It's like--you know--when your richie-rich friend calls you in tears and says how her kids have come home with lice and you think, despite knowing better, "hmmm.....I thought only dirty kids got lice".
***Well, I have something I thought only dirty people got.***
m....
mmmmm......
mmmmmmmmmmm.........
mice.
eeeew. eeek. yuck. I know!!!
In all my 13 years of married life and nearly 1 of single life, I have never, ever had a mouse. I lived on a farm for 3 years backed up to a grain field for crying out loud and never had a mouse. I have lived in 2 houses bordered by empty lots. No mice. And then, a few weeks ago, I saw what looked to be burned rice under my sink.... and put two and two together pretty quickly.
A mouse....
In my house.....
A mouse pooping in my house.
This was back in mid-January and I caught the sucker the same night I set the trap. All was well. And then, the other night, the burned rice came back. And there seemed to be more of it. And I caught ANOTHER mouse. And, according to "do your own pest control. com"----if you've got 2 mice, you've probably got about 10. Oh--yeah, that website taught me lots of other fun facts about mice guaranteed to keep me up at night. Did YOU know:
*If there are good living conditions(food, water, and shelter),mice can multiply rapidly. They sexually mature in two months, producing about 8 litters in a one year life time. Each litter has 4-7 pups.
*They survive well on weeds, seeds, or insects, but when their food supply is shortened by the colder months they move inside nesting closer to a food supply. They make their nest from soft material like paper, insulation, or furniture stuffing. These nest are found in many places including: in walls, ceiling voids, storage boxes, drawers, under major appliances, or within the upholstery of furniture. Outside the nests are found in debris or in ground burrows.
*A house mouse is an excellent climber and can run up any rough vertical surface. It will run horizontally along wire cables or ropes and can jump up 13 inches from the floor onto a flat surface
*A mouse may contaminate your food supply with it's feces and urine. House mice gnaw through electrical wiring, causing fires and failure of freezers, clothes dryers and other appliances.
Doesn't that all sound DELIGHTFUL?!
So---yes---I'm admitting freely that even cleany-cleanersons like me...... can get mice.
My traps are armed. All 6 of them.
And seriously, while typing this---I just heard one go off. One mouse down. Who knows how many more to go.
Any mouse stories you wanna share so I don't feel so alone?
52 comments:
ewwwww! I can sympathize, though. we had them inside a house we were renting 9 years ago. and I, unfortunately, saw the critter before his 'droppings'--I seriously never pictured myself as one to jump on a chair...but, I did. we now only have them in our shed. still--ick.
good luck! i hope you get them all quickly.
I can't handle mice! When I was 12 years old I was babysitting a little boy during the summer. One day near the end of the summer, he spilled some chips on the floor and I decided to put him to bed before I vacuumed them up. Before I got them cleaned up, rats started swarming the floor. RATS. Big ones. There were probably 5 or 6 running underneath the furniture and into the living room while I was on the couch screaming. After they ran away I vacuumed up the chips and got the little boy out of his bed. We spent the rest of the day outside. It killed me to go back again.
When we moved to Missouri we lived in a house that my SIL's father had on his property. It hadn't been occupied in many months and was surrounded by fields. When we got there, there were mouse droppings everywhere. We cleaned like there was no tomorrow and I also bought a sonic, high pitched thing that plugs in the wall. It's supposed to scare mice away and I swear that it works. In the 2 years that we lived there I never saw or had signs of a mouse. It's worth a shot ...
Good luck with that one. Ick!
We had LOTS of mice when I was in high school living in the country. They'd scratch in the walls while we were trying to sleep. Try that one on: so sleeeeepppyy -- then screeech, scraaactch. Ah, memories!
This sounds terrible, but it WORKS way better than traps... buckets of water. <:{
OK, I know how you feel. We are clean freaks and in our old house we had a mouse. One night, I baked some bread and left it out on the counter. The next morning, It was partially eaten. I still get all grossed out thinking about it. They make these things that plug into the wall that send some noise or signal that are suppose to keep them away. You could try that.
