There are mice in the van. They had a hey-day when the van was parked for a week at the airport. The evidence of the hey-day is everywhere, and a napkin is shredded in the glove box.
There are mice in the car. There is evidence of mice having been on the backseat.
There are mice in the house. NOT GOOD, PEOPLE!
I know for a fact that there are mice in the stable and kennel, but they are almost expected to be there and I'm not worrying my pretty little head over them.
While we were gone, apparently the mice had a hard time finding good food lying around on the floor. Normally the dogs do a great job of cleaning things up, but sometimes food is consumed after the dogs have been put in lock-down for the night and this makes excellent mouse fodder. Not that I haven't told the kids a hundred times over that they can't let food sit around or anything... (It took us 3 months to get rid of the fruit flies, but - knock on wood - they're finally dead. DEAD.)
We must be some seriously dirty people, the way we attract pests.
The mice have decided that they love my kitchen utensil drawer. Those wooden spoons (now made of plastic), the soup ladles, the spatulas - all fun stuff as far as mice are concerned. They apparently spent a lot of time in that drawer. The evidence is disgusting.
I washed everything in hot water. And ran it through the dishwasher. And cleaned the drawer with bleach and vinegar. And Googled what on earth to do to repel the little pests.
Peppermint. Who knew? (And the bigger question - does it work?)
I stole a candy cane from the tree, snapped it into quarters and put one piece in each corner of the utensil drawer. Fingers crossed that it works.
Luke saw me and jumped to his own conclusions. "Is that for the mice?" Yep. "That's nice. It IS the Christmas season. They should get treats, too."
IT'S NOT FOR THE MICE TO EAT! I AM NOT FEEDING THEM ANY MORE THAN THEY ARE FINDING ON THEIR OWN. THEY ARE NOT WELCOME HERE!
I shouted that in my head. I said it in a normal voice to Luke. I also applaud the boy's giving spirit, even if it is to disease-laden rodents who want to take over my home.
For the record, candy canes don't work at mouse eviction. The mice will, however, take the paper off the candy canes and help themselves to a bit of a midnight snack while deficating in your kitchen drawers.
Those mice are going down.
13 comments:
Well, shit. I wish I knew what to tell you. We do the whole rat poison thing in the garage and it works, but if they die in the house it will smell horrible...
This post makes me love my cat. He is the best hunter! Goldie's food crumbs abound, mice would have a field day here. Good luck.
We use the good old fashioned traps around here (though our mice have yet to figure out how to get in the house, and are limited to the garage.) Brandie might be onto something with the cat . . . what's one more 4-legged creature?!
Call the Verminators! I told Dennis the other day if we ever have mice or whatever, I'm calling THEM! I don't care if I have to have them come from California or where-ever! LOL... They go around and make sure that there is no access points in the house, cover those they find with wire mesh and then set traps. I hope that you figure out some sort of way to get rid of them, but it sounds like they think they are your friends now... especially since you gave them the nice Christmas treat
My cats (fine, just my Persian, my Tabby is, well, a Pussy) let nothing live! I love them so. They even hunt lizards!
If you lived closer, I'd lend you my furry little pest control. We are probaby the only people in the entire neighborhood who have their pest issues limited to spiders.
No mice, voles, snakes, rabbits...
Is it time to bring a cat into the household? :)
Otherwise, go get Dcon. It makes the thirsty, so they run outside to die. And it also dries them up so if they die inside, it doesn't stink. It's possible we have mice in our garage and attic sometimes... like everytime the weather dips below 50 degrees. *sigh*
We have used the poison before too but now with so many pets in the house and yard - I am afraid to use it for fear the pets might munch on the dead critter. I hear eucalyptus works for roaches - how about mice? *shrugs*
I'm with the others. Cats are the best mouse evictors that I know. And I'm surprised you don't have any on your animal farm!
I lol'd at your fruit fly comment! Us, too! My children just leave food lying around, like they WANT the pesky things to live. Ugh. No help on the mouse hunt...we, too, have a cat.
Sorry to add to the chorus, but CAT. Yeah, it's probably the only thing that will work.
More that you don't want to hear: there is probably a nest in your house. I learned this the hard way, but thankfully that was at my former workplace and not my house. Cause, you know, (good) cats keep those problems at bat.
CATS
I'm still willing to ship my three felines up to you (since I was never aware which of the three helped double our mouse body count). Otherwise, we used some very touchy plastic snap-traps (waaaay easier to bait and set than the older wooden ones). And we used peanut butter.
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