It all started last week when I took Mitch's car in for an oil change. Gizmo and I were playing while we waited for the car when the technician came in with the air filter, which was filled with seed-like things. He asks me, "do you have mice?", to which I immediately respond, "No!". I mean, who has mice in their house? Gross! (Never mind the fact that my house-cleaning skills are terrible right now, there could very well be mice under the piles and I would never know.) Anyway, he shook the seeds out, said to be on the lookout because something was crawling up and storing food in the air filter, and away we were. We stopped at Target on the way home and bought mouse traps.
After Mitch got home and I relayed what the technician found, he set up one mouse trap in the garage to see if we would catch anything. Less than 12 hours later, the trap was full - one dead.
Between then and now, we have killed four mice (and injured one who left part of his face in the trap....I really hope that thing isn't dead somewhere in my garage) and discovered their food source. They had eaten through the bean bags for our bags game and were eating the soybeans out of them. (Sorry, Mom. We'll need more bags.....) Who knows what else they have climbed on and eaten through. I am convinced that I am going to go to the garage one morning to find one sitting on the step, or even worse, in my car.
Who can really blame them, I guess. It is freaking cold here - we are barely seeing temperatures above zero - and the cars are warm when they come into the garage.
I am so grossed out by mice. Thankfully Mitch handles all mice-related issues, and so I can pretend that it isn't a problem. But I shudder every time I run through the garage and get in my car.
Ew.
9 comments:
We made the mistake of leaving our bags in the club house last year....yes, the mice love them.....i'll make you more bags before it gets warm...how many did they eat through?
I pitched them all. Didn't want any mice contamination getting anywhere near Gizmo.
Reading this makes me extra thankful our bags are kept in a locked rubbermaid container! I'm with you, Tina - leave the mice wrangling for the menfolk. We're too delicate for such disgusting tasks.
This story brings back SO many horrid memories. While living in my Plainfield apartment I too had mice. I ended up killing 9 in total!!!!! Their seed-like droppings are most often mistaken for spices like pepper when found in the kitchen. That is where I filled the nine traps. The frightening part was that I lived in a second floor apartment and the kitchen was nowhere near an entrance. For quite awhile I wouldn't sleep there and definitely stopped cooking all together. Quite often one of my white knights, Buttercup or Rachel, had to come dispose of the bodies. I always felt like I could hear them when most likely I didn't. The landlord never could figure out how they were getting in. Mysterious, I know.... Good luck in your hunt!
I remember helping TubaLady with steel wool in any small crack under the sink. It's true that mice disposal was my job (it's only fair...she had to kill a lot of spiders for me!).
I used a live trap when I had a mouse issue. I purchased it at Ace Hardware, and let me tell you, the men there did NOT understand why I wasn't going for the snap traps or rat poisen. At first they told me they didn't think they had live traps, then they found some in the back, and tried to get me to use poisen pellets as bait...they didn't understand that my goal was not to kill, just to relocate. To each his own!
After I caught the mouse I tried to pet his nose but he wasn't interested in that (even though he would have liked it, he just didn't know it). I let him out at the high school in a lovely grassy knoll.
He ended up making a home in the band room. I think he was attracted to me, or it might have been the gaping crack at the bottom of the exterior band room door. I'm not sure which.
I have known several people who's bean bags have been eaten by mice. The mice are probably sitting there watching us play bean bags every summer thinking "ah...winter will be fruitful for us!"
Would it be wrong to put some D-Con in the bags when making them? (sorry Tuba Lady...I am not one to relocate the mice...I want them dead!)
Oops...I mean Buttercup...not Tuba Lady. (sorry)
When I read this I was so afraid that Tuba Lady would read it and bail on next weekend. I guess we're still on, but don't be offended if she never steps foot in your house!! To each their own (phobia).
No sign of any mice yesterday or today. Maybe we got rid of most (or all) of them since we got rid of their food source.
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