A mouse in the house

We had rats in our house last year, yes I know it was disgusting. The fuckers used to make so much noise scurrying round in the attic and stuff. anyway we tried traps and caught about three in a row, then a friend recommended this little plug in sonar thing you buy at hardware shops that makes a high pitched noise driving rats, and I presume mice, away.

It worked perfectly, no problems since. It was quite cheap too.

We discovered they couldn't abide New Order's "Substance" or Brian Eno's "Before and After Science."

I got very familiar with those two albums that summer.

Maybe it was lonely.

bye.

I lived on a farm for a few years growing up and we had a major rat problem. For the first few nights, I sat up in bed wide-eyed as I watched them run across the far wall.

I am rambling - sorry - but yes, really, do get a rat or two!

I've been keeping food wrapped, but still sometimes it'll eat into the bread bag.

As for ants which we tend to get in the summer, I'm a believer in white vinegar... spray it where you think they come in... they won't. Has to be redone every few days to a week, but I like having vinegar around a lot more than poison.

We had a pet rat once - a lab rat we name Malty. He was pretty. Beige & cream colored.

Anyway, I think that rats, by their very nature, will try to keep themselves scentless so as to be harder to scent by predators.

Funniest rat story - my mother was having a dinner party. My rat thought the food smelled good and opened her cage door, crept down the hallway, and then up onto the tabletop (likely scaling the tableleg and then the table cloth). Once on the table she saw someone holding a piece of garlic bread - and went running toward the bread - she grabbed it and continued running down the length of the table until she reached then end, where she launched herself into space and ran back down the hallway and into my bedroom. Needless to day, the dinner party ended rather soon after that, with lots of fairly full plates and plenty of leftovers.

Names of my rats:
Ratfina
Josephine/Little Jo
Portia (the coolest!)
Cocoa
Sage
Pepper (current psycho rat - never gentled down - I wanted to name her "blitzkreig" as she leaps and bites unexpectedly, and has a lightening strike mark on her belly)

So you were naked in a bathtub with a rat swimming around? I'm not sure how this makes me feel.

am curious to hear more about this high-pitched rat phear machine. tell me more!!

If you're worried about mice, set up a trap, and if you catch one, set it up again. If you haven't caught one after a week or so, you're probably okay.

We're too wussy to actually know how to deal with this type of situation, so we've just called out pest control to kill the bastard(s). It's a shame, though, as it's actually kind of cute in a fuzzy unhygienic vermin type way.

This is made even worse by the fact that it's just one in a long line of things that are going wrong for me at the moment, compounding the lack of money/breaking up with long-term boyfriend/about to become homeless situation (yes, I guess if we're about to leave then really we should just let the mouse live, but I'm not staying for another month in a place that is infested).

Bah.

fuck just a month ago i'm getting frustrated cos possums are fucking in our ceiling (ever heard possums fuck? its all screeching and running around and hissing - bad b&d) and i got up to move to another room and i'm about to go into the kitchen and in the half light of 2am i spy this fucking rat on the kitchen floor!!! so i creep back out and get a spade and creep back up behind the fucka and WHACK WHACK WHACK. blood and guts everywhere.

i figure he was stoned on the rat bait cos he never moved too fast.

It must say something terrible about me that when I read this exchange I initially assumed you were discussing a Big Brother contestant's opinion on such matters.

I couldn't bring myself to kill them, particularly not in such a blood'n'guts way - I think I have as much of a problem with dealing with the lifeless body of one as I do with a scurrying scampering one. So, ha, I make someone else do my dirty work for me.

they used to run around in the attic and the first night it happened it sounded like someone was walking around upstairs, very fucking scary.

fuck ronan they sound like BIG rats!

it's funny actually we had to change the setting on it because me and my brother (but not my parents) could hear its barely audible high pitched whirring all around the house.

When I first moved to Denver I was startled by a mouse ambling slowly out into the middle of my empty living room, but more because of the sudden realization that I wasn't alone. It tried to hide in a pile of curtains but I caught it in a shoebox and put it outside. I never saw another one in that apartment. I figured it was lost because in other houses I've lived in that were genuinely infested, the mice would stick to the walls or hidden spots and scurry very quickly, not just stroll out into the middle of rooms.

The mouse left of it's own accord, probably to squeak to all his mousemates about the idiot human who watched too many cartoons.

wow. for a horrible minute i thought my mate jon's electric mousetrap (as discussed, oddly enough, at the glasgow FAP on tuesday) had passed into popular existence.

this is how it worked (or didn't):

- you chop the electrical flex off something, eg a kettle
- you tape the neutral wire to a piece of tinfoil
- you tape the live wire to another piece of tinfoil
- you place the two bits of tinfoil on the floor, near enough that a mouse walking across them would complete the circuit
- you plug this death-trap contraption into the mains
- there's a bang and all your lights go out

mind you: he was driven to desperate measures after finding a mouse in his toaster one morning. after he'd turned the toaster on.

Im wondering about the ethics of mouse traps but just want the buggers OUT. Il try the sonar thing however other (possibly more scientific) posts on the internet indicate they dont actually work at all. But its worth the try...

