A mouse in the house

We had rats in our house last year, yes I know it was disgusting. The fuckers used to make so much noise scurrying round in the attic and stuff. anyway we tried traps and caught about three in a row, then a friend recommended this little plug in sonar thing you buy at hardware shops that makes a high pitched noise driving rats, and I presume mice, away.

It worked perfectly, no problems since. It was quite cheap too.

We discovered they couldn't abide New Order's "Substance" or Brian Eno's "Before and After Science."

I got very familiar with those two albums that summer.

Maybe it was lonely.

bye.

I lived on a farm for a few years growing up and we had a major rat problem. For the first few nights, I sat up in bed wide-eyed as I watched them run across the far wall.

I am rambling - sorry - but yes, really, do get a rat or two!

I've been keeping food wrapped, but still sometimes it'll eat into the bread bag.

As for ants which we tend to get in the summer, I'm a believer in white vinegar... spray it where you think they come in... they won't. Has to be redone every few days to a week, but I like having vinegar around a lot more than poison.

We had a pet rat once - a lab rat we name Malty. He was pretty. Beige & cream colored.

Anyway, I think that rats, by their very nature, will try to keep themselves scentless so as to be harder to scent by predators.

Funniest rat story - my mother was having a dinner party. My rat thought the food smelled good and opened her cage door, crept down the hallway, and then up onto the tabletop (likely scaling the tableleg and then the table cloth). Once on the table she saw someone holding a piece of garlic bread - and went running toward the bread - she grabbed it and continued running down the length of the table until she reached then end, where she launched herself into space and ran back down the hallway and into my bedroom. Needless to day, the dinner party ended rather soon after that, with lots of fairly full plates and plenty of leftovers.

Names of my rats:
Ratfina
Josephine/Little Jo
Portia (the coolest!)
Cocoa
Sage
Pepper (current psycho rat - never gentled down - I wanted to name her "blitzkreig" as she leaps and bites unexpectedly, and has a lightening strike mark on her belly)

So you were naked in a bathtub with a rat swimming around? I'm not sure how this makes me feel.

am curious to hear more about this high-pitched rat phear machine. tell me more!!

If you're worried about mice, set up a trap, and if you catch one, set it up again. If you haven't caught one after a week or so, you're probably okay.

We're too wussy to actually know how to deal with this type of situation, so we've just called out pest control to kill the bastard(s). It's a shame, though, as it's actually kind of cute in a fuzzy unhygienic vermin type way.

This is made even worse by the fact that it's just one in a long line of things that are going wrong for me at the moment, compounding the lack of money/breaking up with long-term boyfriend/about to become homeless situation (yes, I guess if we're about to leave then really we should just let the mouse live, but I'm not staying for another month in a place that is infested).

Bah.

fuck just a month ago i'm getting frustrated cos possums are fucking in our ceiling (ever heard possums fuck? its all screeching and running around and hissing - bad b&d) and i got up to move to another room and i'm about to go into the kitchen and in the half light of 2am i spy this fucking rat on the kitchen floor!!! so i creep back out and get a spade and creep back up behind the fucka and WHACK WHACK WHACK. blood and guts everywhere.

i figure he was stoned on the rat bait cos he never moved too fast.

It must say something terrible about me that when I read this exchange I initially assumed you were discussing a Big Brother contestant's opinion on such matters.

I couldn't bring myself to kill them, particularly not in such a blood'n'guts way - I think I have as much of a problem with dealing with the lifeless body of one as I do with a scurrying scampering one. So, ha, I make someone else do my dirty work for me.

they used to run around in the attic and the first night it happened it sounded like someone was walking around upstairs, very fucking scary.

fuck ronan they sound like BIG rats!

it's funny actually we had to change the setting on it because me and my brother (but not my parents) could hear its barely audible high pitched whirring all around the house.

When I first moved to Denver I was startled by a mouse ambling slowly out into the middle of my empty living room, but more because of the sudden realization that I wasn't alone. It tried to hide in a pile of curtains but I caught it in a shoebox and put it outside. I never saw another one in that apartment. I figured it was lost because in other houses I've lived in that were genuinely infested, the mice would stick to the walls or hidden spots and scurry very quickly, not just stroll out into the middle of rooms.

