# There's a mouse in my house



## pacanis (Apr 12, 2008)

Speaking about potatoes.....
I keep mine under the sink. Upon verifying that they were russets, I noticed that two had been gnawed on  No turds, but potato skin "crumbs" and the telltale gnaw marks 
Now, I've got two copper pipes, one PVC drain pipe and one piece of romex leading up through the hole in the bottom of the cabinet, but none of them provide a very direct route for Mr Mouse in the basement.  He must have really worked at getting up in there.  Passing up open bags of cat food and dog food that sit in the basement.
Looks like I need to have a little talk with my geriatric cat this morning and if that doesn't work, rob one of the mousetraps I've been using to train my pup to keep his nose off the TV, away from the remotes, the pillows belong on the couch....


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## Bilby (Apr 12, 2008)

So far, I have been lucky (rapidly seeks wood...), the only mice that have been in my house have been "invited in" BY my cats and thoughtfully did not take their dubious offer for very long! ;-)


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## pacanis (Apr 12, 2008)

I've had three mice in about seven years.  All caught by my cat and brought to my attention. Last fall I took the time to patch a couple sleeves passing through the block foundation that had pipes going through them, but could probably have been squeezed through.  I'm not sure how this guy made it in.... I may have to investigate my sump and see that the hose is still attached to the pump.  That leads directly outside.


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## Bilby (Apr 12, 2008)

My neighbours have a nest under their pantry so I am hoping they stay there and that my six cats plus all the "blow-ins" act as a deterent to them turning into Stuart Littles and taking a vacation to chez moi!


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## auntdot (Apr 12, 2008)

We live in the country so meeses are endemic. They can squeeze themselves through the smallest openings, such as a tiny gap where a pipe comes into the house. 

We discovered ours shortly after we moved in about five years ago.

We have no pets so eradicating them, or at least giving them a short lifetime when they entered, was not a particular problem.

Can buy pellets of poison that work very well. They sell them almost everywhere here. Tractor Supply or the local Coop will have them. And you can get them on the web. We always have some in our basement and garage. They are dry, we put them on paper and leave them.  Every so often we renew them. When they are gnawed you know they are working.

With pets and small children about, poison is obviously a no no.

Down side, the mice usually die in the house. But only once in awhile get a whiff of a dead one in the basement or garage.

Also there are sticky pads.  You put them about, you can usually figure out where the mice like to be from the scat.  You can toss on some peanut butter, it is a great lure, The mice walk on the stuff and their feet stick. They cannot get free. Then you have a mouse who is very alive and very unhappy. In a Disney world you could free the mouse, he would give you a kiss, and run away into the woods. 

Nope, with this stuff you have a mouse you have to off. Covering them with paper and squashing them with a sledge hammer works and is probably fairly kind, if you do it unhesitantly. 

We don't revel in that experience and do not use them anymore.

The traditional traps I do not like. They just have never worked all that well in our experience.

When they come down on the mouse's neck, well, they usually do the job.  But many times they seem to catch the mouse somewhere else and you have a flailing mouse in pain.  And you have to do the right thing.  I still believe the sledge hammer is more humane than the BB gun, but opinions vary.

Not a pretty topic, but that is all I know about getting rid of the critters.


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## letscook (Apr 12, 2008)

set traps with peanut butter on them, works everytime.  
And for the mice friendly people who don't like the traps.
 sorry, but they are disease carriers and not in my house. Husband aleric to cats and at least the traps are quicker then a mouse torching it. 

Once we had a neighbor tear down a shed and it had rats, with the shed gone the rat decided to live with us,  We set "Freindly Traps" and nothing , then the not freindly traps it chewed its legs off and continued to  chewed holes through walls, into the food pantry, dropping all over, we finally put out Decon "poision"  hoping it wouldn't die in the walls. It ate the posion and we found it and all gone. We had to pull out smelly insulation and reinsulate.  Checked all the wiring  as he chewed an outlet wiring , What a nightmare. So I don't tolerate the varments.


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## buckytom (Apr 12, 2008)

geez, gotta remember that if i get stuck in auntdot's house, leave the shoes...


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## auntdot (Apr 12, 2008)

LOL Bucky.

Actually we have no problem.  The poison bait takes care of it.


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## pacanis (Apr 12, 2008)

I've seen a mouse caught in one of those sticky traps. It was dead. It's nose was stuck to the goo and it must have suffocated.
I know I've seen traps online that electrocute them as well, but I have enough gadgets for a while....
I closed my cat in the basement and if he doesn't come up with him sometime today, the old standby trap is getting set. I left two of the half eaten..... (OK, not _really_ half eaten ) potatoes in the cabinet just to keep him interested.  I am still surprised I didn't see any droppings in there.