Somehow a mouse got into our wall the other night. Woke up at 3am to the sound of something clawing at the inside of the bedroom wall. It continued until I had to get up. Little sleep was had. My wife is terrified of mice. Eventually the sounds stopped later than morning. I'd like to think the little critter found his way out, but more likely he perished.

put some putty in a crack in the skirting board. little fucker's not been back. he was getting p f'ing cheeky. coming out at day, staring at me from under my desk. something had to be done.

there was an amusing bit where he was scampering across an open bit of floor, and like a nazi guard I shone my reading light on him, and he paused, mid-step, leg hanging like a dog's paw, looked over, and then hot cha-cha'd behind the plastic storage boxes.

it was charming, but then I remembered suzy's key word "sphincterless" and got the putty out.

Real bold little fucker is making his way around this kitchen - I thought I saw something in the corner of my eye the other day, now it's confirmed

I had shoved some aluminum foil in various holes behind the cabinets (very old building), and he chewed his way through - so I cut up a beer can and nailed little barriers

Put the pasta in the freezer, cereal & crackers in sealed jars.. but I'm out for blood

(the weather has been wet & cold, maybe he's just looking for somewhere warm to sleep... I've seen no evidence of this particular mouse tearing into anything)

plz have mercy! i vote give the mouse a cookie 🍪🐭

I've been reading up-thread about using coarse steel wool to fill in the cracks.. apparently they won't try to chew through that

And I ordered some kind of ultrasonic repeller thing off eBay.. I'm a little doubtful but it was only $5

At the end of a long day, there’s nothing better than to reach for some pasta from the freezer

plz have mercy! i vote give the mouse a cookie 🍪🐭

― The field divisions are fastened with felicitations. (Deflatormouse), Tuesday, 28 February 2023 23:08 (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

hmm, i think we should wait to hear from poster 'cat' to get a more balanced picture.

ulrasonic things do nothing. coarse steel wool is the way to go. i think we sealed it with insulating foam but rat bastards can chew through that. we were terrorised by a rat last winter. chewed through a thick plastic container of oats, my new handbag, all the food. i can still hear the scratching in my sleep, ugh.

Deflatormouse, do not read this entire thread!

you'll want a rat zapper, owltra mouse trap or some other electric trap if you want to catch and kill. load up with some peanut butter filled pretzels and you'll get your guy.

condolences to Deflatormouse, but the deed is done. Old fashioned Victor snap trap and a little piece of swiss cheese

I discovered that he'd invaded the pantry and pooped and peed everywhere, he had to go

I'm still gonna get some steel wool for the gaps & cracks

hmm, i think we should wait to hear from poster 'cat' to get a more balanced picture.

i (belatedly) second the motion to give a mouse a cookie. this will make the mouse plump and juicy, perhaps even cookie-flavored.

but srsly since our cat died in september word has gotten around the rodent community that it's open season on our asses and i've caught like 20 mouses since then? we use the little clear green plastic humane traps, smeared with peanut butter at the far inside end. then we sneak them to a nearby goat farm. i just released one there two days ago, in fact! its name was lil' bit. and i've heard its compatriot rustling in the walls, so once the weather warms again i'll snatch that one up as well. its name will be glimbo.

r.i.p. 2 mousie the grasshopper 🪦

I'm gonna invest in a live trap for future invaders, but I was desperate and had the old guillotine on hand

AYO IT'S YA GLIMBO

https://media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com/image/upload/t_social_share_1200x630_center,f_auto,q_auto:best/streams/2013/August/130806/6C8538891-tdy-130806-AT-skateboard-mice-tease.jpg

(^ not actually le glimbeau; yr man don't care for the paparazzi)

i put out the guesthouse last night, and this afternoon glimbus maximus sauntered on in. a while ago i released him at the little hippie goat farm where he'll have lots of space to run and play! just kidding, he'll probs die tonight, cold and scared and alone.

i am becoming too enamored of these feculent plague vectors :( i've been without a real pet for too long and now i'm catching feelings for anything furry & smaw. i want to keep the mice. i want to build them tiny hice. i wanna gather sticks and grass & constuct adorable fairy cottages for them, and cozy little beds of milkweed silk where they can cuddle together, warm and safe, while they dream of mousy things. i want to give them elaborate jungle gyms to play on, and miniature trampolines, and tiny castles of cheese, and and and and

but i cannot. i must not. there are many excellent unarguable-with reasons why this cannot be.

it is kind of bullshit that life has so many inescapable cruelties and u can't really opt out (bar going full jain or etc)

here are a few more nicknames for my lost glimbus:

glimbert
glimbergher
glimmy

I found more tiny turds in the pantry today.. i scrubbed the shelves with vinegar, it was gnarly

I think I have things more or less sealed off for now, but these little bastards...

lol yeah mice be poopin

more coarse steel wool stuffed in all yr homes' crevices will help, and thank u for reminding me, now that i am currently mouseless i'd better get on that too

homes'? well i guess if you happen to have multiple homes under siege then you might as well

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bhzpR0VF-hQ/Tlbd2lgNA8I/AAAAAAAAAEE/7ZkOli8ZCAM/s1600/ignatz.gif

i put the trap out yesterday after two afternoons of a mouse wandering across my field of view as i sat on the sofa. he's quiet, i have to say, his predecessors have always been louder

Our baby boy kitty caught his first Proper Mouse the other day! And then he didnt know what to do with it! He trotted around the house, dropped it, it played dead then tried to make a run for it, he grabbed it again and I guess killed it.

