Four days ago when I went into my pantry closet I thought the smell was different. "What was that smell?" I thought. Then I dismissed it my first thought that a mouse had indeed entered our house (through the garage into the kitchen door) and was preparing to winter over in our pantry closet. Each year I have this problem. On two sides of our lot we're surrounded by corn/soybeans fields.
Last year I caught the miscreant mice with the good old fashion mousetraps. Brutal but effective and humane I might add. The mice don't know what hit them when that metal bar slams down on the back of their neck. The local vultures around here had a steady died of about forty mice. The other thirty-six or so mice I caught in my garden shed. For years they used to winter over in that shed, no more. I had a regular killing spree. Almost every day I was putting out "tidbits" of dead, bulged eyed mice with broken necks out as offerings to the buzzards of Sussex County, Delaware. Word soon got around in the buzzard community and they got to where they were waiting for me to place the dead field mice out in the center of our lawn. I felt guilty when I ran out of mice. But here we go again this year, come on mice.
I had sharing my kitchen with mice. HATE IT! I have traps out now (which I also hate setting) but that's the way it has to be. One good thing, I don't have to worry about finding a scorpion in any of my drawers.
5 comments:
Don't you just hate those little meeces. Oh, and those little turds everywhere. And they pee constantly but they are not as bad as their larger counterpart, THE RAT. In the city we have had mice less than on the farm. On the farm they would fall down into the wall cavities and couldn't get back up the wall and you could hear them scratching as they attempted to get out. I had two notable incidents with mice. The first was about 50 years ago. We replace the wood fired range in the kitchen at the farm with and electric stove/oven which meant expensive rewiring and an electrical panel upgrade. Well I showed up for a nice winter vacation at the vacant and closed up for the winter farmhouse. I get settled and decided to roast a chicken. I turned the knob on the stove to preheat and BOOM and ZAP and Sound of crackling fire and burning flesh. I lost my balance and fell over backwards. Scared the shit out of me. Of course the circcuit breaker is tripped and melted also. A mouse made a nest of the stove's insulation and foil in the main circuit block of the stove. Fried those babies and moma meece. It set fire to the range cord and started to burn the old wood plaster lathe in the wall. Luck would have it I knew how to put out the fire. It was one helluva power surge and tripped the main breaker also. Not only did I have to have another a major kitchen electrical rewiring preformed but I had to buy a new electric stove. Lucky I was the one to have it happen to and I knew what to do. I roasted that chicken in a dutch oven in the coals in the fireplace that night. The second incident was about 20 years ago . I had fried a turkey and placed the expensive used peanut oil into a several bowls to cool over night. I'd placed them on the stove top out of the way. I got up during the night to snack on leftover turkey. When I turned on the light I notice a piece of the foil that I had used to cover one of the bowls was on the floor. I could hear it before I saw what I heard. There was a big mouse swimming in the peanut oils and making a screaming sound. OMG that was not all I saw and heard, there were 6 little pink peanut size newborn baby mice floating and whimpering in the oil. The oil had cool enought that it was congealed and held them all afloat. I was horrified. I said F this and picked up the bowl went out the back door and pored the oil out into a card board box and left the bowl there also to worry about in the morning. I was pissed off big time. I ate a whole turkey wing at 3 am! Next morning the oil and the oil soaked cardboard had been eaten by something and the bowl licked clean. That incident then made me clean the kitchen from top to bottom and a search for the nesting site. I found it in the candle drawer where the a mouse had made a nest and ate candle wax. I set traps but no more mice to be found. Now on the farm I used DCON because the mice bleed to death from eating it and dry up and seldom is there the big stink from dead meeces. I did find a dozen or more dead in the kitchen before I left to return home. Sometimes you see them and sometimes you don't. I hate that smell. Ron, I remember your last run in with the meeces and your cleaning spree afterwards. Good luck to you! Be safe. Be happy. Adieu
Woody,
What a story with your experience with mice in your stove! Thank God I didn't have that. That mouse (or more, last year there were TWO) is now hiding behind the refrigerator. I have both exits blocked with traps. He or she will come out eventually. I already cleaned out my pantry closet. I see where the little bugger was nibbling on a packet of Quaker instant oatmeal apple. Bill chokes on the apple so I wasn't using it. I threw all the oatmeal out. I also cleaned out the rest of the closet of boxes items that I will no longer use. I tend to collect food, which is a very bad habit for me and good for the mice. Apparently they put the word out that "the goods" are down here. My neighbor, who I talked to today, never has mice. He said the last mouse they had in his house was years ago. I will definitely get a cat if I survive Bill. I've always wanted a cat now more than ever. You have a cat and you have NO MICE. And rats? I don't even want to think about that. I see the rat traps in the store today. I can't imagine catching something that big.
Thanks for sharing Woody! Hope you don't EVER have any more experiences with mice!
Ron
Tut! they can co-exist just like you advise about the scorpions.
Spo,
Actually, NOT! NO MICE IN THE HOUSE! Now I see your point (no pun intended) about scorpions.
Ron
I've used so-called "electronic" traps; actually, "electric" trap is more accurate. They work well if you're able to place them along walls where mice regularly run, plus they're safe to use around pets. https://www.homedepot.com/p/Victor-Electronic-Mouse-Trap-M250S/302256999
Carol - a reader from your old 'hood in Philly.
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