Geez. Really auntdot?  A sledge hammer? You don't think running over him with the car a couple times might be better?


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## jpmcgrew (Apr 12, 2008)

Fortunately our two cats do a great job on rodent control.


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## Corey123 (Apr 12, 2008)

pacanis said:


> Speaking about potatoes.....
> I keep mine under the sink. Upon verifying that they were russets, I noticed that two had been gnawed on  No turds, but potato skin "crumbs" and the telltale gnaw marks
> Now, I've got two copper pipes, one PVC drain pipe and one piece of romex leading up through the hole in the bottom of the cabinet, but none of them provide a very direct route for Mr Mouse in the basement. He must have really worked at getting up in there. Passing up open bags of cat food and dog food that sit in the basement.
> Looks like I need to have a little talk with my geriatric cat this morning and if that doesn't work, rob one of the mousetraps I've been using to train my pup to keep his nose off the TV, away from the remotes, the pillows belong on the couch....


 


I had this same problem as well.

This apartment was INFESTED with them!! I DID tell the landlord about it. He said that he hasn't seen any mice in his apt.

There was one that looked almost the size of a rat!! One day, I was cooking and needed an ingredient from the kitchen cupboard.

Looking in there to one side of the cabinet, I found dozens of turds in there!!
I also found a nest right under the kitchen sink! On one of the glue traps. I disposed of it.

It has now been at least 3 to 4 months and I haven't seen a mouse since!! I really don't know what I did, and I don't smell anything dead. I think that once I destroyed the nest, they all vacated the premises. 

But I think that they've all gotten the message, packed up and left. Guess I sent them packing!


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## Constance (Apr 12, 2008)

When I was a kid, a mouse died IN the couch. Dad had to turn the couch over, take loose the bottom fabric and look through the stuffing for it. 

We don't have mice in this house...it's too tight for them to get in...but I used to get plenty of them in the shop and greenhouses. We're talking big field mice, not cute little house mouses. One night, they wiped out $60 worth of newly planted hybrid pepper seed. 
The cats killed a lot of them, and my Maggie Dog would dig their nests up out of the ground and kill them. 

One warning about poison...if your cat eats mice that have been eating the poison, it will die too. I don't know how many mice it takes, but it happened to my daughter's cat.


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## Corey123 (Apr 12, 2008)

I don't use any poison.

Good thing, because if my Deuce were here with me now, and if he caught and ate a mouse that was poisoned, then he would have died as well!!!

I'm glad that he'll be with me in the next apt though.


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## Jeekinz (Apr 12, 2008)

D-Con is the best choice. When we moved into our house we had mice, that was almost 3 years ago. I haven't seen one (or the remains of one) in over a year. Like someone else said, use that Good Stuff foam sealer all over your houses foundation. I have a dog too, but I place the D-Con traps in the basement and under the sink where she can't get to. The only drawback to the poison is you'll have little dead mices that you need to dispose of during the process.

Good luck. Take care of them before they multiply.


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## Corey123 (Apr 12, 2008)

Rats, mice and roaches are like Babe's Kids; They don't die, they DO multiply!


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## callie (Apr 12, 2008)

We've had mice - eek!  We don't live in a typical "house."  It used to be a furniture building shop...concrete floors, overhead garage door...We converted that space to living room area.  It's been HARD to find all the potential entry points for those little critters.  Anyway - 

Use lots of steel wool.  Poke it tightly around pipes and in any other tiny holes you find.  We use regular mouse traps with peanut butter.  Oh, and our experience has been that mice will chew through that foam insulation stuff.

Good luck!


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## Fisher's Mom (Apr 12, 2008)

Pacanis, I had a mouse invasion once and this is what worked for me. Buy some pure peppermint oil and saturate a couple of cotton balls and place where the mice come in. They will leave pronto. Then plug any holes or openings you can find with steel wool. Mice will eat Great Stuff if they know there is food on the other side (they've already been in) but they will not chew or even dig through steel wool. Apparently it's kinda like razor wire to their little feet. The peppermint oil can be purchased at Whole Foods and similar places or online, which is less expensive but you have to wait for it. A little 4 oz. bottle will saturate a lot of cotton balls and mice absolutely flee from it. (It deters raccoons, possums and other larger visitors but it flat out gets rid of mice.) Good luck!


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## Corey123 (Apr 12, 2008)

I did that with the shower stall.

I'd see a mouse peep out and when I moved my head to get a better view, they'd jump back in hiding.

