four mice in four days
megan and i were talking last night (she slept in my room because for some reason it doesn't seem to attract the mice like her room does), and we figured out that we've had mice in our house for at least five months. what, you may ask, are we doing about it? how could it be they're still around, with all the technology available to us? let me tell you.
we started out by calling our landlord. he called the exterminators, who set up a sticky strip under our stove to catch the mice. periodically, we would hear a disturbing squeal and know that a mouse had been caught and effectively starved to death, and we would call our landlord to come get it. we probably caught at least four mice using this technique. then the mice started showing up upstairs in our bedrooms, so we bought these great traps that tempt the mouse into a circular enclosure and then locks them into it, so that we don't have to see the mouse at all. we caught one mouse this way, and we were able to dispose of it ourselves, which of course made us proud. it seemed to be getting better for awhile, and then it got really bad. the mice were getting on megan's bed in the middle of the night, while she was sleeping in it. this, obviously, was completely unacceptable. i was out of town, so megan started sleeping in my room, and she took matters into her own hands. she bought the classic victoria traps, she bought poison, and she bought bleach. we strategically placed traps in all the places we'd ever seen a mouse (did i mention we'd see them running on our kitchen counter in the evenings?), and we got in the habit of bleaching the countertops every night. but the mice were eating all the peanut butter off of the traps, and going home to their families to tell them where they could find a great meal.
(this is becoming a long story about mice - can you tell that it's been a big part of my life recently?)
we were more than frustrated until rick came over and reset our traps, so that they would actually snap. and then we started hearing snaps in the middle of the night. we've developed a pattern now - every morning we go downstairs and look from the living room into the kitchen without turning any lights on, to see if there's a bump on top of the stove. there is, and we (by we i mean megan) get a paper towel and drop it over the mouse without looking, and then we call rick to come get it. four mice in four days. that's a total count of nine that we've caught, and who knows how many more there are.
this morning, there were no mice in the traps, and no evidence of any mice...but i'm not holding my breath.
we started out by calling our landlord. he called the exterminators, who set up a sticky strip under our stove to catch the mice. periodically, we would hear a disturbing squeal and know that a mouse had been caught and effectively starved to death, and we would call our landlord to come get it. we probably caught at least four mice using this technique. then the mice started showing up upstairs in our bedrooms, so we bought these great traps that tempt the mouse into a circular enclosure and then locks them into it, so that we don't have to see the mouse at all. we caught one mouse this way, and we were able to dispose of it ourselves, which of course made us proud. it seemed to be getting better for awhile, and then it got really bad. the mice were getting on megan's bed in the middle of the night, while she was sleeping in it. this, obviously, was completely unacceptable. i was out of town, so megan started sleeping in my room, and she took matters into her own hands. she bought the classic victoria traps, she bought poison, and she bought bleach. we strategically placed traps in all the places we'd ever seen a mouse (did i mention we'd see them running on our kitchen counter in the evenings?), and we got in the habit of bleaching the countertops every night. but the mice were eating all the peanut butter off of the traps, and going home to their families to tell them where they could find a great meal.
(this is becoming a long story about mice - can you tell that it's been a big part of my life recently?)
we were more than frustrated until rick came over and reset our traps, so that they would actually snap. and then we started hearing snaps in the middle of the night. we've developed a pattern now - every morning we go downstairs and look from the living room into the kitchen without turning any lights on, to see if there's a bump on top of the stove. there is, and we (by we i mean megan) get a paper towel and drop it over the mouse without looking, and then we call rick to come get it. four mice in four days. that's a total count of nine that we've caught, and who knows how many more there are.
this morning, there were no mice in the traps, and no evidence of any mice...but i'm not holding my breath.
This entry was posted
on Saturday, March 17, 2007 at 9:11 AM.
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That is why you need to get a cute cat like Churchill to chase and scare all the mice away. Cats do have benefits, you know :)
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