A mouse in the house

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Did the cat walk in, put down its little bags, look at the mess from the shooting and say "well, I got here not a minute too soon"?

accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 11:16 (eighteen years ago) link

when the cats i looked after were reclaimed by their owner, my apartment suffered from a mouse invasion. i got a sonar thing, and it did fuck all. i repeat: FUCK ALL. i crept into my bedroom once because i heard a rodenty noise and there was a mouse like sitting on top of the plug-in, twirling his whiskers at me. meanwhile, as i wait for the beasts to be driven away by high-pitched noises, i'm having to clean turds from cupboards, counters, the cooker top, etc on a daily basis and getting scared shitless by the dirty little fuckers running all over the place at night.

so, in a fit of rage, i bought some poison bait which was an effective but not entirely wise move. i killed a bunch of mice that way, but the corpses would turn up everywhere and if not found and disposed of immediately would stink. after a brief lull in rodent activity i thought the problem had been taken care of, but no. the mice came back and i moved on to the covered spring traps, which short of a getting a cat or a thorough professional treatment is what i would recommend using. they're quick and efficient, with an opaque slip cover so you don't have to see the body (though the tail sticks out rather pathetically).

lauren (laurenp), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 11:40 (eighteen years ago) link

Don't call UB40, they only know about rats.

Ed (dali), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 11:49 (eighteen years ago) link

if you can find [all] their little mouse holes one thing you can try is a liberal sprinkling of chilli powder or hot sauce. a blast of that up their tiny noses will make them think twice about trying to nibble your cheese.

the story is in the soil, Tuesday, 9 August 2005 12:05 (eighteen years ago) link

three weeks pass...
I JUST CAUGHT AN MOUSE!!! (hopefully the one i mentioned up there) ph34r me! unfortunately i am home alone so i have nobody but the interweb to tell :(

i managed to corner it on the worktop and then put a pint glass over it (being careful of the tail) and a book underneath it and chucked it out the back door.

CarsmileSteve (CarsmileSteve), Sunday, 4 September 2005 22:50 (eighteen years ago) link

Nice adaptation of the spider removal method, Carsmile! I love it how it seems that mice know they are naughty.

rainy (rainy), Sunday, 4 September 2005 22:56 (eighteen years ago) link

i was worried the poor little thing was going to have an heart attack and keel over or summat, so i was singing to it a bit. it seemed ok, and made a bolt for the back garden as soon as i lifted the glass up...

CarsmileSteve (CarsmileSteve), Sunday, 4 September 2005 23:27 (eighteen years ago) link

While my wife and I were on a camping trip last June (2005) a mouse chewed a hole in our tent and came inside. We heard it as we went to bed, making small scuffling, chewing noises in the dark. We turned on our puny flashlights and stalked it for at least 20 minutes, as our tent was quite full of our belongings and the flashlights were far from revealing.

Finally, I caught it by slamming a plastic container over it and sliding the lid underneath. When I opened the tent door and released it, it ran off like a shot. During the daylight hours, my wife repaired the hole the mouse had chewed.

The next night as we went to bed we heard similar chewing noises. The same mouse (we are sure of this) was busily chewing a hole about 3 cm from the first hole and was on the point of entering the tent again when we caused it to flee. It made me sorry I had let it go the night before instead of killing it, the rotter.

Aimless (Aimless), Monday, 5 September 2005 00:49 (eighteen years ago) link

Poison! It's the only thing that works. And plug up all their points of entry (usually where pipes and cables enter your house/apartment) with fine steel wool. Top it off every year because it rusts and compacts and then they get in again. If you have a birdfeeder use straight sunflower seed, not mixed seed. The birds just throw the millet on the ground to get to the sunflower seeds. Then the field mice have a field day.
We had a pet rat, too. Sugar. We loved him. One time mice got into his cage and went on a rampage, eating all his food, bouncing around and generally going apeshit. He was cowering in his little shoebox house. It was as if you'd woken up to find your bedroom full of berserk monkeys.

Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Monday, 5 September 2005 13:07 (eighteen years ago) link

you should have kept it! it's a once-in-a-lifetime moment: if mrs carsmile comes home terrified to find a mouse in a pint glass you could say "calm down, dear. it's only a mouse!"

ken c (ken c), Monday, 5 September 2005 13:16 (eighteen years ago) link

two weeks pass...
last night. ran along the wall behind the tv. then back again.

koogs (koogs), Wednesday, 21 September 2005 13:18 (eighteen years ago) link

Cats are fine as long as they don't bring rodents into the house instead of driving them out. I grew up in a hose that backed on to a large field, and we always had cats. The only problem we had with mice were the ones the cats brought in, stunned, which they would then release so they could have the pleasure of chasing them around the house. Not just mice, either: shrews, gophers (one of which bit my sister), moles, snakes, and birds, as well. There was always great excitement when my mother would chase the rodents around with a broom, trying to whisk them out the back door, while my sister and I did our best to block the doorway to keep the cats out. They liked best to bring them in at dinnertime. Their contribution to the feast, I suppose.

