A House Without A Mouse

 

Ah yes, now I can sleep well tonight. Last night my invited mouse guest met his/her end. 

When I woke up this morning and rounded the corner from my bedroom to my kitchen I opened the first pantry closet door and was pleasantly surprise (and relieved) that Mr./Mrs. Mouse met a quick end with my new and improved Victor Mouse Trap. This is the same mouse trap that Mousey has twice before managed to set off and escaped its neck braking bar.

After breakfast I next emptied out the floor of both pantry closets (yes, I have two, one I got as an extra add-on when I had this house built because I tend to accumulate packaged food, a bad habit that I'm trying to break myself from). I cleared the floors of both closets out in order to throughly clean the floors of those nasty little mouse turds and any mouse urine. Oh how I hate doing this. Cleaning floors is especially hard for me now because I have trouble getting up because of my weak legs. Old man here. 

Clean the floors I did and I spent the rest of the day content in the knowledge that I am no longer sharing our kitchen with a smelly, nasty rodent. And I have to admit I have a totally new understanding of my friend Spo who lives in Phoenix Arizona who is often surprised by his Uninvited Guests . . . SCORPIONS!  Oh my, I can just image opening  up my utensil drawer or putting new sheets on my bed and revealing one of those little monsters with the curly cue stingy tail. I don't blame him for dispatching those critters forthrightly. 

A Mouse In The House

 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.

Mouse in the House

This past Sunday as I was exiting the kitchen to the garage I almost stepped on a field mouse that was on the door ledge. It quickly scampered away.


Oh no, not a Mouse in the House again.  Remember the problem I had last year?  One night after I came home from work I encountered a mouse in my pantry.  I think he was as surprised as I was when I opened the door looking for a late night snack.  I put out mouse traps and caught the little (fat) bugger the next day.  He was hiding out under the refrigerator next to the warm coils. Much to my surprise I also caught another mouse in my Have-a-Heart trap.  I think that was his wife. I took her down to the end of Oyster Rocks Road, to start a new life in those wetlands near the Broadkill River.

Yesterday I prepared (with peanut butter) and put out four deadly mouse traps. I also put out the Have-a-Heart trap with a big chunk of cheese. 

This morning I expected to see a squashed and bloody mouse in one of the traps.  Nothing.

This afternoon when I went out through the garage I happened to see two brown eyes looking at me through the metal screen of the Have-a-Heart trap.  One lucky mouse 

Bill and I took it down to the end of Oyster Rocks Road to join its cousin from last year that I released there.  

I put the Have-a-Heart trap out. I fully expect another mouse to show up. Hopefully it will be smart and take the bait (a big chuck of cheese) in the Have-a-Heart trap. 

Mouse No Longer In The House

That's right folks, no more mouse in the house. As a matter of fact, there are no more MICE in the house. As several commenters commented, "if there is one mouse there are probably more."  And that folks is what I discovered this morning.

When I got in from work last night (about 11:30 pm) I was hoping to see a dead mouse in one of the traps we set.  Didn't happen. The mouse was still in the house.  I went to bed feeling dirty, again.

This morning when I rounded the corner from my bedroom which is right next to our kitchen, I asked Bill (who always gets up before I do) "Any luck?"  He said "We got him!"  I looked down at the trap by our refrigerator door and there was the evidence, a squashed mouse. This one was bloody.  The trap caught him right above his yes and squashed his brains.  His blood was on our tiled floor. This is the first time I've seen a caught mouse in a trap with blood.  Usually their neck or back is broke.  This little guy didn't know what hit him. I was dreading finding a mouse in a trap that was still alive.  I've had that happen in the past.

We also had a Have-a-Heart trap set. Bill asked if there was one in there.  Bill's eyesight is failing. He held the trap up to me to see and lo and behold, there was a live mouse in there!  Now I wish I had not set the old fashion trap but let the dead mouse instead be captured in the Have-a-Heart trap.

We took the live mouse out for a long ride to the end of Oyster Rocks Road, about four miles from our house.  That area is wetlands.  When I opened up the trap, the terrified mouse tried to hide in one of the slots, like an ostrich hiding its head in the sand. It soon realized that wasn't going to work so he/she jump out of the trap to the ground below and took off.  I took a video of it which I will post.

I'm at work now and I don't have access that video.  When I go home tonight I hope I don't see any more tell tale signs of mouse droppings. I don't want to share my house with mouse/mice.

Always an adventure folks, always an adventure.

Mouse Still in the House

Yes, a mouse is still in our house. Bill refused to believe that a field mouse had come in from the cold to take up residence in our humble abode. An uninvited guest.