So I stuffed some steel wool around the spaces and then I duct-taped that whole area to keep them from getting in the apt! All the way near the top!

I think that by doing that, I cut off their doorway to get in. Good riddens to bad rubbish!!


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## buckytom (Apr 12, 2008)

corey, for some reason i think the mice are equally grateful...


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## pacanis (Apr 12, 2008)

Good idea about the steel wool.  I had never heard of that.
I'll be checking back in shortly to see if my cat came up with anything, or simply spent the morning on top of the furnace plenum.  Figures I just trimmed his nails a week ago....


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## Corey123 (Apr 12, 2008)

buckytom said:


> corey, for some reason i think the mice are equally grateful...


 


I'll send them over to YOUR house to set up housekeeping there.


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## expatgirl (Apr 12, 2008)

yep, steel wool works great.......our little varmints were getting in through the weep holes and it's a protective mechanism that they can flatten their bodies to squeeze thru the tiniest openings and they will eat just about anything----we had some that actually ate the chalky insulation around the pipes in the basement and boxes of Christmas ornaments stored at my grandmother's.......steel wool will allow the holes to breathe but the mice can't chew thru them........my brother in law set a trap in the attic and paid dearly for it as the poor thing died inside the walls and they could not live in their house for a while.......poor wife was 2 months pregant and urping all day as it was but they had to move out until the odor went away......never did locate it.....


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## Fisher's Mom (Apr 12, 2008)

buckytom said:


> corey, for some reason i think the mice are equally grateful...


 Maybe that's why they have never come in my bathroom. Man, that makes me want to kill them even more!


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## expatgirl (Apr 13, 2008)

Well, BT, coming into your bathroom might endanger their health, too!!!  Hahahaha!!!


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## expatgirl (Apr 13, 2008)

oops, I've insulted a "nice and polite DC'er, sorry, FM........the mice at BT's probably asked for directions to come to your house anyway!!!


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## Finmar001 (Apr 13, 2008)

Well if you have a mouse, better catch it before it catches you


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## expatgirl (Apr 13, 2008)

Talk about Stephen Spielburg-style childhood memories.......I will NEVER forget putting a pair of shoes on at my Grandma's farmhouse, experiencing a blockage due to a live  mouse who was holed up inside.....I don't know who was more scared...the mouse leaped out in sheer terror......all I know is that my 10 year old blood curdling screams brought my 65 year old Grandma running.....then once she realized that I was going to survive the heart attack she couldn't stop laughing.......I do laugh about it now.......but it wasn't funny back then........


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## jpmcgrew (Apr 13, 2008)

Mice don't like mothballs either they are good for places like the attic.


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## expatgirl (Apr 13, 2008)

and the toes of shoes..........I bet........


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## callie (Apr 13, 2008)

expatgirl said:


> Talk about Stephen Spielburg-style childhood memories.......I will NEVER forget putting a pair of shoes on at my Grandma's farmhouse, experiencing a blockage due to a live mouse who was holed up inside.....I don't know who was more scared...the mouse leaped out in sheer terror......all I know is that my 10 year old blood curdling screams brought my 65 year old Grandma running.....then once she realized that I was going to survive the heart attack she couldn't stop laughing.......I do laugh about it now.......but it wasn't funny back then........


 
ewwwww.....  that's SCARY!


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## pacanis (Apr 13, 2008)

Looks like some more aresenal might be in order.
Either my cat got him and didn't  tell me, which would be unusual, or he went to a different restaurant last night......  I only had cheddar cheese on hand as far as suitable mousebait, so will try a little peanut butter tonight and set another trap downstairs on a shelf close to those pipes, but one that my cat can't get up on...... I think.
Durned thing.


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## Corey123 (Apr 13, 2008)

I tried the PB thing once. Didn't work.


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## expatgirl (Apr 13, 2008)

callie said:


> ewwwww.....  that's SCARY!



that was 44 years ago and I have NEVER forgotten stepping on it, the squeaking and they really do, and watching it leap in the air and scamper off into the back of the closet-----my shoes went under the bed after that and the Spielburg door remained forever closed


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## pacanis (Apr 14, 2008)

Got him  He's a big 'un, too.
He came back to Chez Spud last night and tried the cheddar cheese appetizer....... 
I'll set another clean trap and leave it in the back of the cabinet in case there are any other patrons


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## mikki (Apr 14, 2008)

I'm glad you got him. I am petrified of mice jump up on something and scream just like in the cartoons only I don't think it's funny.


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## pacanis (Apr 14, 2008)

Did I mention how big he was, Mikki?


