Eff that mouse

[anna7602]

It's getting personal now. I emptied DD's lunch box last night and accidentally left it open. I come home today after being out and about with DD (she has no school on Wednesdays) and what do I find? A bunch of mouse droppings in her lunch box.

I WILL GET THAT DARNED MOUSE. If I see that thing again, no more screaming and running away. I will leap at it with the full force of my body and crush it with my hands if necessary.

Also, I am putting more traps out asap.

[Cheesecake]

Poison. Put good quality fresh poison out. It is the only thing that really truly works! (It's never just one mouse, if they get sick/die when they've been to your place, the relatives will eventually get it and visit the neighbors instead of you.)

[anna7602]

Jan 9, 2013 14:03:14 GMT -5 Cheesecake said:

Poison. Put good quality fresh poison out. It is the only thing that really truly works! (It's never just one mouse, if they get sick/die when they've been to your place, the relatives will eventually get it and visit the neighbors instead of you.)

What happens when they die of the poison? What if they rot away behind or under a piece of furniture or something? Or do they just crawl out into the open to die?

[Deleted]

I feel sad for the little creature
Sorry, carry on.

[Cheesecake]

If they crawl in between things and you can't find them, they will smell. The smell is usually gone after 2-3 days and placing a little bowl with amonia in the room that smells helps a lot.

Of the 10 or so times I had to use poison, I only had them die in a place where I could smell "em but not see them only twice. The smell sucked, but having mice get into everything sucks more...

Sent from my phone, please disregard typos!

[crimsonandclover]

Jan 9, 2013 15:00:00 GMT -5 Cheesecake said:

If they crawl in between things and you can't find them, they will smell. The smell is usually gone after 2-3 days and placing a little bowl with amonia in the room that smells helps a lot.

Of the 10 or so times I had to use poison, I only had them die in a place where I could smell "em but not see them only twice. The smell sucked, but having mice get into everything sucks more...

Sent from my phone, please disregard typos!

Unless they crawl somewhere really inconvenient, like in the inner workings of your oven. Happened to my parents. They turned on the oven and fried the dead mouse. They ended up getting a new oven, actually, because they couldn't get the smell out. I'd stick with more traps with peanut butter.

[anna7602]

Jan 10, 2013 1:08:30 GMT -5 crimsonandclover said:

Jan 9, 2013 15:00:00 GMT -5 Cheesecake said:

If they crawl in between things and you can't find them, they will smell. The smell is usually gone after 2-3 days and placing a little bowl with amonia in the room that smells helps a lot.

Of the 10 or so times I had to use poison, I only had them die in a place where I could smell "em but not see them only twice. The smell sucked, but having mice get into everything sucks more...

Sent from my phone, please disregard typos!

Unless they crawl somewhere really inconvenient, like in the inner workings of your oven. Happened to my parents. They turned on the oven and fried the dead mouse. They ended up getting a new oven, actually, because they couldn't get the smell out. I'd stick with more traps with peanut butter.

Yegads. How terrible.

I talked to DH last night. He is anti-poison ever since a pet of his ate the poison intended for rodents. We don't have pets and DD is well beyond the stage of sticking everything in her mouth, but he can't shake the image out of his head.

So... more traps it is.

[Cheesecake]

In that case, see if you can get electric traps. My dad uses those and has the most succes with those. Apparently the glue traps work pretty well as well.

Good luck!

[anna7602]

Jan 10, 2013 3:42:49 GMT -5 Cheesecake said:

In that case, see if you can get electric traps. My dad uses those and has the most succes with those. Apparently the glue traps work pretty well as well.

Good luck!

Thanks. Glue traps worked awesomely for us in Philly and New York, but the glue traps here have a design flaw, IMO. They're glue trays, with edges. The mouse has to actually crawl INTO them rather than ONTO them. We have food in the middle, so maybe this will lure the sucker to jump in anyway, but I can't help thinking that the flat U.S. ones (that the mouse would just walk across regardless) would be more effective.

I haven't seen electric traps at our local hardware store. I will have to visit some other places and see if I find them.