Last night, before I went to bed, I checked the pantry and surprise, was eye to eye with The Intruder. The Mouse was startled and quickly raced down the pantry door and hid among the soup cans.  I stood there, stunned, wondering what to do now.  The Mouse took a peek around the corner then retreated among the soup cans again. I still stood there like a stup, wondering what to do. The mouse decided to make a run for it, and raced out of the pantry closet door, around the corner and to the back of our nearby refrigerator.  So that's where is he hiding!  Now I knew what to do, set mouse traps along his path line.  So far, no sighting of The Mouse. I was hoping he would trip up on one of those traps and have his neck broken.


This morning I informed Bill of my confrontation with the mouse.  I think he now believes me. He got our mini Have-a-Heart-trap, put some peanut butter in it and set the trap out.  So far no sighting of The Mouse.  Hopefully when I go home tonight The Mouse will have gone to his heavenly home.  

A Mouse in the House

Last week was the first time I noticed.  The telltale little black dropping. "Oh no" I thought.  That can't be a mouse dropping. 

I quickly put it out of my mind. Rationalization is a great thing isn't it, until it isn't.

Then last night as I was preparing dinner for myself, I saw the signs again.  Now I was sure.  Yep, a mouse was in the house. Must have gotten in through the garage and rushed up the two steps to the kitchen when we were bringing in groceries. Or else Bill left the door open while he was on one of his projects.

This is the first time we've had a mouse in the house. They're field mice, coming in from the cold. When we lived in the woods in Pennsylvania we had that problem. We would live catch them and take them way out in the woods only to have them beat us back to the house. Those little feet can travel fast. I actually caught one running up the cellar steps to our kitchen. They could easily get under the front door because the space was big enough.  Here, there is no space, the mouse (and I am assuming it is only ONE mouse) slipped in when either one of us was going in from the garage which adjoins the kitchen.

In past years these field mice have gotten into our garden shed, only to leave us with many, many droppings and the stale smell of mouse piss.  

Of course I cleaned out our pantry and sealed up any food that was open, as Bill has a tendency to do.  He likes cheese twists and leaves the bag open for easy access. I had to throw out the peppermint patties and candy kisses. The mouse already nibbled on those.  

I don't know where the mouse is now.  I assumed it would come rushing out one of our pantries (we have two) while I was cleaning them out.  The only place I haven't cleaned out was the soup cans on the bottom floor. I'll do that tomorrow morning in daylight when I can see better.  

How are we going to take care of our uninvited guest?  Mousetraps.  Yep, the old fashion kind.  No Have-a-Heart traps here because the mouse will just come back in after we release him/her. I have to be cruel like this but I don't want any stinking mouse in our house. 

We brought eight mousetraps this morning at Lowe's.  Bill put some cheese on them (expensive cheese by the way) and we set the traps along the usual routes. I expect to see results when I get up tomorrow morning. I'm not looking forward to seeing a squished mouse with eyes bulging out but what has to be done, has to be done. I just hope the poor creature isn't still alive when I find it.  

A Mouse In The House

If it's fall it's time for "the mouse in the house."  Yep, one day last week Bill spotted one of the little, gray furry creatures scurrying along the shelf in our garage.  Here we go again.  Set a mouse trap or put out a Have a Heart trap?

I don't like to kill any living creature but I also don't want a mouse infestation in our garage or house.  If we had a cat we wouldn't have a mouse problem.

Alas, Bill doesn't like cats.  Of course the downside with cats is once they catch a mouse they like to play "cat and mouse" with the poor terrified creature.  Someone like Dick Cheney would love the torture of a captive creature but not me.  Then there is the unpleasant sight of walking out in the garage and seeing a squashed mouse in the mousetrap.  Sometimes the squashed mouse isn't even dead!

Bill and I usually trap the unwanted vermin with one of those have-a-heart traps and then release them out into the woods, far away from our abode.  Sometimes that doesn't work because the persistent rodents will find their way back to our warm environs.

Yesterday I bought on of those have-a-heart traps at the Ace Hardware in Milton.  We (Bill) put it out last night.  This morning, sure as the sun rises, there were TWO occupants of our new have-a-heart traps, sniffing around inside the metal enclosure amidst their very own mouse droppings.  Ugh.

Bill took the unwanted house guests out to the end of the lane behind our backyard where there is a clumps of trees on a former home site now long overgrown.

A lot of trouble wouldn't you say?  I would rather have one of those big orange cats to take care of this annual problem.

"Rusty" - my Mom's fearsome mouse (and chipmunk) collector