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## expatgirl (Apr 14, 2008)

well the one in my shoe wasn't that evil looking and more frightened than me


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## pacanis (Apr 14, 2008)

quicksilver, it was on that smiley site that was posted here a while back. I don't have it on this pc, but you can probably find the thread under Forum help. Lots of cool stuff.


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## suziquzie (Apr 14, 2008)

Bummer. I sent that mouse to bring me some potatoes and cheese!!! 
Guess I gotta find some somewhere else.....


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## pacanis (Apr 14, 2008)

Send more Suzi. If I get enough I can have a barbeque Survivorman style. At least I'll know what they've been eating...


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## PanchoHambre (Apr 14, 2008)

ugh i HATE mice. When I bought my house it was INFESTED with the buggers I wont go into detal but I basically had to deconstuct my stove to clean it. I dont know how people live like that.

 I have finally vanqueshed them but I am afraid they will be back for spring. 

Its pretty hard to seal up a 150yr old rowhouse surrounded by empty lots.

any neighborhood in this town is mouse prone though... I might try a cat except I am afaird the dog would go nuts (he's not vicious to cats but he wants to play with everything and he is huge)

Decon did not work for me I think it actually attracted them to the house they ate trays of it and didnt die (maybe its the bad tough philly street mice) The glue traps did not due much either but the snap traps did.

Anybody ever use fox urine or anything else? I need some hints,


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## suziquzie (Apr 14, 2008)

I'll give you my cat, he's HUGE and could probably hold his own with the dog. 
Oh, but then I may get mice! 
Hmmmm.


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## Fisher's Mom (Apr 14, 2008)

PanchoHambre said:


> ugh i HATE mice. When I bought my house it was INFESTED with the buggers I wont go into detal but I basically had to deconstuct my stove to clean it. I dont know how people live like that.
> 
> I have finally vanqueshed them but I am afraid they will be back for spring.
> 
> ...


I know what you mean, Pancho. My house is 85+ years old and you just can't effective seal it all up. Believe me, you don't want to try the fox urine or the coyote urine. It's dehydrated but when you get any humidity in the air, your house will smell like a zoo. Having mice is better than that smell!!! Buy some pure peppermint oil (not extract or anything like that), saturate cotton balls and place them around the house, particularly closets, pantries, in and underneath the stove and behind the fridge. Someone told me about this when I had a terrible mouse invasion and I was desperate enough to try it. It works fabulously!!!! The only problem would be if you really hate the smell of peppermint because it's very strong smelling.


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## pacanis (Apr 14, 2008)

Think about how strong that smell would be for the dog then..... I don't know if that would be a problem or not though.
They make those ultrasonic sound things, too. They are supposed to be safe around dogs and cats, but you son't want to use them if you have hamsters, rabbits or some other rodent family for a pet. I hear they repel pretty good.


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## Fisher's Mom (Apr 14, 2008)

pacanis said:


> Think about how strong that smell would be for the dog then..... I don't know if that would be a problem or not though.
> They make those ultrasonic sound things, too. They are supposed to be safe around dogs and cats, but you son't want to use them if you have hamsters, rabbits or some other rodent family for a pet. I hear they repel pretty good.


I tried an ultra sonic thing and it didn't have any effect but perhaps a different brand would work better. The peppermint oil doesn't seem to bother the dog or the cats but the coyote urine bugged them for a day or two. (The urine bugged me for _much_ longer!)

I'm so glad you caught your little intruder, Pacanis. I have used the snap traps and they are effective but I can't stand to deal with the "aftermath".


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## fireweaver (Apr 14, 2008)

alrighty, gotta add my rodent infestation tales:

once upon a time in vet school, a buddy and i were studying at the kitchen table when we saw a large black shadow flicker across the kitchen floor.  "uh, that's not a roach," i said.  "no, dude," he replied, "definitely a rat."  and sure enough, we found the tell-tale stash of dog kibbles behind the stove and the washer, and the occasional rat-sized dropping.  the next day, my roommate and i opened the pantry to see this lord of the rodent world casually chilling on the shelf, opened bag of rotini ready to hand, with a decidedly "yeah, so?" attitude.  i screamed like a girl.

people, i'm a LAB ANIMAL veterinarian.  i've wrangled a gajillion rodents of all flavors.  apparently, it's totally different when the buggers are in your pantry instead of the lab.