[razzles]

My landlord bought us a device that is plugged into the wall that supposedly keeps mice away. We had evidence of mice but haven't seen anything since we plugged it in. I have no idea where he found it (I think it was BHV) but it is shaped like a cat and has solved our problem (to our knowledge that is). It supposedly emits a high frequency noise that only the mice can hear and I think it only covers a small area but it would be easy enough to buy more than one. It might be something to look into.

[Deleted]

Eek, good luck! I hope you get it.

[anna7602]

Jan 10, 2013 6:34:53 GMT -5 razzles said:

My landlord bought us a device that is plugged into the wall that supposedly keeps mice away. We had evidence of mice but haven't seen anything since we plugged it in. I have no idea where he found it (I think it was BHV) but it is shaped like a cat and has solved our problem (to our knowledge that is). It supposedly emits a high frequency noise that only the mice can hear and I think it only covers a small area but it would be easy enough to buy more than one. It might be something to look into.

Oooo, headed to BHV tomorrow! I was going to buy a bunch of plastic containers for all of our pantry food there anyway.

[anna7602]

WE GOT HIM!!!!!

We spent the morning making our own traps out of cut-up cardboard boxes and "pest strength" glue. (We couldn't use the electric device because they say kids are sensitive to it.)

Set them, went out for 4 hours or so, came home to find him.

PHEW! Here's hoping he was alone. We're leaving the other traps out tonight and will keep an eye out for mouse droppings, just in case.

[Cheesecake]

Woohoo! That's amazing that you got him that easy with home made traps. I'm crossing my fingers that he acted alone, that'd be awesome!

[anna7602]

Jan 12, 2013 13:35:22 GMT -5 Cheesecake said:

Woohoo! That's amazing that you got him that easy with home made traps. I'm crossing my fingers that he acted alone, that'd be awesome!

Our upstairs neighbor suggested we not touch the traps with bare hands because they stay away from things that smell too human-y. I wasn't convinced, but DH and I both used surgical gloves anyway as we built the traps.

I just had some champagne to celebrate.

[irish]

Great! Lets just hope he was a Lone Ranger...

[crimsonandclover]

Jan 12, 2013 15:04:13 GMT -5 irish said:

Great! Lets just hope he was a Lone Ranger...

This. And, um, was he still alive stuck to the glue when you got back? Because even though I'm not scared of mice, that would creep me out to see him looking at me while stuck to the glue strip...

[crimsonandclover]

Jan 12, 2013 13:27:18 GMT -5 anna7602 said:

WE GOT HIM!!!!!

We spent the morning making our own traps out of cut-up cardboard boxes and "pest strength" glue. (We couldn't use the electric device because they say kids are sensitive to it.)

Set them, went out for 4 hours or so, came home to find him.

PHEW! Here's hoping he was alone. We're leaving the other traps out tonight and will keep an eye out for mouse droppings, just in case.

There's some high frequency tone that people stop being able to hear when they're around 25ish. I once saw part of a documentary about a beach bar that used it to keep underage kids away since it's so annoying to them. Of course, since you can hear it until you're around 25 I would think they would have chased off some of the heavier college-aged drinkers. But now I'm getting way off topic. Again: Yay for getting the mouse!

[anna7602]

Yes, he was alive. We put the key in the door to the apartment and knew we had caught him by just the sound. I sent DH inside while I waited on the stairs with DD. There are few sounds as unnerving as the sound of a rodent in distress.

Mercifully, DH dealt with it quite level-headedly and wasn't squeamish, as I would have been.

[cupcakes]

So did Mickey have any friends?

[anna7602]

Jan 13, 2013 16:51:07 GMT -5 cupcakes said:

So did Mickey have any friends?

So far, looks like no! After getting tangled up in some glue traps ourselves (well, DH, not me), we pulled them all up last night. Now I need to figure out how to remove the bits of glue that leaked onto the floor and counter and how to get glue out of socks. Much happier problems to have than how to get rid of a mouse!

[cupcakes]

I would try oil.

It's amazing how a tiny mouse can ruin your life. Stupid mice.