Mice

The battle to control the inevitable onslaught of mice in this old house gets pretty tiring.  There must be SO many places where the little rodents can squeeze inside.  As we find the suspected entry points, we do what we can to close them up ... and the mice keep coming.

Cute, isn't it?

For the past few weeks, the mice are stealing cat food.  (We keep the cat dish in the master bathroom so the dogs can't get it.)  The mice are running off with pieces of cat food, and are stashing them in our shoes. 

I'll bet you're asking yourself, "Hey, Connie, what about your cats?"

You mean these cats?

This one is deaf, so she's never been a hunter ...

... and this one is a bum.

Kimba says that she'd take care of the problem for me, but she doesn't go in the house.

So, I am the designated mouse catcher ... and the have-a-heart-style tip trap is my weapon of choice.  I don't have the stomach for snap traps, I don't even want to think about glue traps, and poison is out of the question with all the other animals in the house.  I set the traps along the baseboard outside the door to the bathroom, baited with a tiny blob of peanut butter.  For the past week, I have caught one mouse per night.

When I catch a mouse, usually some time in the middle of the night, I get up and empty him into this bucket (which we refer to as the 'mouse bucket').  This frees the trap to potentially catch another mouse, and lets me get back to sleep ... because a mouse in the trap walks back and forth, clicking the trap on the floor as it tips back and forth, keeping me awake.  I have a paper towel in the bucket so the mouse (sometimes, mice) can hide until morning.

Last Wednesday night, I got a two-fer.

Each morning, after I've had breakfast and sent the grandson to daycare, I take my mouse bucket and head for the barn.

Outside the barn, I open the bucket and the mouse usually runs right over and scoots inside.  It's amazing how they can fit into tiny little openings.

Okay ... this is scary, he says.

I have rationalized that it's okay for the mice to live in the barn ... even though I know that they are much better suited to live in houses with humans.  It's 200 yards from the house to the barn, and I assume that this is too far for mice to go to come back to the house.  There are quite a few predators between here and there, so the chances of them returning may be slim ... I hope.

I caught Mouse #7 last night, and he's upstairs in the bucket awaiting his trip to the barn. 

(written by Hartwood Roses.  Hartwood Roses blog)