When I went out of town last month, I originally was going to have my friend G both take Sally the dog to the kennel (a.k.a. Dog Camp) and pick her up, to avoid having to board her extra days. I put a plastic bag with some dog food in it on my counter, so G could feed Sal and then Mr W and I would be home shortly after. Well, that didn't work out, and we were able to pick up Sal on our own, but the food sat on the counter for a few days until I realized that about half of it was gone.
Uh-oh. Mice. Again. Most of the years that I've been in this house, I've seen a (as in just one) mouse in the fall, and I set my snap trap, kill it, and that's that. This time, though, I think the one had babies and there's several around. I keep the door to the back hallway closed when Mr W's not here to heat less of the house, and a couple of times in the last few days, I've opened the door to see a mouse scurrying away.
It has kind of hit a peak today, as I've seen two (maybe the same one twice) in the living room in the last hour or so, and this morning, one popped up in between the top of the stove and one of the burners, fer cryin' out loud. No, I wasn't using the stove at the time. It's almost comical; they see me and then it's as though they say, "Oops, she saw me! Gotta go!" I did catch one today behind the stove, and just set another trap after seeing the one in the living room. The damn things are not silent, I heard them last night doing whatever it is they are doing. I feel sort of bad using snap traps instead of live traps, but I do believe them to be humane.
UPDATE 1-24-11, 6:24 am: I caught three yesterday. Two were juveniles, and one adult. I reset the traps, we'll see if there's any more.
Ugh! So sorry! Good luck getting rid of them. We had one earlier this fall and tried the live traps, but that didn't do the trick, so we had to resort to the snap traps too.
ReplyDeleteI don't think man (or woman) was meant to live with mice. Who knows what creepy, crawly little mites or flea thingies might be living in their fur? Or what disease the cute, fuzzy little mousies might be bringing to your kitchen counters, stove, cupboards, etc. I say put out that trapline and don't stop until you've annihilated every last one of 'em. (Sorry little rodent creatures.)
ReplyDeleteI feel bad having to kill them, too. But they are a health risk. It's funny how the dog saw them, went over and sniffed around where they were, but sadly does not have the killer instinct to help out here.
ReplyDeleteGuess you need a cat as well!
ReplyDeleteIn my last house they used to (somehow!) come in under the stove. We could always tell when we had another one because the cat would sit and stare at the stove for hours! I'll never forget DH's first encounter with one :) He's definitely a City Boy! I got a frantic call from him at work wanting to know what he should do about this "creature" in the house. He called me while standing on a chair in the kitchen, kitted out with rubber gloves and armed with a broom! I told him to get down and stop panicking - it would run *away* from him! The next day I bought traps. Guess whose job it was to tend them :\
ReplyDeleteAlison, your poor husband is probably hoping you don't spread that story around too much ;-)
ReplyDeleteThey do move in a cockroachy kind of way, though...
Mice, that is. Not husbands...
ReplyDelete