Most importantly, know that it doesn't reflect on you. Even clean people get mice. We were lucky and just had the one incident. Good luck.
I can't believe I'm telling you this.....but....in our old house, for a whole month we caught a mouse EVERY DAY...for a month. I am scared of mice. I admit it. I once had me then 3 year old son carry out the trap (well, he put it in a pail for me and I did the rest). Then, then....we had a mouse nest in our car. How long did I drive these mice around I wonder? I shudder to think what would have happened if one of those mice had made an appearance shile I was driving....like just to see where we were headed. Bold little things.
Anyhooo.....we have since moved and have been mouse free for 3 years. Thankyouverymuch.
Good luck!
Had the same problem a few years ago. Caught 8 in a few weeks. Be sure to put a few traps in your attic. I put one in the tub in the bathroom and caught two in one trap. I used the horrible sticky traps. They seem so inhumane but by the 8th mouse I did not care. They entered my territory and they had to leave. Hope they are gone very soon.
Blessings,
Linda
Ugh, we had a mouse about 2 months ago. We only caught one. I still set traps out every day hoping to catch his family because aren't there supposed to be a lot of mice when you have them?!
I set my dog on the one we caught. She killed it with no mess and was pleased as punch with herself for days. This was her first mouse, but she killed 2 rats on our back deck about a year ago.
Yuck. I had one too a few years ago. It jumped out of one of the burners on top of the stove when I opened up the oven. Gross. I can't tell you how long it was before I could use that burner again- even after it was disinfected. That little sucker was smart though and it took forever to trap it. It wouldn't go in the sticky or capture traps and it would nibble cheese right off the others. Finally we used peanut butter and it worked.
I didn't mind mice and rats before that. I even liked them (weird I know) but now I have an unrational fear and loathing of all things rodent.
Yikes! I feel for you, I really do. We had them years ago when we lived in an old house with a crappy basement.
We promptly got a cat.
No more mice...ever.
Think about it!
I did NOT need to know all those interesting facts. We purchased a living room set from Steals & Deals (no kidding, the name of the store) for like $100 and we brought home three mice who apparently made a nest in the upholstery in the sofa. They were sleeping underneath the very spot I was sitting. It still gives me the hibbididee jibbididees.
Good luck!
I feel for ya...they are such icky creatures! At least you don't have the dumb AZ packrats chewing through your car wiring causing your brakes to go out! We have to hang Irish Spring soap under our cars every night to keep those demons away!
Ewwwww! Yuckkkk!!! Sorry, little dirty creatures freak me out. You need a cat! We have cats and no mouse has ever made it into our house!
Good luck with the mouse catching.
Lisa Q
i am sure everyone has a mouse story, whether they want to admit it or not. those facts GROSSED ME OUT!
we just moved into our new house in november and a couple days after moving in i kept finding little brown sprinkles on the floors, on the counters, and in the pantry. i didn't know what they were...until i saw a mouse dart from behind my curtains and jump into my gas fireplace one night. I WAS SICK! i immediatly grabbed duct tape and taped ever possible escape from the fireplace so he couldn't get out. i kept it like that until i got some decon and slowly began poisioning him. i had the hardest time sleeping those couple nights knowing a little mouse was having it's way around my house! I DISPISE THEM!
When they first started developing the field between our neighborhoods we got the gift of the field mice coming to the houses along the field and my street. Lots of fun. First just in the garage, then into the house. One night we caught 4, yep I said 4 babies on one sticky trap under our dishwasher. I probably put out about 10 sticky traps around the house, I now have no problem killing mice whenever I see them, even outside, even if they aren't hurting anything.
We don't have the problem now, we've sealed up every crevice they could have possibly come in through. You need to see if there are any gaps in your doors or anywhere and get them taken care of, it doesn't matter how small you think it is, they can get through.
