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Post by cyn on Dec 17, 2014 10:48:45 GMT -5
WTH?! I'm in the middle of my morning routine, visiting with my Soos friends, starting my day off properly - I want to get motivated, I have plans - so I thought I'd look at my nice newly-cleaned kitchen cupboard. Besides the comradery here, I also like to admire my housework accomplishments, to stay on track. Well, the mice have declared war.
I *didn't* see a gleaming empty shelf. I saw mouse droppings, and worst of all: I saw little tumbles of insulation! I didn't know what I was cleaning up last night, I just grabbed some cleaning products and went at it. I should have been rewarded with an empty shelf, this morning! Nope. I had to get my flashlight out, and inspect that cupboard. it looks like the shelf doesn't quite meet the back, and there's a gap there. I'm assuming there's a massive nest on the next shelf up, judging from the amount of insulation on the clean shelf. Oh gross! It's Snap Trap Time.
And, I recently painted the interior bathroom cabinet. Just to see, I took the flashlight and checked: yup, more droppings! Argh!
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Post by lesaulerouge on Dec 17, 2014 11:39:30 GMT -5
In the middle of Mouse Wars here too - actually we get voles, pygmy shrews, house mice and 'lerots' which are huge garden dormice things - so can sympathise. And it has nothing at all to do with the state of our house. Well, I guess it does in that our house is old and has holes, but nothing to do with it cleanliness or otherwise...
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Post by cyn on Dec 17, 2014 11:45:31 GMT -5
Nope, it's just the season where they know where to find a warm bed. When I had my last house up for sale, it was vacant and stripped of all things - not a speck of food, most furnishings gone, all the rooms repainted, and kept just heated enough so the potential buyers knew the furnace worked and kept the pipes from freezing.
I was amazed at what those little critter munched on - I had some dried flowers that DH gave me, just a decorative touch to make the place look inviting - the mice ate the petals off them!
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Post by cyn on Dec 17, 2014 13:30:48 GMT -5
Phew, no massive nest! Just a very poorly installed cabinet with ridiculously installed drywall on the ceiling. So the insulation is falling from the ceiling (because it doesn't meet the walls) down through the cabinet (same deal) and settling on the shelves. I guess, after all the huge nests I've uncovered over the years, I'm expecting the worst every time I see a mouse dropping.
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Post by hollyhock on Dec 17, 2014 15:37:38 GMT -5
Gee cyn. So sorry your stopping to admire your work turned out so badly. But because you cleaned, you now know there is a problem which you can handle right away - so WTG on that! I hope you can get that area where the insulation is coming through fixed, and that is the only problem. |
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Post by angela on Dec 17, 2014 15:52:38 GMT -5
Feel for you cyn! You will win the war, cleaning is the first step and you have done that! I'm glad you didn't find another monster nest! |
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Post by dayeanu on Dec 17, 2014 19:26:33 GMT -5
cyn, your title made me laugh out loud! What a visual! If you can stuff the gaps with steel wool or aluminum foil, they can't chew through that!
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Post by dayeanu on Dec 18, 2014 2:04:06 GMT -5
cyn, your title made me laugh out loud! What a visual! If you can stuff the gaps with steel wool or aluminum foil, they can't chew through that! Also, peppermint oil repels them. |
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Post by cyn on Dec 18, 2014 9:57:39 GMT -5
Thanks dayeanu, I love peppermint oil. I was walking around with bottle under my nose the other day, after the bleach fiasco, ha.
I always hesitate to use these things around the house, because if it repels a mouse, I worry: how will my cat or dog react to the smell? My dog has seasonal allergies (also a food intolerance) so I'd hate to upset the balance, and have him get hot spots/whatever. I've already given him a small rash by adding lemongrass oil to his dog shampoo. Argh!
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Deleted
Joined: January 1970
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Post by Deleted on Dec 18, 2014 18:33:43 GMT -5
cats usually like anything minty. as for the mice, screw them. I hate thoselittle b#*%_@*!!!!!!
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Post by flyonceiling on Feb 15, 2015 11:48:48 GMT -5
I am slightly horrified, as a first time homeowner, to have come across my first mouse.  Any advice on mousetraps and where to obtain? I live in Calgary. In the meantime, I'm going to give my kitchen a good going-over. I don't even know where the little bugger got in. I'm glad that I'm not the only one who's acquired a miniature roommate. I want it evicted. It's not paying my mortgage, after all. |
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Post by reb on Feb 15, 2015 12:09:54 GMT -5
flyonceilingGross as they seem, the Victor Glue traps from Home Hardware/Home Depot/ Canadian Tire are cheap and effective. They cost about a dollar for two. Don't get those cheap paper ones, the mice just walk right over them, get the rat trappy ones with the plastic tray of glue. Put them in areas where pets can't get them like under the stove, fridge and inside cupboards. Figure out where the mice are traveling. These traps are non-toxic. If a pet DOES get into them, some vaseline will get them off although the pet will be very pizzed off at you so be judicious about where you put them. I used the dog's fish cookies in the middle of the trap. Mine didn't go for peanut butter or anything else. The strong smell of the fish cookies attracted them. That was how I got rid of an entire infestation. That, and the semi-feral cat from he11.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 15, 2015 13:05:39 GMT -5
I think the best mousetraps are the old fashion kind(aside from cats) The best thing is, put them into and open paper bag laying on its side. Then all you have to do is close up the bag and throw it out without ever having to handle/look at the carnage. plus they are super cheap
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Post by lesaulerouge on Feb 15, 2015 13:28:06 GMT -5
Sachets of poison paste here.
Snap traps are very ineffective we have found, and completely unreliable.
Catch them live traps with dried cranberries worked well, but I got grossed out by driving into the woods several times a day to set them free.
Glue traps, euch, once you have seen those pictures of bloody leg stumps left behind where the mouse has literally chewed its legs off to escape, no way I could use them.
We also tried blue grain poison, they took stacks off the stuff so we figured it was working and kept putting it down. But the buggers never ate it and we were finding it in toy boxes, doll cribs, blanket boxes of clean bedding, towels, clothing etc for years afterwards. Never again.
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Post by reb on Feb 15, 2015 13:35:12 GMT -5
If you've ever seen a cat toy with and slowly torture then eviscerate a mouse, there's not much crueler than that.
After losing thousands of dollars worth of art supplies I can never afford to replace, and finding that nothing else was as effective other than warfarin which is exceptionally dangerous--I went with the glue traps. None of the mice ever escaped from them. While I understand there are videos on YouTube about it--not one of my personal friends has ever had any of that gruesome stuff happen and several have used them. Most mice die of fright.
Also, if it bothers someone that much, when they hear squeaking, they can dump the trap and mouse in a bag and bash it to death with a book.
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