Then, of course, there were the various animal parts that were left all over the house.

Robert J Myers (moriarty), Thursday, 22 September 2005 23:53 (eighteen years ago) link

That was a house I grew up. I lived in the hose later.

Robert J Myers (moriarty), Thursday, 22 September 2005 23:54 (eighteen years ago) link

five months pass...
i got one a few hours ago. ughhhhhh. i knew they were crawling around behind the refrigerator because i saw one last week there, but this morning i woke up and was getting dressed and one darted out from behind my monitor (i have a desktop but no desk so it's all on the floor). i chased him for a while then got the genius idea to put one glue trap on either side of him and then chase him into it. it worked! but it was so sad, he just hopped right onto the trap and got stuck and he's still twitching around, dying slowly. i tried traditional traps before but he wouldn't go for them so it had to be the glue traps. so like an hour ago i saw one of his friends. i don't know where he is now. i'm scared. there's a live mouse hiding somewhere within 10 feet of me. i don't really know what to do about this.

caitlin oh no (caitxa1), Saturday, 25 February 2006 19:59 (eighteen years ago) link

guys? he isn't going to die is he. i'm going to suffocate/hypothermize him in the freezer. i feel awful. but it was so easy.

caitlin oh no (caitxa1), Saturday, 25 February 2006 21:06 (eighteen years ago) link

my great-grandmother made a book about the house she lived in, in georgia. she wrote it and made pen illustrations, too, that she augemented w.watercolors and she bound it in a rough cloth cover. it was beautiful and funny. one page shows the pantry area between the kitchen and the dining room and the words at the bottom of the page say "this is where the mice like to run." and if you look closely you can see little ears behind the cupboard.

Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Saturday, 25 February 2006 21:10 (eighteen years ago) link

Dude, you must put it in a paper bag and drop a rock on it. I am very serious about this. You use a glue trap, you finish the job by hand.

Jimmy Mod: The Prettiest Flower In The Pond (The Famous Jimmy Mod), Saturday, 25 February 2006 21:11 (eighteen years ago) link

UGH i did not want to crush it. the thought made me gag. he will be dead soon. hypothermia is a nice way to die.

caitlin oh no (caitxa1), Saturday, 25 February 2006 21:12 (eighteen years ago) link

our apartment has turned into something of a mouse charnel house in recent weeks. a series of traps laid strategically along the routes most traveled resulted in a rapid succession of tiny mammalian executions. so then the other day, my wife had cause to delve into the recesses of one of those closets in order to retrieve a couple of suitcases. and under one of those suitcases, huddled together on a sweater long since fallen to the floor, were five small, gray, very dead mouse babies. our mice had nested and taken root here with us. and, we assume, with the dispatching of both mama and papa mouse, the little fuzzy ones were left to starve to death, orphaned beneath the suitcase.

it's a cruel world, don't let nobody tell you otherwise.

gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Saturday, 25 February 2006 21:17 (eighteen years ago) link

he passed out pretty quickly in the freezer. sweet dreams little guy. i'll miss you.

i wish i could find the other one though. i just threw out whatever was under my bed so there's no more hiding places. waiting for maintenance to come seal up the hole, wherever it is.

caitlin oh no (caitxa1), Saturday, 25 February 2006 21:53 (eighteen years ago) link

DON'T SQUASH MR JINGLES!!!!!!

john clarkson, Saturday, 25 February 2006 22:02 (eighteen years ago) link

gypsy mothra that is so sad. ugh.

I'd like to read Tracer's great-grandmother's book.

sgs (sgs), Saturday, 25 February 2006 22:29 (eighteen years ago) link

i'm afraid i might get the hantavirus

caitlin oh no (caitxa1), Saturday, 25 February 2006 22:54 (eighteen years ago) link

i finally got the other one the same way, ughhhhhhhhhhh so sad. he broke his leg right away when he got stuck, i think. he squealed very loud. i feel bad. there are probably more somewhere. i'm so tired of waking up to these things crawling around at night.

caitlin oh no (caitxa1), Sunday, 26 February 2006 03:26 (eighteen years ago) link

three years pass...

i just got a humane trap and they haven't even gone near it

Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 14 July 2009 15:16 (fourteen years ago) link

probably snickering at your good-heartedness

rip dom passantino 3/5/09 never forget (max), Tuesday, 14 July 2009 15:19 (fourteen years ago) link

Put it hard up against the skirting board - they tend to creep along the foot of the wall for cover.

