Over the weekend, (and while a guest was visiting, awesome) we discovered that the giant bag of dog food in the laundry room is not only nourishing dear Freya, but a small army of mice.
YUCK.
I informed SB that mouse extermination/removal was his manly territory and that this issue needed to be addressed IMMEDIATELY. I was all for killing the little bastards (hate if you must, but VERMIN are not welcome in my home), but he returned from HomeDespot with one of those no-kill traps. It’s like a little plastic box that you bait with peanut butter, and they can go in but they can’t get out.
The first day or two, we caught nothing. How do they always know when you’re on to them? But the last couple of days, we’ve been consistently catching one every time we leave the house.
At first we didn’t really know what to do. (nagging fishwife commentary: “See! If we just killed them, this would be easy!”) But now, there’s a routine. SB’s been going for a walk and releasing them to the neighborhood. My apologies to any Hilltop residents that may have new little friends.
If you take a mouse for a walk, by the way, Freya wants to come, too.
I’m with you; just kill them. Or find someone with a pet snake.
It should be noted that I loooooooooove my pet animals. I just do not love vermin. One does not catch and release cockroaches.
Although maybe if I had such lovely accompaniment on the release part, I would give it a try.
i love love love pictures of freya. even just of her nice flat head and soft ears.
and EEEEEEW about the uninvited guests. :/
Ewwwwwwwww! Grooooooossss!!!! *shudder*
Ok, I have lived in places with mice and roaches (yes, separately and together) and neither is a pleasant experience. Then last year, I got to add a new pest to the list:
Ants.
Let’s just not go there. They went away thanks to trusty exterminator. Then guess who stopped by for a visit? And it took 5 extermination visits to get rid of?
R.O.A.C.H.E.S.
YUCK.
I love that he wanted to try to save them humane way. But I am with you on squishing the other vermin. They don’t belong anywhere in a home.
P.S. I give total and absolute credit to you for the whole period in between letters idea. I love the emphasis it creates and it’s very eyecatching.
When we found a mouse problem in our house, we got a cat. She caught three of them in the first few months that we had her (over two years ago), and they just quit coming in the house. Now that we have our second cat, the two of them FOUND a mouse outside and brought it in to play with and destroy. Nice.
Several months after we first moved in to our house we had to behead a rat. The next time one worked its way in (after a house on the block got demolished and all the rats in the neighborhood relocated) we caught it and released it on the waterfront …
Now I just hope we’ve sealed all the holes or they don’t find their way in …
A cautionary tale….
The relations in Naches have a cabin that became occupied by pack rats, which are actually kind of cute, in a fluffy squirrel way, but still, RATS. I know because I got to experience them up close and personal at 3 am my first time there. The kindly aunties did a catch-and-release thing, taking the critters to a place a couple miles away that they dubbed Rat Canyon. After many times of this they started thinking…hmmm…same rats each time? So they started PAINTING THE RATS BLUE. Yep, same rats, finding their way back home. So bro-in-law volunteered to take over the duties and gave the rats their final “sweet release.”
EW! I am so scared that we are going to get rats, ’cause neighbors on both sides of us have been having problems lately. But, we got one of those plastic food storage containers at PetSmart for our dog food – I know the rats could chew through the plastic if they really wanted to, but at least I wouldn’t be blindly sticking my hand in a bag that may contain rodents.
Also, we had a minor rat problem when I was gowing up – our house backed up to a cemetary and there was really no avoiding them. We had an exterminator come out once and he suggested we keep the litter box near the garage where they could smell it. My mom did that from that day forward and never had another problem. I keep mine in the laundry room right by the garage door, and I really think it’s a big part of why we haven’t had any rodents yet. Apparently they smell the litter and know better than to come in. Smarter than they look, I guess.
My very long winded point is – get a cat. Or just get some litter.
Firstly, did no one get my If You Give A Mouse A Cookie reference? Has no one read this children’s book? How about If You Throw A Pig A Party? If You Give A Moose A Muffin?
Beth: Thanks for the support of the killing. I kind of thought folks would be appalled at my cruelty.
janaya: We love love love Freya so much. She is really the light of our lives!
beth c: EWWW! That happened once at my mom’s house with their cat. Then we had to kill it. There was a phone book involved. I’ll say no more.
chickadee: If it had been a rat, I’m afraid we would have to move.
camille: I know, right? I’ll save the whales or whatever, but mice are not in danger of extinction and this is MY house. It’s not like I live in the woods and this is really their habitat. I live in the city. Oh, and about the periods, I certailnly didn’t make that up, so use away!
peaches: Eww. I was afraid of that. When I was trying to find a picture of our trap on the internets for this post I learned that you have to take them a mile away to make sure they don’t come back. They must be getting distracted on their way home though, because we haven’t seen any in a few days and now they can’t get at any food, so fingers crossed.
jayare: I’d almost rather put up with mice than a cat. We’ll see how desperate we get.
Ew, Jenny. Ewwwwwwwww.
J to the enterprise,
I’ll give you the DL on chickadee and me’s rat stories next time we’re in the same room … ’tis good tellin’.
Good tellin’ I say, goood tellin’.
Kate: HI! Yes. EWWWW is right.
NEAL: I can’t wait to hear this story.