We live in rural PA...who am I kidding...we live in the middle of nowhere....the land our house sits on was just a field...part of a big farm that was cut up and sold off.....someone forgot to tell the critters .... no more their personal stumping ground...not a mouse hotel ....... every year we get the influx of little squeaky creepy mice, looking for a place to spend the Winter and call home....
....we have tried to open the door all the while singing born free and encourage the mice to happily skip out the door...to live another day....no luck....
last week in the early evening I was in my studio, when I moved some books on a bottom shelf and a very black field mouse jumped out at me and took off across the studio....I went screaming the other way into the living room....
to my knowledge this was the first spotting of meces in my studio...my husband went into the studio and came out with a half package of salt less saltines that had little mouse teeth marks on it...icky in the supreme......this mouse must be half crazed with hunger to go after my saltines ...I have one friend that says..."what is the point ,no salt !" Anyway....
studio time was out of the question...my day was finished...a trap was laid...and a towel put under the door so , the mouse could not escape...or worst come into the rest of the house....
these traps are always effective.....but in the morning ...no luck....
my husband then trekked to town for more traps and peanut butter...we only had port wine cheese, clearly peanut butter was a better choice ????
we set traps in all the known places that there have been mouse sightings.... that night my husband and the dogs went to bed, while I watched a DVD secure that my house was mouse trap secure....... a trap go snap and then smashing a crashing, then silence and then more smashing...... again silence.....I leave the disposal of mouse remains to my husband ,so I did not go to investigate.....the first words out of my mouth in the morning....."so we got our mouse"....my husband shook his head and informed me in the gravest way....."no mouse , just a pool of blood , a sprung trap .... no body"........my husband then proceeded to look for a blood trail and a body...no trail and no body....
we waited !!!!...the next morning my husband heard noises coming from a paper trash can .....low a behold a mouse had thrown himself into the trash can and could not get out because the sides were to slick.... after trying to grab his tail with no luck...my husband proceeded to throw all the paper trash out onto the backyard .... the mouse ran off to the woods ,when he too hit the ground with all the paper....
my big question ?...was he wounded ?...was it the black mouse?...oh noooooooooooo, I was informed..... he was light grey...
that same day my husband and our two dogs were watching TV in the living room ,when a black mouse came out from under the TV......looked at them, then made a hasty retreat back under the TV cabinet .......Squiggee went nuts...she and my husband tried to flush him out to no avail... then to a half hour later the mouse appeared again , retreated ...this time making a detour and headed to our bedroom...all the while my husband and Squiggee in hot pursuit......with their trusty flashlight , they looked in every nook ...but still no mouse.......surely we would get our mouse...traps everywhere...no luck so far...
I have a feeling he is laying low like a wounded gangster in a bad B movie ...gathering his strength , dreaming of revenge and he is coming for us......crazy yes....it doesn't help that our Boston runs around looking in corners and acting like there are 50 mice all over the house in every dark corner just waiting to pounce...last night my husband was down on all fours with a flashlight looking under the computer table, because Squiggee was acting like she had something cornered.......
other than moving and letting the mouse have the house...we are hard pressed to know what to do next...he has not been spotted for days on our part....
I have visions of him appearing at the end of our bed, in fatigues, a bandanna round his head and a very small bayonet raised , like Rambo...Squiggee spends all evening looking for him...it is so spooky...I feel she is having mouse flashbacks...I won't venture into any room that is not well lit and i make my presence known...lots of noise...I feel pretty safe during the daylight hours...like I could hold my own...but night is another story...the mouse has not left the building I fear....total icky !...no mouse pooh and no body...I need closure..........a body...or at least a small note ......"Dear people, I am spending the Winter in Florida , will send a postcard when I get there !
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We live in an old house in the middle of the city and every time the seasons change, we get mice. Mouse eradication is my husbands job too. I wish I had dogs like Squiggee who would hunt the mice. My dogs see one scurrying across the floor and look at it with a surprised look on their faces. Lazy buggers!
couple hints - the triangular box of De-Con little green pellets works wonders - since you have critters, hide these inside cabinets or where the doggies cannot get to the boxes. Second, and most effective - for a few years, my ex and I bought a one after the other new-build houses - always on some barren cornfield a farmer sold off so lots of field mice. When we got mice, I freaked but so did DH - he was afraid of them, too - he would never be caught dead doing what your DH did searching out the critter - we did what any mouse-challenged couple would do: called my dad to come get it! Then we called the exterminator who suggested the glue paper - but he told us when the mouse gets stuck to it they scream for 45 minutes till they die of a heart attack - that plan was nixed instantly! so he next suggested the plan that has worked for me for centuries (well, at least decades) and that is this: go to the hardware store and get the big packages of steel wool (it is wound like taffy inside) and pull off hunks (do this before your manicure) and stuff all around every incoming pipe into the house - under kitchen and bathroom sinks, hot and cold faucet inlets, the A/C and furnace and gas pipe leads out to the street, etc. I go in before we move into any house while it is empty and slather this stuff around and have not had a single mouse since - even when my neighbors in their new houses are infiltrated. The steel wool tears up their faces and bodies as they try to get in and they go away - they cannot get thru and my little kitty (yes, the Persian princess who sits on the chair and informs me she does not do windows or mice) is in no danger of ingesting something she should not. I would at least try it now even though you have one - prevent the onslaught of his relatives!
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