Enemy Insects (NickB), Tuesday, 14 July 2009 15:21 (fourteen years ago) link

maybe i should have used something other than aged gouda and a skinny latte as bait?

Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 14 July 2009 15:22 (fourteen years ago) link

We had one recently, but had to reset it a couple of times when visiting kids stole the raisins from it.

Enemy Insects (NickB), Tuesday, 14 July 2009 15:22 (fourteen years ago) link

Lol @ yuppie mice. Maybe try a PBR and a street hot dog, Tracer?

But not someone who should be dead anyway (Laurel), Tuesday, 14 July 2009 15:25 (fourteen years ago) link

Someone told me mice are mad for chocolate. To test if that was a joke I put some in a trap I had in my previous house and it worked!

StanM, Tuesday, 14 July 2009 15:26 (fourteen years ago) link

attached a poisoned glue trap to the humane trap. That may work.

dan selzer, Tuesday, 14 July 2009 15:33 (fourteen years ago) link

mice are ppl too

♥/b ~~~ :O + x_X + :-@ + ;_; + :-/ + (~,~) + (:| = :^) (Lamp), Tuesday, 14 July 2009 15:34 (fourteen years ago) link

is that the logic that causes ppl to use humane traps to catch them?

♥/b ~~~ :O + x_X + :-@ + ;_; + :-/ + (~,~) + (:| = :^) (Lamp), Tuesday, 14 July 2009 15:34 (fourteen years ago) link

you know what doesn't work? Those electronic noisemakers. And yet we have two going in the kitchen non-stop for the last year and a half.

Also try peppermint oil, the hardcore stuff, not the stuff you cook with. Fill cotton balls and place everywhere.

And the only real solution? Find the holes and plug them up. Foam and/or steel wool. If you find one, there's 6 more hiding. If you kill one, there's 6 more still hiding...and mad.

dan selzer, Tuesday, 14 July 2009 15:37 (fourteen years ago) link

And the only real solution

A cat still works too. Even a lazy cat drives them away with pheromones or something.

StanM, Tuesday, 14 July 2009 15:38 (fourteen years ago) link

Find the holes and plug them up.

i heard that this stops the house from "breathing"

Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 14 July 2009 15:39 (fourteen years ago) link

houses are ppl too

♥/b ~~~ :O + x_X + :-@ + ;_; + :-/ + (~,~) + (:| = :^) (Lamp), Tuesday, 14 July 2009 15:39 (fourteen years ago) link

"breathing" is a euphemism for "being stuffed with mice"

suddenly, everything was dark and smelly (HI DERE), Tuesday, 14 July 2009 15:40 (fourteen years ago) link

Sounds like you need a humane house trap too then.

Enemy Insects (NickB), Tuesday, 14 July 2009 15:40 (fourteen years ago) link

hahaha tracer u should get a pied pipe and lead them all on a merry dance across town to an orphanage and tell them never to return

♥/b ~~~ :O + x_X + :-@ + ;_; + :-/ + (~,~) + (:| = :^) (Lamp), Tuesday, 14 July 2009 15:41 (fourteen years ago) link

Open a window. The house doesn't need a dime-sized hole next to the stove pipes or radiator to "breathe".

dan selzer, Tuesday, 14 July 2009 16:18 (fourteen years ago) link

A cat still works too. Even a lazy cat drives them away with pheromones or something.

This is definitely not true.

We got an electric rat killer, it's zapped about 15 of the fuckers (mice, not rats) over the last 2 weeks, at least the rate has slowed down now but they're still around I think.

Colonel Poo, Tuesday, 14 July 2009 16:21 (fourteen years ago) link

i live in a big apartment building so i'm very dubious of my ability to plug all the holes - can't remember where i heard the "breathing" thing, it sounds pretty bonkers

Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 14 July 2009 16:22 (fourteen years ago) link

THERE'S AN ELECTRIC RAT-KILLER?? Holy fucking technology, that would have CHANGED MY LIFE at my last apartment.

But not someone who should be dead anyway (Laurel), Tuesday, 14 July 2009 16:23 (fourteen years ago) link

It rules, you just hear this BZZZZZZZZZT noise from the cupboard, then just go and tip the mouse in the bin, reset it, and back in the cupboard.

Colonel Poo, Tuesday, 14 July 2009 16:24 (fourteen years ago) link

You need a smellier cat! (xxxpost)

StanM, Tuesday, 14 July 2009 16:25 (fourteen years ago) link

That would have saved my roommate having to beat a rat to death on the bathroom floor.

But not someone who should be dead anyway (Laurel), Tuesday, 14 July 2009 16:25 (fourteen years ago) link


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