i can't recommend highly enough hiring a professional.  likewise to some of you guys, i had a rather old house, complete with crawlspace under the floor and squirrel-chewed holes in the under-roof eaves.  the guy showed up, did a thorough home exam, nailed up wire mesh over the outside holes and stuffed steel wool in all the interior ones, and baited the whole place, paying very particular attention to the rats' ability to drag the baits out to where my pets could eat them.  and yes, when the dead animal stench fired up in the TX warmth, he came back out with a powerfully-scented lemony substance that he dripped up into the mesh-stuffed holes and in the roof.  worked great, like dead rat febreeze.

poisons:  generally, rodent poisons are things that prevent your blood from clotting.  so they'll die from internal bleeding.  rodent baits are big whomping overdoses (you want those critters to die quick), so YES if your dog or cat eats one of these animals, it can get sick-unto-death.  be careful.

steel wool:  absolutely, totally works great.  you must stuff enough that they can't just push it out of the way, though.

ultrasonic thingy:  absolutely, totally crap.  works ok in a very local vicinity, as in, high frequencies don't penetrate walls, into the next room, etc.  so if you just want to make sure you never *see* one, set up one in each room.  rodents still in your walls, in your pantry, in your house, but not running around in the room you're sitting in.

humane disposal:  the abovementioned sledgehammer (or just a regular hammer, if you're ok with hitting the head spot-on) would work well, as would guillotine-style decapitation with a set of heavy scissors or garden shears.  these are both obviously not for the squeamish, and will be messy.  whatever you do, go quickly but firmly, and it will be a painless exit for our uninvited guests.

but seriously, hire the pros.  totally worth the $ to have them find all the little holes and fix them, and have some kind of guarantee on their service.


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## muzzlet (Apr 14, 2008)

We had a mouse in the basement once. To show how truly fat and lazy my cat is, I found the droppings in THE CAT'S FOOD BOWL!!! I'm pretty sure there was a mouse newsletter going around the neighborhood saying: "Come to this house, there's a fat ole cat who will share her food with you!!"
Anyways, I used the D-Con "No See No Touch" traps. They look like plastic hockey pucks and they did the job right quick. No muss, no fuss and mousie died instantly. I know because I heard the trap snap, went downstairs, and there was not a sound coming from it. Chucked it into the trash and never had another problem.


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## Saphellae (Apr 14, 2008)

NOTE - SHOW THIS STORY TO YOUR MESSY TEENS!

As a teenager my room was often messy.. like, REALLY messy. I had enough clothes to not wash for over a month, if you get my drift.  And I ate in my room, too.

One day I was sitting at my desk playing a game and my cat starts running around like crazy. I freak out and realize there is a mouse living in my room, but I can't find it. The cat loses track of it and leaves. 

The next day, same thing. Except the cat wouldn't keep her nose off a pile of clothes in the corner.  I take it as a hint to give my room a thorough cleaning and discover the carcass of a mouse.. finally I knew that the smell wasn't from my clothes.. it was from a dead mouse... IN my clothes.

That was the worst experience ever. My room never got that messy again.


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## pacanis (Apr 14, 2008)

Saphellae said:


> NOTE - SHOW THIS STORY TO YOUR MESSY TEENS!
> 
> As a teenager my room was often messy.. like, REALLY messy. I had enough clothes to not wash for over a month, if you get my drift. And I ate in my room, too.
> 
> ...


 
Soooooo....... you're saying I should stop tossing my dirty clothes under the sink with the potatoes?


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## Fisher's Mom (Apr 14, 2008)

muzzlet said:


> We had a mouse in the basement once. To show how truly fat and lazy my cat is, I found the droppings in THE CAT'S FOOD BOWL!!! I'm pretty sure there was a mouse newsletter going around the neighborhood saying: "Come to this house, there's a fat ole cat who will share her food with you!!"
> Anyways, I used the D-Con "No See No Touch" traps. They look like plastic hockey pucks and they did the job right quick. No muss, no fuss and mousie died instantly. I know because I heard the trap snap, went downstairs, and there was not a sound coming from it. Chucked it into the trash and never had another problem.


This is too funny! But I have a very fat cat who will only catch mice when he feels like playing with them. It's funny, the best mouser I've ever had was a handicapped cat. She was a 3-legged, one-eyed cat. She was amazing and when she caught one, she would leave it on the floor in front of my bedroom door as a gift!


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## Saphellae (Apr 14, 2008)

> Soooooo....... you're saying I should stop tossing my dirty clothes under the sink with the potatoes?



Ick lol.. I just meant that it is a good reason to get your teenager to keep their room tidy!


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## suziquzie (Apr 14, 2008)

Saphellae said:


> NOTE - SHOW THIS STORY TO YOUR MESSY TEENS!
> 
> As a teenager my room was often messy.. like, REALLY messy. I had enough clothes to not wash for over a month, if you get my drift. And I ate in my room, too.
> 
> ...


