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A little mouse ran past me the other night. Nearly scared me to death.I thought perhaps I was imagining things until I leaned over the edge of the couch and there were some little beady eyes staring back at me.
I did what any sane woman would do. Pulled my feet up onto the couch and yelled for my husband to come and kill it.
We spend the next 20 minutes trying to corner the little thing, set a trap, but didn't manage to rid the house of the rodent.
The trap we set along the wall worked fine for {ahem} eliminating a very-pregnant-rodent a few years ago, but I'm wondering if perhaps our current mouse-friend can smell the prior mouse homicide within the plastic confines of the trap. When we tried to chase the mouse into the trap, the mouse ran headfirst into it, literally bounced off the trap, stopped and then jumped over it.
While I'll admit I laughed for a moment...the mouse STILL WASN'T IN THE TRAP.
It's been two nights now with no sightings...but also no trappings. I'm not sure if I should breathe a sigh of relief and hope the kids scared him off, or if I should keep my legs curled up under me until something shows up d.e.a.d.
What tried and true methods have you used to make your house rodent-free?
Oh, how do you sleep? I would be so so frightened he would scare me in the middle of the night! Good luck on catching the little thing!
ReplyDeleteIf said mouse is still not gone perhaps you can try peanut butter and cheese...the cheese smashed on top of the peanut butter. I feel that we have used that method before...although I am usually sitting with my feet up while someone else does the dirty work. I think this way they have to work a little harder and longer to get the food off...
ReplyDeleteooo yuck.. I hate mice! We have some that get in the garage every winter.. Put some food in a big deep bucket w/ smooth sides.. Put it next to something he can use to jump in to get the food.. but he wont be able to get back out. Then Tim usually puts a trap in afterwords to kill it..
ReplyDeleteNevil, our pet rat, died several months ago.
ReplyDeleteOur house is now rodent free.
As for unwanted mice... well, they seem to be rather clever and often avoid the traps. I don't have any suggestions. Sorry.
~Luke
lol, sorry. I'm reliving the day I saw one actually climb up the lamp - I didn't know they could climb! We chased him under the recliner and he wouldn't come out. So we picked it up and he had crawled up inside it... needless to say, the chair went on the front porch and never made it back into the house.
ReplyDeleteWe have a cat now - the best mouser around. She is an outside cat, but keeps the mice away. :-)
Ahhh, yes, indeed, I do know how to keep mice out of the house. Keep snakes around! We had a black snake that lived under our back porch, and we have had no mice. I don't know if the black snake is still around, since we haven't seen him for a few years, but we have plenty of garter snakes around here. No mice. Zilch. Now, I know, snakes aren't real cuddly either, but if they are harmless and stay outside, I want them around the keep away the mice. Now, in spite of the snakes, we did have skunks and a ground hog under our house for a couple seasons, and THAT about did me in! So, if you have skunk or ground hog trouble, all I can say is use a good trap and a shot gun; the snake won't help with those.
ReplyDeleteAt least mice can't really hurt you! We have scorpions and tarantulas in our house! As for snakes, we have plenty of coral snakes in our yard too:) But that's what I get for living in rural Costa Rica!
ReplyDeleteWe had our mouse for WEEKS until I finally gave in and got some glue traps. We put a little bit of Nutri-Grain bar on it, and caught the poor thing in 2 hours.
ReplyDeleteThis post makes me laugh! I was backing out of the driveway a couple of weeks ago and watched a mouse BOOKING it into my garage. I have never seen anything so small run so fast. Why was he running? WHY MY GARAGE??? Why IN and not OUT?? I have no idea, but it creeped me out!!! I called my husband at work as if he could do something from his desk. He laughed hysterically as I described what had just happened. I asked him what to do. I was just sitting there with the garage door up in shock as he disappeared into the bikes and toys on the non-car side of our 2 car garage. A few days later I was moving a box and my husband started making these noises. When I saw his face I thought I had a spider on my shoes or something, but he helped me pivot away from where I was about to step and it was then that I saw that the little sprinter was flattened on the floor of our garage. I don't know who was at the wheel when the little guy breathed his last, but isn't that the most crazy story of how to get rid of a mouse???? Either my husband or I ran over him. I don't know how this happened. He was such a fast little guy....at least I hope it was the same mouse I saw in the driveway last week. It was just so very bizarre....????
ReplyDeleteI hate mice. They try to come in the house every spring and fall. For a natural repellant, use peppermint oil. Either use a spray bottle and spray under sinks (or wherever you determine they're getting in) or soak some paper towels and place them around the baseboards, or actually wipe down the baseboards with the peppermint oil. Word of warning: peppermint oil is STRONG! A little goes a long way. If you don't want your own family to pass out from the fumes, use it sparingly. Mice noses are sensitive enough to be annoyed by it and stay away. It won't harm children like harsh chemicals or poisons, either. We use regular old spring traps from the Dollar Tree with peanut butter on them. They love the peanut butter and it works way better than plain cheese alone. We used to have a cat that caught mice, too. For a fun homeschool project, build an owl roost for some nearby trees and notice the mice population dwindle! Good luck!
ReplyDelete