Mouse in the House

[CrealCritter]

We live in the country, so yeah we have mice. I can't say we are infested or anything like that. We have traps set out and occasionally we get a mouse in one.

Over the last week I kept seeing a mouse. At first it was rare than I started seeing it more frequently. I would go to the kitchen and there's a mouse, bathroom there's a mouse, go on the porch see a mouse. Well, yesterday morning I woke up to find a mouse sleeping on my stomach. Still half asleep and without my glasses have double vision, I went to go grab the little bastard. I missed and it ran down my leg and sat on my knee staring at me. When I went to grab it again it jumped off the bed and disappeared. All day yesterday no matter where I went in the house I had this little mouse staring at me. I tried to catch it multiple times but never could.

Last night I was laying on the couch checking on my most favorite website sufficient self on my cell phone and yep you guessed there's the mouse on my knee watching me I don't know why but I called this mouse Gerald. But I had enough of this bull .... So I went and got one of the traps and made sure it was baited with peanut butter and set it down in the kitchen corner.

Sure enough Gerald found it in like 10 seconds. I watched the little bastard clean off the trap and run under the door into my bedroom. So I re-baited the trap and went to bed. This morning I expected to wake up and see Gerald sleeping on my stomach but he wasn't there. I went into the kitchen to start the coffee pot, looked in the corner and there's Gerald dead in the trap, I was happy as I could be without having a cup of coffee yet. I gave Gerald a proper funeral, by tossing him in the toilet and flushing him down into the septic tank

I know most all animals like me, its been that way every since I can remember, so I'm kind of used to it. But I sure don't want no little gray field mouse as a pet. RIP Gerald, you won't be missed

 

[Lazy Gardener]

Um... @CrealCritter I'm sure you won't miss Gerald. I give it 3 days before you are visited by Geraldine, and all of her children. They will stare at you with those beady little eyes, pleading with you to tell them where their daddy has gone. Of course, suffice it to say, Geraldine has never been at a loss for appropriate suitors, and will hardly miss Gerald. B/C, the courtship will commence immediately. They will dine on delectable little pantry morsels before retiring to the boudoir for a bit of romance.

 

[milkmansdaughter]

What??? You didn't keep him in your pocket so you could take him out once in a while to talk to him and pet him?? Wasn't that required reading for you in school? What do they teach people in school these days??

 

[CrealCritter]

I'm happy to say I haven't seen a mouse since Gerald met his maker.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

@CrealCritter : I'm assuming that you don't have a house cat? If you don't want a house cat, perhaps you would prefer a house snake. While they shed, at least they don't leave fur all over the place, and gack up hair balls in your slippers.

 

[Hinotori]

I grab them by the tail off of fences then bash their heads in against said fence or anything solid nearby. Me actively helping gets more than just the dogs alone. We had a huge outbreak on this side of the state last fall and I got it under control without resorting to poison. Poison is dangerous here as my dogs will eat younger rats as do the chickens.

I raised pet rats for a long time and know exactly where to grab though. Just dont try and stomp them in flip flops. None of my family will let me forget that. Hubby is always "You have actual shoes on yes? I don't want to go to the ER again." On the plus side I can make a couple of my aunts sick by mentioning the rat teeth stuck in my foot. That is amusing.

 

[wyoDreamer]

I remember when Dad had a mouse stealing the bait and he got serious about catching it. He made it a hair-trigger like you did, and he tried to increase the tension in the spring so it would snap harder. When it snapped, it snapped so hard it broke the piece of wood in half and the mouse got away. lol

 

[Hinotori]

Rats drive out all other rodents. Even moles. I can judge how under control I have them by the rodents I see. I have a ton of moles right now so Im actually happy about the hills all over the yard. Those are townsend moles I think. We also have shrew moles.

I even saw a townsend vole the other day. They are slow enough even my fat rear can run them down over grass and catch them. The dogs and cats love those for eating and go nuts if they see one.

Cats have been catching a lot of shrews lately. They like to eat the heads off them. I toss the rest to the chickens.

I know we have pacific jumping mice as the cats have gotten a couple in the last 8 years.

I like rodent diversity since it means the rats are gone. Of the natives, only the shrews get in the house.

 

[wyoDreamer]

Gerald sounds adorable.

We had a mouse problem in a double wide that we were living in - so we got a couple of kittens from a friend. She said the parents were barn cats and real good hunters. The male would occasionally catch a mouse, then run through the house with it in his mouth - usually holding it by its tail. He would play with it, then let it go when he was tired of that game... His sister was terrified of mice.
About 6 months later, DH went to do a repair on something under the house and discovered that the previous owner tried to do a repair on something, sliced the plastic on the underside of the house, and tried to seal it shut with duck-tape. The ducktape didn't hold and the plastic flopped down to the ground and took the insulation with it. It formed a 5' wide super-highway for the mice to get into the house. With some real duct-tape and a staple gun to repair the plastic, 2 bucket traps and a month later we were virtually mouse free.

 

[baymule]