 
LOLOL!!! 
I refrained from posting it cuz it was so gross, but I had that same problem!
I was 16 or so and it was in the bottom of my closet, under all the crap I would shove in there that I didn't want to deal with! 
I made my brother get it out. Then I didn't have to deal with the crap either cuz I had to throw it all out. 
Oh man is that the worst smell I ever smelled!!!!! 
Guess what.... I don't shove crap in the bottoms of closets anymore. 
I have shelves put up instead.


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## Saphellae (Apr 14, 2008)

Yeah the smell is awful!  I was hoping I wasn't the only one that has happened to.


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## darlenemt08 (Apr 15, 2008)

My sister & I haven't had any mice in our current house in the 10-1/2 yrs. we've been living here.

When we first moved out of our mom & dad's house 21 yrs. ago, we lived in a farmhouse.  We had mice at the top of the basement landing where we kept the cans/glass recycle garbage can.  One day, I was talking to my mom on the kitchen phone and opened the basement door when a mouse ran out in front of me.  I screamed into the receiver.  LOL  It's a good thing she's deaf in one ear but so far, her hearing is still good in the other one.  LOL  My sister always set our traps.  Our dad taught her how to wrap thread around the end of the thing, over the hole and then pack the hole well with peanut butter.  The mouse would lick the peanut butter and eventually, he'll hit the thread and trigger the trap to snap faster.  We've caught quite a few mice this way.  I'd pick up the other end of the mouse trap and take it outside and called the cats.  I used a pair of plyers and lifted the other end to release the mouse.  We had a momma cat for awhile who'd catch mice out in the barn, garage, or somewhere outside and kill it.  She'd then bring it to the porch and meow until we'd come to the door and see her with it.  She'd swat away her kittens until we'd tell her she was a good kitty and then she'd pick it up and take it away to eat and feed kitties.  LOL

We had mice under our kitchen sink in our next house.  We caught a few mice with the traps.  My sister stuffed the holes with steel wool and that stopped them until they'd find new ways of getting inside.  I had a rat terrier mix during part of the 9 yrs. we lived there.  He wasn't a mouser.  LOL

Our current house has a well-built foundation under it.  So, instead of mice, we get those dang ladybugs & boxelder bugs (we call them Democrat bugs).  Our 2 elderly Papillons aren't mousers.  Our almost 5-yr.-old Border Collie Papillon is a mouser 'cause he finds them at our mom & dad's house.  He found one under a cement slab and started digging a hole next to it to try to get to it.  Our mom & dad's Dachshund isn't a mouser.  She'd rather chase squirrels with our dogs.  LOL  I'm very allergic to cats and so, I can't have them inside.  2 of our 3 dogs don't like cats and the third one wants to be friends with them.  LOL

Darlene


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## expatgirl (Apr 15, 2008)

Saphellae said:


> Yeah the smell is awful!  I was hoping I wasn't the only one that has happened to.



Saphellae------are you my long-lost twin daughter??? Your twin thinks that her bedroom floor is another closet shelf that holds more and is more practical..........I cleaned out her room (after I warned her that I would) and found 3 year old Easter candy and all kinds of yuck things...I'm sure that it would have been just a matter of time before  wee beasties would have moved in.  She had gone off to a debate camp for a week and was very happy to find a clean room------I did respect her personal items, however.  She was happy, that is, until I told her that I paid myself the $50 of loose change that I found EVERYWHERE! If I have to be your maid I'm charging you.  I'd like to say that it was a good lesson but she is a slob to this day.


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## PanchoHambre (Apr 15, 2008)

Fisher's Mom said:


> I know what you mean, Pancho. My house is 85+ years old and you just can't effective seal it all up. Believe me, you don't want to try the fox urine or the coyote urine. It's dehydrated but when you get any humidity in the air, your house will smell like a zoo. Having mice is better than that smell!!! Buy some pure peppermint oil (not extract or anything like that), saturate cotton balls and place them around the house, particularly closets, pantries, in and underneath the stove and behind the fridge. Someone told me about this when I had a terrible mouse invasion and I was desperate enough to try it. It works fabulously!!!! The only problem would be if you really hate the smell of peppermint because it's very strong smelling.


 

thanks for the warning on the fox urine..... wont go there I thought it was suppossed to be oderless...

so far so good but they are about to be "in season"  

peppermint will smell better than most other things in my house...lazy smoker brother and stinky drooly poop-eating dog (i love them both though)

LOL on that fat cat with droppings in the bowl That is what I am afraid of getting a useless cat.