By the way, Ryan should be fine to babysit Friday. Chris and I will probably be out, so if you can pick up and drop off that would be great, just let us know when.
I too hate mice!!! We just moved into a new house and just last night i was cleaning adn putting things away. I went to put some knick knacks on TOP of my cabinets in the kitchen...there was mouse poop. I am thinking to myself, how in the heck did a mouse get up there? Now i know...i didn't know that they could climb up walls and things like that! NICE. I am going to get some traps tonight!
Is it Monsieur Poopierat or his son, Senior Poopierat?
When Jared and I were gtting ready to move up here, I was packing and found little mice pooops under our sink. I remember disinfecting everything, and bawling because I was five months pregnant, and I KNEW I was going to get some horrible disease. One night we had Taylor and Paige staying at ouor house and I woke p at two a.m. to hear a nibbling sound coming from under the bed. There was a mouse in OUR BEDROOM! We woke up the girls and drove to Walmart to buy more traps, we made a Krispy Kreme run to make them feel better about being up at 2 in the morning. We caught the little bugger, but I was glad to move and leave any further possibility of rodent infestation to someone else. They are horrible, disgusting little creatures, and I am so sorry. Good luck!
Well, you know me, here in good ol' Emmett... We have mice. I think it comes with the charm of a one hundred year old house. I could live without this particular beadie-eyed charm. I have a cat that doesn't eat cat food. She hunts mice. If you can find the hole, put some one bite into it and then fill it with that expanding spray foam stuff. It will both kill them and keep them out of the living spaces!
I grew up on a small farm in a old house. I lived in two trailers that was junked once I moved out. From these experiences, I do know about mice! I've learned to put away food, NO MATTER WHAT. Clean up after ANY food preparation. I keep dry staples in 5-gal buckets with tight lids. Disposable containers doesn't cut it. Big Rubbermaid containers will work. Seal up whole foundation and possible accesses. Keep the place cleaned up (that means no clutter, still my struggle even today). Doing these measures does help greatly to reduce the population (no food, they have to move elsewhere). Not to mention setting out traps. You see more of them in fall when they're seeking a warm winter spot. Now... I live in a new house with husband and two children. No more problems. BUT our detached garage... they even chewed cabin filter in van, trying to get in! We once got 28 in one week- during major spring cleaning there. Now, our bird feed, dog food, grass seed, and anything they like to eat are in tight lidded containers (think tough tall trash cans). We ended up with sticky traps. Food removed. Sticky traps. No more problems in garage. No de-con because of our clueless little children (one experience to ER is enough). Ah, what a bliss living in a mouse-free house!!!! They are fine OUTSIDE but not inside of any buildings.
Oh I've been such a bad bloggy friend :( Sorry. Okay, I am one of these people...that trap the mice and relocate them :( I'm sick I know! SICK!! They carry sooo many diseases and are so icky...but I just feel like it's kinda sad to lure one in and snap their body in half :( NOW, all that being said, I've never had one IN my house...then, I think it's a different ballgame and Nice Staci goes away...Good luck! (No matter how nice I feel like I need to be...our builder for our new house says we must bait our house in a few weeks to kill anything that might have "moved" in before we get to :( Ah well...they can REALLY destroy stuff! And that would make me very angry :)
Oh yea...in regards to your last post...I say, YES, get a gun :)
I'm Karli's friend,Tiffany, and grew up in the ward with all the Petersons. I sometimes look at your blog, and really enjoy it. About the mice...no matter what, do not let them get into the walls and die! It makes a terrible smell! We owned a small house out in the middle of farmland out here in Idaho and got mice really bad in the winter time. They would run and slide across the wood floors, right while we were watching tv in there. Since we have small kids, we used those sticky traps. They worked like a charm. But, when you pick up the sticky trap to dispose of it, watch those dang mice. They tried to bite my husband's finger one time. Also, from experience, aluminum foil, or steel wool jammed into any cracks in the house will keep them out. They cannot chew through those things. I hope this helps. Mice are the worst!