The mouse left of it's own accord, probably to squeak to all his mousemates about the idiot human who watched too many cartoons.

wow. for a horrible minute i thought my mate jon's electric mousetrap (as discussed, oddly enough, at the glasgow FAP on tuesday) had passed into popular existence.

this is how it worked (or didn't):

- you chop the electrical flex off something, eg a kettle
- you tape the neutral wire to a piece of tinfoil
- you tape the live wire to another piece of tinfoil
- you place the two bits of tinfoil on the floor, near enough that a mouse walking across them would complete the circuit
- you plug this death-trap contraption into the mains
- there's a bang and all your lights go out

mind you: he was driven to desperate measures after finding a mouse in his toaster one morning. after he'd turned the toaster on.

Im wondering about the ethics of mouse traps but just want the buggers OUT. Il try the sonar thing however other (possibly more scientific) posts on the internet indicate they dont actually work at all. But its worth the try...

We just put ALL foods in the fridge or in tupperware or metal containers, and they disappeared on their own after a couple of weeks. Also used some of the steel wool to close up spaces under the sink but I don't think that's what drove them out, there were still openings for the determined rodent. Can only assume they found their way in by accident and out just the same.

'Course, one of the dangers of using poison (besides that it's a slow, cruel death) is that mice have a tendency to expire under your floors & behind your walls, and then DECOMPOSE and SMELL.

They eventually got rid of the rats and used the pellet gun to shoot at tins of baked beans.

We have two cats and two dogs in our house and consequently do not have mice or rats, ever.

Uh, we have (or rather had) two dogs and also a mouse. I remember my mother seeing the mouse and saying:"He stopped in the middle of the kitchen and looked at me with an expression of total arrogance. He then proceeded to crawl under the cupboard." hahahaha

I love cats, but my Other Half does not. I'd been on at him for ages, saying how much I'd like to have a cat (or two), but he was always staunchy opposed to them, until the night of THE MOUSE INCIDENT several years ago.

I awoke in the middle of the night, to the sound of something gnawing furiously on the skirting board in the bedroom. Every time I flicked the bedroom light on - there was nothing there. It was baffling. I thought I was going mad.

The constant light-flicking-on-and-off plus me-grumbling-noises woke my Bloke up, "There's a mouse in here! Do something! I can't sleep with that in here! What if if runs up onto the bed and bites me?! Get rid of it!" I wailed.

"Well", he muttered, "there's a mousetrap down in the garden shed, but I'm not going out there at this time of night"

"Do something else then! Anything! Just get rid of it!" I pleaded

"What do you expect me to do? Shoot it?" He was becoming quite bad tempered.

"Yes, if you must"

"Okay then, I will"

And so he rummaged in the wardrobe and pulled out a .22 air rifle and a box of pellets. I held the torch. We laid down, side by side, army commando style, on our stomachs, sideways across the bed, peering into the darkness at the section of skirting board where I had heard the mouse sounds. We pulled the duvet over us as camouflage, because The Bloke said that mice can see in the dark and would be able to spot the gun. I believed this. It seemed feasible.

"Right". he whispered. "Point the torch towards the corner where the gnawing was, and as soon as you hear it, switch the torch on and I'll shoot the little fucker - okay?"

The torch was one of those huge Maglites, regulation Police issue with an intense halogen beam. I think they use them to illuminate whole streets from the police helicopter.

The gnawing started up again, I switched on the torch, which instantly dazzled The Bloke who fired blindly in the general direction of the door. We did this sniper exercise several times, air gun pellets ricochetting off the walls, the wardrobes, the bedside clock. Everywhere, except the vicinity of the mouse.

Next day, he capitulated and said I could have a cat.

The cat's the most prolific hunter, and we've never had any mice in the house (or had to shoot any more furniture) since.

so, in a fit of rage, i bought some poison bait which was an effective but not entirely wise move. i killed a bunch of mice that way, but the corpses would turn up everywhere and if not found and disposed of immediately would stink. after a brief lull in rodent activity i thought the problem had been taken care of, but no. the mice came back and i moved on to the covered spring traps, which short of a getting a cat or a thorough professional treatment is what i would recommend using. they're quick and efficient, with an opaque slip cover so you don't have to see the body (though the tail sticks out rather pathetically).

i managed to corner it on the worktop and then put a pint glass over it (being careful of the tail) and a book underneath it and chucked it out the back door.

