turgy22
Nothing Special
Need to rant here a bit.
Okay, so on Monday, my wife calls me at work telling me we have a mouse in our house. Apparently she spotted it in one of our drawers (where we keep our oven mitts and potholders) and found mouse droppings in our utensil drawer. Since she's kind of incapable of handling these types of things alone, I told her to wait until I got home, I'd set up a trap and we'd be done with it. We had gotten a mouse before and managed to trap it and be mouse-free for a while.
Anyway, I got home and got to work cleaning out our cabinets where the mouse was hiding. I took all the cleaning supplies out from under the sink and cleaned all the food out from the cabinet next to it. While doing so, I discovered that the mouse had eaten my peanut butter pretzel sandwiches that I take to work every day and had taken a bag of that same day (before he showed up.) Not only that, but the freaking mouse actually took all the pretzel sandwiches apart and ate only the peanut butter from the inside! He also ate some Heath bars.
So after everything was cleaned out, my wife went to show me where she spotted him in the drawer and when she opened it, he was still there. So I set up a trap in the drawer, went to pick up dinner (not cooking that night) and we waited. While we were eating, I heard the trap go off (this ruined my wife's appetite, by the way... maybe because it kept rustling after the trap went off.) So after I finished eating, I checked the trap and found the bug-eyed little twerp squished nicely. I cleaned the trap, disinfected the cabinets and drawers, put all the utensils in the dishwasher and all the cloth stuff in the wash. Then I put all the food back and eventually went to bed.
The next day, I got up and opened the cabinet for my peanut butter pretzels to find fresh mouse droppings. So I spent my morning cleaning all the food out again (this time they didn't touch my pretzels, but got into a bag of chocolate chips) and resetting the trap. My wife refused to check it all day, but when I got home from work, nothing was in it anyway. When we were settling down for bed, I heard it go off downstairs.
So I went down, prepared to dump the trap again, but when I opened the cabinet, I didn't see the usual tail sticking out the front of the trap. I shone a flashlight in the back of the trap (it's covered) and saw fur, so I picked it up and looked inside and a freaking mouse is staring back at me... alive. I kind of freaked out and threw the whole trap in the trash, while I thought about what to do next. Eventually, I decided to just shake it out into the trash and throw it outside in our barrel, where hopefully it wouldn't escape until trash pickup. Then maybe it can lead a nice peaceful life in a landfill.
Just to be on the safe side, I reset two traps (one in the kitchen, one in the basement... where I think they came in through) with peanut butter for the night. I didn't hear anything before bed, but when I got up in the morning both traps were empty (including the bait) and untriggered. So I reset them again, this time smearing peanut butter all over the panels that snap the trap, which I hoped would make it nearly impossible to get the bait without setting off the trap. Alas, just a few minutes ago, I went to check the traps to find that one was again empty and untriggered. Not only that, there were mouse turds on the freaking panel that sets the trap! I should not be cleaning mouse turds out of my mouse traps!
Anyway, if anyone has any suggestions on how to get rid of a mouse infestation, I'd love to hear them. My next idea (which I got from my in-laws) was to place a vase under an area I know they use. Then they'll fall in the vase without being able to escape, and I can release them far from my home, which is obviously more humane than the traps, but more work, too. If the vase idea doesn't work, I'm thinking of using sticky traps, which I'd rather not do, but I'm out of ideas. Of course, if all else fails, we'll just call an exterminator, but I'd rather not spend more money than I have to.
I'm also thinking about getting a snake.
Okay, so on Monday, my wife calls me at work telling me we have a mouse in our house. Apparently she spotted it in one of our drawers (where we keep our oven mitts and potholders) and found mouse droppings in our utensil drawer. Since she's kind of incapable of handling these types of things alone, I told her to wait until I got home, I'd set up a trap and we'd be done with it. We had gotten a mouse before and managed to trap it and be mouse-free for a while.
Anyway, I got home and got to work cleaning out our cabinets where the mouse was hiding. I took all the cleaning supplies out from under the sink and cleaned all the food out from the cabinet next to it. While doing so, I discovered that the mouse had eaten my peanut butter pretzel sandwiches that I take to work every day and had taken a bag of that same day (before he showed up.) Not only that, but the freaking mouse actually took all the pretzel sandwiches apart and ate only the peanut butter from the inside! He also ate some Heath bars.
So after everything was cleaned out, my wife went to show me where she spotted him in the drawer and when she opened it, he was still there. So I set up a trap in the drawer, went to pick up dinner (not cooking that night) and we waited. While we were eating, I heard the trap go off (this ruined my wife's appetite, by the way... maybe because it kept rustling after the trap went off.) So after I finished eating, I checked the trap and found the bug-eyed little twerp squished nicely. I cleaned the trap, disinfected the cabinets and drawers, put all the utensils in the dishwasher and all the cloth stuff in the wash. Then I put all the food back and eventually went to bed.
The next day, I got up and opened the cabinet for my peanut butter pretzels to find fresh mouse droppings. So I spent my morning cleaning all the food out again (this time they didn't touch my pretzels, but got into a bag of chocolate chips) and resetting the trap. My wife refused to check it all day, but when I got home from work, nothing was in it anyway. When we were settling down for bed, I heard it go off downstairs.
So I went down, prepared to dump the trap again, but when I opened the cabinet, I didn't see the usual tail sticking out the front of the trap. I shone a flashlight in the back of the trap (it's covered) and saw fur, so I picked it up and looked inside and a freaking mouse is staring back at me... alive. I kind of freaked out and threw the whole trap in the trash, while I thought about what to do next. Eventually, I decided to just shake it out into the trash and throw it outside in our barrel, where hopefully it wouldn't escape until trash pickup. Then maybe it can lead a nice peaceful life in a landfill.
Just to be on the safe side, I reset two traps (one in the kitchen, one in the basement... where I think they came in through) with peanut butter for the night. I didn't hear anything before bed, but when I got up in the morning both traps were empty (including the bait) and untriggered. So I reset them again, this time smearing peanut butter all over the panels that snap the trap, which I hoped would make it nearly impossible to get the bait without setting off the trap. Alas, just a few minutes ago, I went to check the traps to find that one was again empty and untriggered. Not only that, there were mouse turds on the freaking panel that sets the trap! I should not be cleaning mouse turds out of my mouse traps!
Anyway, if anyone has any suggestions on how to get rid of a mouse infestation, I'd love to hear them. My next idea (which I got from my in-laws) was to place a vase under an area I know they use. Then they'll fall in the vase without being able to escape, and I can release them far from my home, which is obviously more humane than the traps, but more work, too. If the vase idea doesn't work, I'm thinking of using sticky traps, which I'd rather not do, but I'm out of ideas. Of course, if all else fails, we'll just call an exterminator, but I'd rather not spend more money than I have to.
I'm also thinking about getting a snake.
