Last time, on Mouse Update we were at 5. I don’t really get livid very often, but this morning we went to a new count. Leah herself stepped on a blanket in the living room that squeaked. Under the blanket was a mouse who had dragged a glue trap under there, freaking her and me out.
I was pretty upset of this, but not extraordinarily so. It was another near the back wall of the house, which is really not news to speak of. They seem to all get trapped near the chimney, they are caught, and then killed. Done.
This morning I had an instinct to make a sweep of downstairs, seeking droppings. I found none in the living room, but I did make a discovery of some mice droppings under the kitchen sink. My blood boiled. It’s time for war. I called the property management company and left a message of the latest count and asked what they intend to do. For our part, we’re laying out more traps, and I made another sweep of the cabinets. I moved a box of saltines a level higher, and juggled some plastic containers downward. Otherwise our packages are intact even if they get into the cabinets. When we were in San Diego we lost a fair amount of foodstuffs to the mice: flour, cereals — things packaged in paper that mice could knaw through.
I fear though, that it’s not so much the food that attracts them as the climate. We have air conditioning, and summer is commencing, and I think the critters are attracted to the cool.
We will not be beaten by these critters. Mice are fascinating and wonderful creatures, supposedly the third most successful mammal on the planet. Anymore, though, not in my house. I’m tired of this game. It’s not where I want my mental attention.
five comments so far...
Um… glue traps = bad. Snap traps end the torture in a second. Glue traps prolong the agony for hours, a mouse fighting for its life until it start hemorrhaging and spitting blood. There are also humane traps that capture them and allow you to release them into the property manager’s house without harming the mouse itself.
To help reduce the number you see, I recommend filling even the smallest holes, cracks, and crevices with steel wool. They can’t chew through it so easy. Be sure to fill everything, including spaces behind the appliances where there are tubes going into the walls.
Signed,
A former mouse murderer
Hey Jukebox —
Lord knows we tried the catch and release traps in San Diego and the mice laughed at us. They’d get activated and no mice inside.
The snap traps kill instantly but we found that the mice could take the bait and run with it.
Regrettably, the glue traps have been the most successful. What we do when we catch one is to kill the mice once they are caught. Yes, they suffer, but the prospect of these mice alive, and having the run of the house, with their specific hygienic impact, is unacceptable.
If the little pricks would leave my house alone, I would not be a mouse murderer. For the time being, I gotta do what I gotta do.
Good luck, Joe! I hate to admit it, but I love your graphic :-D.
BTW, mice (and rats) can chew through a lot more than just paper packagings. When we had our garage-rat problem a couple years ago, the determined little buggers gnawed open a sizable corner of a heavy plastic dog-food canister (presumably to get at the dog food inside). 🙁
[…] JT said back in July, in response to my using glue traps to catch some mice—he was dead right about […]