Finally, I caught it by slamming a plastic container over it and sliding the lid underneath. When I opened the tent door and released it, it ran off like a shot. During the daylight hours, my wife repaired the hole the mouse had chewed.

The next night as we went to bed we heard similar chewing noises. The same mouse (we are sure of this) was busily chewing a hole about 3 cm from the first hole and was on the point of entering the tent again when we caused it to flee. It made me sorry I had let it go the night before instead of killing it, the rotter.

Then, of course, there were the various animal parts that were left all over the house.

it's a cruel world, don't let nobody tell you otherwise.

i wish i could find the other one though. i just threw out whatever was under my bed so there's no more hiding places. waiting for maintenance to come seal up the hole, wherever it is.

I'd like to read Tracer's great-grandmother's book.

i just got a humane trap and they haven't even gone near it

probably snickering at your good-heartedness

Put it hard up against the skirting board - they tend to creep along the foot of the wall for cover.

maybe i should have used something other than aged gouda and a skinny latte as bait?

We had one recently, but had to reset it a couple of times when visiting kids stole the raisins from it.

Lol @ yuppie mice. Maybe try a PBR and a street hot dog, Tracer?

Someone told me mice are mad for chocolate. To test if that was a joke I put some in a trap I had in my previous house and it worked!

attached a poisoned glue trap to the humane trap. That may work.

mice are ppl too

is that the logic that causes ppl to use humane traps to catch them?

you know what doesn't work? Those electronic noisemakers. And yet we have two going in the kitchen non-stop for the last year and a half.

Also try peppermint oil, the hardcore stuff, not the stuff you cook with. Fill cotton balls and place everywhere.

And the only real solution? Find the holes and plug them up. Foam and/or steel wool. If you find one, there's 6 more hiding. If you kill one, there's 6 more still hiding...and mad.

And the only real solution

A cat still works too. Even a lazy cat drives them away with pheromones or something.

Find the holes and plug them up.

i heard that this stops the house from "breathing"

houses are ppl too

"breathing" is a euphemism for "being stuffed with mice"

Sounds like you need a humane house trap too then.

hahaha tracer u should get a pied pipe and lead them all on a merry dance across town to an orphanage and tell them never to return

Open a window. The house doesn't need a dime-sized hole next to the stove pipes or radiator to "breathe".

A cat still works too. Even a lazy cat drives them away with pheromones or something.

This is definitely not true.

We got an electric rat killer, it's zapped about 15 of the fuckers (mice, not rats) over the last 2 weeks, at least the rate has slowed down now but they're still around I think.

i live in a big apartment building so i'm very dubious of my ability to plug all the holes - can't remember where i heard the "breathing" thing, it sounds pretty bonkers

THERE'S AN ELECTRIC RAT-KILLER?? Holy fucking technology, that would have CHANGED MY LIFE at my last apartment.

It rules, you just hear this BZZZZZZZZZT noise from the cupboard, then just go and tip the mouse in the bin, reset it, and back in the cupboard.

You need a smellier cat! (xxxpost)

That would have saved my roommate having to beat a rat to death on the bathroom floor.

cats are great for mice since they like to toy with them for hours before going in for the kill which means you can usually snatch up the mouse while theyre holding its tail and let it go outside relatively unharmed.

But I fear the actual solution is as said above, to block wherever they're coming in. We can't actually do this, since we're just renting. We'd have to tear out the cupboards/floor to get to where they're coming in I think.

xpost I had to kill a few mice before we got it, cos the cats just carry them around for a bit til they get bored then let them go.

if you're renting, your landlord is responsible for taking care of pests.

Well yeah, he paid for the electric rat trap.

mice are ppl too

yes! ppl who steal food and leave shit in what they don't eat and keep you awake at night with scuffling noises at all hours and never move away voluntarily or learn more polite habits. iow, the kind of ppl you want to strangle with your bare hands and nail their carcass to your door as a warning to others of their kind.

there was a mouse (and then about 5) in my house a few months back. someone (who doesnt like mice) killed all 4 with a brush. but then we saw one that somehow escaped the next day and it was so out of it it didnt seem to know what it was doing at all so i managed to capture it in a jar and then took it to the park. i wonder what happened to it. i dont hate mice, i just dont want them anywhere near me.