No way to seal up my house.... there are just too many holes... hopefully when i redo the kitchen this summer and pour a slab under it that will help.... right now from what I can see there is no foundation there at all just beams sitting in dirt with a deck on top (gotta love 19th century ingenunity..the kitchen probably started out as a shed in the days before indoor plumbing and they just built around it.... what building code?)


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## Corey123 (Apr 16, 2008)

I found a mouse that was stuck on one of the glue traps this morning in the middle of the kitchen floor. The thing was squeking and wailing away trying to get off the trap. Went to get a plastic bag to pick up the trap.

The thing bit me! Twice!!! Grabbed some really thick rubber gloves to protect my hands and I put it in the toilet to drown it. Supposedly, rats and mice can't swim.

Trying to drown it for ten minutes, it still refused to die!!! Flushed the toilet several times after pulling its legs off the trap. Still, it refused to die!!! The tail was seen thrashing about in the hole under the water! One more flush, and it disappeared from sight.


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## pacanis (Apr 16, 2008)

Geez. Poor mouse 
Next time try something more humane, like putting it in one of your vaccum sealer bags and sucking the life out of it.


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## Fisher's Mom (Apr 16, 2008)

That's terrible, Corey! Did it look like the one Pacanis caught?


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## pacanis (Apr 16, 2008)

If he got bit twice by a mouse that looked like that, he would be drug down a hole somewhere and not telling us about it......


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## Corey123 (Apr 17, 2008)

Fisher's Mom said:


> That's terrible, Corey! Did it look like the one Pacanis caught?


 


Probaly did. But I wasn't letting it get away. I made sure that it died!!


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## Corey123 (Apr 17, 2008)

pacanis said:


> Geez. Poor mouse
> Next time try something more humane, like putting it in one of your vaccum sealer bags and sucking the life out of it.


 


What are you smoking or drinking? Let me know so that I can get loaded also.


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## Saphellae (Apr 17, 2008)

expatgirl said:


> Saphellae------are you my long-lost twin daughter??? Your twin thinks that her bedroom floor is another closet shelf that holds more and is more practical..........I cleaned out her room (after I warned her that I would) and found 3 year old Easter candy and all kinds of yuck things...I'm sure that it would have been just a matter of time before  wee beasties would have moved in.  She had gone off to a debate camp for a week and was very happy to find a clean room------I did respect her personal items, however.  She was happy, that is, until I told her that I paid myself the $50 of loose change that I found EVERYWHERE! If I have to be your maid I'm charging you.  I'd like to say that it was a good lesson but she is a slob to this day.




Hehe!!  I very well could be.. but I mostly learned my lesson that time.   I had some pretty nasty things in my room too.  Sometimes I would leave dishes in there for over a week and it would have mold on it.. or I'd have a plastic bag with a half opened lunch in it for a month or two... Yep, I don't do THAT anymore! 

But go figure. To this day, I have a fear of opening more than 1 day old tupperware containers.  I make hubby do it.

I also have a fear of leftovers. I hardly eat them. DH is the garbage can here!


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## VaporTrail (Apr 17, 2008)

Had a mouse (must have been a huge one too) move in once... traps didn't work so I wound up buying a couple boxes of poison. Opened one and dropped it in the closet where I suspected he hung out alot.

The dang thing ate the WHOLE box of poison. Actually chewed the box open farther to get at it all. I was surprised not to see him lying dead right there, or even sitting there with a note demanding more!

Perhaps I should have expected this, as some of the odds and ends that I found the thing had swiped then gnawed on and/or eaten included:

-A bottle of my fiancee's Pamprin. Finished off the bottle.
-A tube of Cortizone 10. At least half the tube.
-A roll of film. 
-Several small candles (enough that I debated baiting traps with wax). 

Haven't seen hide nor hair (or droppings) of the little bugger since, and since I haven't come across a reek I don't think Mr. Nibbles died in the house. But I still can't get past the VOLUME the sucker could pack away.


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## fireweaver (Apr 17, 2008)

Corey, rats & mice are brilliant swimmers.  there's a whole host of tests for learning & memory that take advantage of that.  check it out here.  also, as you've learned, they're awful bitey when scared, which is horrible!  pick up glue traps with a pair of tongs, or only by the edge that's far away from his mouth.

like i said earlier: the humane way to deal with the animals trapped in glue boards is going to be nasty.  severe head trauma (via, for example, direct hammer hit to the head or a sledgehammer or cinderblock dropped from a couple of feet up) is acceptable as long as it's done quickly.  slow crushing is not nice, but a quick sharp crush makes him unconscious and dead at the same time.  chopping off his head (again, quickly) with a stout pair of scissors or garden shears is also ok.

neither method is pretty, but that's what ya gotta deal with using the glue boards.  glue boards are all kinds of effective: we use them all the time in our research facilities because of the unacceptable risk of using poisons.  but we also have a tech who is assigned to go check all the trap locations 2x daily, because it would be considered inhumane to let them die in the traps - inspectors will write us up if they find stuff like that.


