always told that your writing & presentations have to be aimed toward people who aren't at an engineering level. I was always tempted to throw in a little of "mary had a little lamb" into my documents just to see if they were reading it....lol.

Glad you enjoy reading my posts......these are much more fun to write than my grumbling ones...lol.

Thank you,
Debbie