Then proceeded to dry-heave til we had to take the mouse away from him worried it had rat poison on it (we dont use any).

But yeah let that be a lesson to the rest of yiz, meece.

PICS

PICS OF BABY BOY KITTY

PICS OF BABY BOY KITTY AT ONCE (pls?)

good baby kitty, protecting his people from infestation! sounds like mama kitty didn't teach him that u can eat things u catch; iirc all kitties have the instinct to huntcatchkill but if they usually get fed by people then their mama has to show them the eating-yr-prey part (unless they hongrey)

i am awarding baby boy kitty a commemorative golden mouse trophy: 🐭🏆🐭

mice be poopin

otm

Heh he's not actually a babby anymore, he's 4 and a hulking big lad really :D

https://imgur.com/a/A3RW1EW

oh poo why didnt that work
https://imgur.com/a/A3RW1EW

they r precious snoogle babbies furever iirc

OMG THAT BELLY 🤍🖤🤍🖤🤍

Haha I dont know how you managed to make it show, but yeah. He looooves lying on his back and rolling around like a derpa.

cat bellies have a secret message written on them that means "u cool and i am happy & safe here" <3<3<3

meanwhile in mouse news i slacked off and now it sounds like we almost have enough for a circus.

"hey mr. cat maybe we should pause putting offerings on the shrine til we get the pestilence sorted"

"nah ms. cat it'll be fine"

"k" *rides off in mouse-drawn chariot*

If you stop feeding the cat I predict mouse carcasses

I can live with mice, but I draw the line at bats.

lol stop feeding the cat & u get a cat who will pester u 94/7

alternatively the neighbors get a new cat who comes begging around with tails of woe (if they don't already)

bats cute but the rabies thing wld give me pawse

Having seen more than one up close, I would have to disagree with your position that bats are cute.

i shld have kept the pack rat who tried to move in a couple years ago, was v cute and we cld have disguised him as a chinchilla 🥸

hm i guess bats are best appreciated from a distance. when u see them flapping around at dusk in spring & summer they seem like lovely little sky mice!

how'd you get to meet multiple bats, jimbeaux? if i put a bug lamp outside my window will it draw spooky bat friends to me during the appropriate seasons? why are bats associated with autumn and bare trees if i only see them when it's warm out? ~bat mysteries~

One of the cats brought one in the house one time. We had to cover it with a wastebasket and kind of shuffle it out of the house.

Another one was lying on its back the brick wall outside our garage. I thought it was dead. To my surprise, when I nudged it with a stick it kind of flapped around and hissed. I guess cold weather can make them sluggish, so sluggish they can't fly.

that is pretty cool! pls hi5 yr cat for me

did you tenderly nurse the chill bat back to warmth, and did it then grant you 3 wishes or come back later to help you out of a jambeaux? wish i cld find a bat

I did not want to go anywhere near that bat. It was creepy af, especially the way it hissed.

u lost out bro bats have mad magical properties probably

I've always thought it would be cool to have vampire powers.

vamp stylee is perennial for sure. imagine going around with a lil bat dangling from your earlobe, you would be the baddest mfer!

oh shoot i just had a great idea for earrings

🚨2 of the suspects have been apprehended 🚨

https://i.imgur.com/sW5TN9e.jpg

above: le garçon du fromage
below: benevolent despot

they frolic with the goats now. shameless beastlings! how dare they look up at me all cute and helpless with their shiny eyes and delicate ears!

One ran out of my bathroom the other morning. I tracked it down and smashed it with a small bookshelf I had handy

As one does.

dang did a mouse like murder your whole family or something

how u smash things with a bookshelf

a bookshelf fell on me one time when i was sleeping, i was quite startled

cat I just bought two of those green traps on your recommendation, but I haven't had any recent visitors to test them out on

what ya gotta do, see, is rub cheese over your entire house so the neighborhood mice know where the party's at

but seriously, good luck Andy! hopefully you won't get any more visitors but if you do, may they blithely waltz in2 their guest quarters with a minimum of dallying/poop.

Benevolent Despot doesn't look so benevolent.

tim scurry finally had enough of my nonsense babytalk

https://i.imgur.com/mXlFWOS.mp4

moose & mousse & mathilde have all 3 gone to live at the cow shed by the creek, where i wish them many happy moons.

but why, one begins to wonder. why try to hold back the mousy tide? i could start a circus. i could start a mouse zoo & charge people admission. when it's cold out why not sleep under a heaving blanket of mice. perhaps this is how stockholm syndrome begins.