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## pacanis (Apr 17, 2008)

I can see PETA now.  Running from the research facility carrying a bunch of glue traps with mice stuck to them


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## Fisher's Mom (Apr 17, 2008)

VaporTrail said:


> Had a mouse (must have been a huge one too) move in once... traps didn't work so I wound up buying a couple boxes of poison. Opened one and dropped it in the closet where I suspected he hung out alot.
> 
> The dang thing ate the WHOLE box of poison. Actually chewed the box open farther to get at it all. I was surprised not to see him lying dead right there, or even sitting there with a note demanding more!
> 
> ...


 At least Mr. Nibbles didn't have PMS after all that Pamprin! But you're right - they loooove wax! I have no idea why but mice and rats will eat candles like crazy.


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## babetoo (Apr 17, 2008)

i once had a cat that loved to lick sand paper. and bows on packages. wouldn't catch mice though.


babe


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## Fisher's Mom (Apr 17, 2008)

babetoo said:


> i once had a cat that loved to lick sand paper. and bows on packages. wouldn't catch mice though.
> 
> 
> babe


Isn't that weird? You'd think a cat would prefer a yummy little mousey over a sheet of sandpaper! I guess there's no accounting for taste.


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## Katie H (Apr 17, 2008)

babetoo said:


> i once had a cat that loved to lick sand paper. and bows on packages. wouldn't catch mice though.
> 
> 
> babe



It wasn't that the cat liked sandpaper.  It was just refreshing its rough little tongue.


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## babetoo (Apr 17, 2008)

Katie E said:


> It wasn't that the cat liked sandpaper. It was just refreshing its rough little tongue.


 

is that true or are u joking? lol

babe


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## MexicoKaren (Apr 17, 2008)

Our house is bordered on two sides by a _vivero _(nursery) where palm trees are grown. The cats love to go under the fence (actually, Jerry has built them a little tunnel) and roam around in their own private jungle. One of them is a real hunter and brings these tiny little field mice home as gifts to us. Until we wised up and closed our bedroom door, he brought them into our bed in the middle of the night! One evening last summer, my visiting daughter and I were sitting on the living room couch and he bolts through the front window with a little furry creature in his mouth. I swear he tried to drop it down my daughter's pants...and of course, we could not find it. Later, we got up and realized one of us had sat on the poor little thing. Flat as a pancake. Oops.


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## babetoo (Apr 17, 2008)

now that is a funny story.

my kid when she was a teenager was raising guenia pigs( for profit, lol) a whole gang of babies got out in house, the dog got a couple and we caught some.

went into my bedroom and pulled out laundrey basket and one was backed up in the corner. i thought "oh poor little thing" and reached for it. it bit me where the thumb and fore finger join. in reflex , i through it off my hand into the wall. killed the little bugger. 

he deserved it for attacking me, when i was only trying to help it. lol

babe


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## jpmcgrew (Apr 18, 2008)

Picture a cat strumming a guitar here is his song
Love them little mouse's 
that's what I love to eat
I bite their little heads off
and nibble on their tiny feet


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## Corey123 (Apr 22, 2008)

I was cleaning out the back room yesterday, trying to get some junk out of there to throw away today, which I'm doing now.

To my horror, I saw a large gaping hole in the right wall on the window sill!!! I immediatelty began to realise that that is where those pesky little rodents have been getting in, along with squirrells and whatever else have you!

Went downstairs and told the landlord about it, since he's having work done downstairs. Meanwhile, I had to do something to keep them out, so I had to nail a board to that wall
for some repitition against those pesky uninvited guests.


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## Fisher's Mom (Apr 22, 2008)

Well you've won half the battle by finding their entry hole, Corey. WooHoo! Here's to no more uninvited furry guests!


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## Corey123 (Apr 23, 2008)

I hope that's the end of them. But I think they're still in the building inside the walls. The place needs to be exterminated.

I gotta get some more steel wool the first chance I get!!


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## pacanis (May 3, 2008)

Nothing more was happening with a new trap set under the kitchen counter, so a couple weeks ago I moved it downstairs and put it on a shelf where I caught a mouse about four years ago. 

Note to self: Don't forget to check the trap if you move it somewhere else


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