Oh, and one more thing about the sticky traps. Someone once told us that if you catch a mouse on the trap, let it stay there for a while (as gross as it sounds)because they squeak and attract others to it, and they'll get stuck too. We never tried it, so I don't know if it really works, but it's worth a try. Anything is worth a try to get rid of those monsters!
We had roof rats in California. I'm not sure why they were called roof rats because they lived all over the house. We would hear lots of scratching in walls and running around at night. Everyone had them. The worst is when they would die in the walls and start to stink. We were tight with our exterminator. Those sticky traps are great but not as good as an old fashioned pest service.
I have a mouse story but I think I'm gonna blog it :)
But I just have 3 words for you.
Get
A
Cat
!!!! :)
One night when I was probably 7 or 8, my mom's best friend called us very upset. She was recently divorce and was woken up by a mouse trap going off. She hated mice and didn't know what to do. So we went over to her house and my dad had to get rid of the mouse for her. We still tease her about that to this day. Haha!
We had mice in the house we rented right after we got married in Nyssa. I saw what looked like burnt rice on our stove , eewwwwww! I figured it out like a day later when we heard little feet scurrying around. Yuck! In our case the house wasn't all that clean, the lady we rented it from had left the house a yucky mess! I was glad to move, we caught a lot of the little critters in the 3 months we lived there.
Brit
Seriously, My song on my headseat is saying, "time, to eat all your words...swallow your pride"
OH NO!!! lol....LOL!!! Ohhhh no. Mice are more yucky than I thought. Once, we had mice, in this very house that I live now. We moved into it knowing full well that there were mice....a lot of them. Honestly, I think that's why we got such a great deal...nobody would buy the home.
Mark and I rolled up our sleeves, and caught about 6 mice...and the rest I'm sure died with the poison.
I KNOW...isn't your skin just crawling?
OH YUCK! MINE IS!!!! Especially now that I'm not so naive to the subject. Mice are just so disgusting...not because they are cute, but because they are just so diseased.
Oh, isn't this just THEE nicest thing I am saying now that you're trying to get rid of yours....sorry.
Just know I totally get it...and honestly know how long it takes to get rid of them, and now know how you will look under your sink from time to time and 'freak out' a little as you do a quick glance to see if the miniature raisin bits have returned.
ohhh...
Congrats on keeping mouse free for SO LONG though! That really is amazing! And also, you're brave to put up a post like this. It shows you're willing to push up your sleeves like the rest and deal with everything. I don't know how much more you can push those sleeves up though...you're hard at work already!
Look at all of these comments! Isn't it wonderful? I like looking at the times, and seeing that people post quickly, one after another, and I truly enjoyed all of the stories. I'm not a comment reader either, but everyone's comments were fun.
I wish I would have known about the smell before I started poisoning our mice. It took us a few months to get rid of every bitty bit of mice, and three years to make that smell go away. Isn't that just beyond wrong? Yes...it is. So now, I know, no more poison. I just knew that I was making all of sick breathing in those fumes.
Okay, that last sentence was just more than wrong....uhhhh, hard to recover from admitting that....
Anyway, now that I KNOW you'll happily never come to visit, I just wanted to warn against poison if you can help it....
We had mice in our garage in Boise and it was a nightmare. Literally. I was so freaked out and it was only the garage. I don't know what I would have done if they moved inside. Yeah, actually I would have moved.
Have you put your house up for sale?
Mice poop so much too! Like every single step they take, they have to stop and poop. Nasty.
Eeash. Tell Brad he can have the house. Or spray them with glass cleaner. Get five cats. I'm lucky I haven't had mice--because then that would have been a lot of money wasted on food storage--and I deserve to have them because I'm not a cleany-cleanerson--not even close.
Ah yes. Mice. When we rented our townhouse, I kept finding things in the garage that were chewed, I had no clue since I'd never seen mice activity before. As I was cleaning out the garage becuase we were moving, the bugger jumped out at me (at eye level) from a bucket I was moving. SCARED ME! The neighbor gal and I caught it in a bucket with a lid and she took it away...and released it in the woolen mill's empty lot.
When we moved into our house 2 years ago, the inspector "failed" to notice the HUGE mouse run from my sons bedroom all the way to the other side of the house in the kitchen.
We hand caught 2 mice, and promptly got a cat. We've had one baby mouse in the house since then, and plugged up every CREVICE (size of a dime or larger) that they could possibly squeeze through with expandable foam. We bought D-Con, and also the traps that catch the mice and you don't have to touch or see them. It jst has an indicator on it. We also have the sonic things too.
Cat actually caught one yesterday outside. She's worth the investment since we live next to a dairy farm.
I had mice in my first home! As a new homemaker, I was devastated because I thought it was my fault.
LOLLL!! I laughed the whole way through this just because I can so relate. You already know my story so I won't write it again, but keep those mouse traps a working. Ughhhhh..... I felt bad for the first little mouse that got squished, but when they kept coming, I no longer felt sorry for them, I just wanted them dead. Sounds like you're armed and ready. It's on little micees, it's on! Watch out or get out!
that's so weird, i just had a dream about mice in my house the other day. wait, why was i dreaming about mice? who knows??? sleep deprived lady over here.
i hope you catch them all, good luck!
I'm sure someone has mentioned this, but have you thought about getting a cat? Evidently a mouse won't even come around the house if they smell a cat. We have 1 cat and she is very easy, I clean her litter box (scoop it) every day and never smell litter box in my house. Just a thought friend. Call an exterminator if you don't think you're getting it under control. So sorry.
You might want to just get another cat. That is why you have been so lucky and mice free and that is now why you are finding mice. Good luck with all of that I hate mice!!
All your facts kinda grossed me out for some reason.
And I scream at first when I see a 'wild' mouse.
But truth be told, in highschool my sister and I had a pet rat. Named Miss Rat.
And I find those little white mice at the pet store really cute.
I just don't want uninvited ones in my house.
We've had mice a few times. I shudder just to think of it. We've found the best traps are the ones where it's a black box, the sucker goes in - SNAP - and never comes out. You pick up the box and don't have to see the mess left behind. Very good, I think. We haven't had any traps go off for awhile, but I know I can hear one mouse -or something- up in the vent every night around 3am. Drives me nuts. I'm just about ready to tear the vent out of the wall. :)
Girl, we had mice. In Oregon. Under our house. It was a daily highlight to see how many mice were in the traps. We always had at least one. Wonder if the new owners know that mice love it there? :)
I remember a mouse got in our house once when I was small and my mother was able to move the entire refrigerator by herself to catch it. She couldn't move it back though .... we had to wait for my dad.
And you need to check out this blog ... she's had mice problems too and has written quite a few amusing posts about them. Here is the link to the latest if you are interested:
http://sometimessophia.blogspot.com/2009/01/mouse-number-seven.html
I, sadly, have a lot of mouse stories; we lived in a mobile home for three years. It was backed up to a vineyard....fields on all sides.
I was getting ready for our annual Passover feast, and I was chatting with my mom. My 4 year old daughter came running out of her room saying a mouse was in there; I, of course, already knew we had mice. BUT I didn't expect she would have seen one. BUT she also, even at 4, wasn't one to make up things.
I went to her room (her closet), and I found no mouse. I went back to the living room; I had 17 people coming for dinner. So, I was setting up the whole living room for the feast. Jael came back out yelling as she came, "See, Mom, there it is!!!" The mouse was right in front of her; she was chasing it out of her room!!!!!!
I, too, chased it, thinking maybe I could "kill it with desire??" Anyway, it went under the dishwasher. I was freaking out. Yes, I knew I had mice, but I knew where this one WAS!!! I couldn't just LEAVE it, and he was obviously BOLD enough to run around.
I called my in-laws trying to figure out what to do, and I waited. He finally came out, and as he did I was armed and ready. I had NO IDEA what to kill him with so I grabbed the BIG wooden paddle (used for the occasional spank), and I SMASHED him.
Needless to say, I called my father-in-law to come throw him away. UGH!!!
I do feel for ya.......
One night when I was up late blogging, a little mouse sauntered out of Mary Ashley's bedroom like it was a routine occurrence. I freaked out and woke up Joe and Carson. They tried to catch it for a few minutes, but when it ran behind some furniture they went right back to bed. I awoke them several more times to chase it, but they never caught it. Our pest control guy treated the house for mice after that, and now we have two cats. So I'm not expecting any more late-night visits from mice. It seems like I would think a little mouse was cute and cuddly looking, but who knew something so small could inspire screams so shrill?
We found mice living under our crawl space in our old house. Oh, I'm sorry... did I say mice? Because I meant to type RATS! Only we didn't know the ones we were finding were BABY RATS until we saw the huge grown up ones that came out later. The hole they dug was right in my flower bed by our back door. My hubby trapped all of them, sometimes catching multiple ones at a time, and would dispose of them in a wooded lot behind our house. His record was catching 7 rats in one hour.
We got rid of them and put our house on the market that Spring. The nice little neighbor girl proudly informed the brand new owner of the house after closing, "Mr. Alex, let me know when you catch the rats that come out of there so I can see them before you take them out back." I am surprised he didn't try to get out of his contract!
Gross.
You're dirty.
But HEY I have an idea!! And her name is "Marcy" and she's sitting at the local animal shelter RIGHT now and she'd LOVE to catch those mice for you!!
To long a story to tell but one winter we cuaght 32 mice in less than a month. They were in our walls and in our heating ducts. We have since cleaned house of the mice!
I grew up on a farm where we got mice periodically. One morning I got up and went to shower and when I came back there was a squished mouse next to my bed. . .I had stepped on it and KILLED it when getting out of bed and didn't. even. know. it!!
Then a few months ago I was staying with my sister, who lives on a ranch, and during the night I heard scratching and turned my head and a mouse was NEXT TO MY PILLOW! Yuck. I flew off the bed but it was like 5:00 in the morning and I had to go back to sleep. The next day we (my 21 yo nephew helped) had a mouse scavenger hunt and nearly caught the thing--armed with a bat and few other things--but it ran into their office and got lost. So we set three traps around and I heard it get caught--in my room--the next night. Fun times!!
Just wanted to let you know that after reading your blog last night, I dreamt and dreamt and dreamt about mice scampering around my house....eeeewww!
Sorry for you :(, but you are brave woman to kill them on your own!
I am screamimg right now thinking about mice! I had a mouse several yeards back and I was HORRIFIED! But the worst part was my husband was HORRIFIED and he traveled. SO.....I had to call my neighbor to come put out the traps, then return to check them. Then said neighbor went out of town and I actually made his sweet wife come to check the traps b/c I am that scared! And she did. And she picked it up and threw it away!!!! She is still on eof my best friends. She threw out a mouse for me!
i caught three huge rats in one night in my first area (on my mission). i used big rat traps with peanut butter as the bait. they love peanut butter. it works like a charm. good luck. eventually, you will get them all. JON
Okay, when I first moved to Kansas I lived in a trailer home. In the week before I was to move to on post housing I heard some scratching behind my closet wall. that freaked me out and I was so glad I was moving. The day the movers came to pack me I pointed out the "burned rice" on my counters and desk and asked if it was some kind of bug. The guy said it looked like mouse droppings. I had no idea they had gotten past the walls!! Suddenly the weird eaten away parts of Peeps I had(I had thrown them out-- thought they were decomposing!!) made a whole lot more sense!! Luckily, I spent the night at a friends that night and the next day I was in my new home!!
You have inspired me to go buy traps ...just to make sure we don't have any unwelcome visitors. lol : ) Good luck with the rodent control Jennifer!
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