A biologist friend of mine once referred to mice as "Nature's popcorn".

Tracer you sucker, the humane traps don't work. If you eat meat, surely you can kill a mouse.

DOWN IN ONE

Humane traps work just fine, but positioning is critical. You folks are just meanies.

mice are quite clever at avoiding them too

Houses need to breathe?

I've never felt the classic snap-close mouse traps were too inhumane, the damn things die in less time than it takes to say 'dead mouse.' They do go through a more hellish experience dying while getting batted around endlessly by the capricious killing machine known as the domesticated kittycat.

Mice in my house once ate some of my oil paints and part of a bar of Ivory soap. If you ever see mice blowing colored bubbles, you know they've had a slumber party at my pad.

I just totally killed a mouse in the MOST GRISLY MANNER. Opening the basement door, I saw a mouse. It was running toward the door jamb. Because I am me, I screamed at the top of my lungs, freaked out, and shut the door ON THE MOUSE. Half of it was inside and the other half was outside. OMG. I killed the fuck out of that mouse.

Eeee that's grisly all right.

On one hand, I'm horrified by what I've done (even though I did it accidentally). On the other hand, bisecting the mouse in the door jamb was swift, decisive, and effective at removing the mouse. Today, I am a killer of mice.

Well, hopefully just one.

MOUSE KILLAH

No mercy. NONE.

Sphincter-less freeloaders unwelcome in my house, whatever the species. None for ages - I hope the mouse grapevine is full of news about the many perilous glue traps to be found in my flat, should one of their number ever cross my threshold.

ratatouille

>>> A cat still works too. Even a lazy cat drives them away with pheromones or something.

This is definitely not true.

What did seem to work was being infested with rats instead. Regular mouse invasions stopped dead after that one. Happily about a year ago my landlord decided to replace my kitchen cupboards and while the old ones were ripped out the workmen blocked up all the holes the bastards were getting in through so we haven't had either kind of vermin since then.

i've been slaying mosquitoes, or at least trying to. they have a weird ability to be squashed 'neath hand and then spring up unaffected

have sworn off killing any other species for now, even if they do sit athwart a particularly exposed branch

haha

On one hand, I'm horrified by what I've done (even though I did it accidentally). On the other hand, bisecting the mouse in the door jamb was swift, decisive, and effective at removing the mouse. Today, I am a killer of mice.

― no fomo (La Lechera), Saturday, August 17, 2013 6:14 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This is awesome. I applaud you on the dwindling mouse population in your home.

I tried the bisection method with a shovel when I had to put a severely injured hamster out of its misery last fall (posts on this somewhere in the parenting board). A shovel is NOT a good tool for swiftly and decisively bisecting small mammals and everybody would have been much better off if I had just smashed its head with a hammer.

I can definitely say with absolute certainty that if I had to mercy kill a small mammal, I would call Jesse and have him come over and do it for me.

He wouldn't like it and we'd probably have to undergo couples counseling after, but he's one of the few people I know with enough pragmatism and steely reserve to get the job done swiftly and humanely.

It's definitely not easy. I was a teenager he first time a cat of mine half-killed a mouse, and I waited like 15 minutes with it just twitching and dying in a bucket for my dad to get home to do it. He was quick and decisive and effective about it. Got some mouse guts on my shirt though. <3 you dad.

I am the master of dealing with small critters in the house without mercy or squeamishness. Cockroach in the sink making my daughter scream? I'll take care of it. Cricket in the laundry hamper? No problem. This past spring a baby squirrel ran into my daughter's room when she had her door open to take advantage of pleasant temps. I cornered it in her closet and crushed its little skull with one poke of a walking stick. If I can eat a bacon cheeseburger knowing what I know about factory farming, now's not the time to go all faint with a rodent in the house.

you are a good person to have around! now that i've met you, i can confirm that you have a thorough mastery of calm during chaotic circumstances.

My call to action is usually the sound of a stinkbug on patrol somewhere over our heads after we've turned out all the lights.

I emailed Jesse to tell him I was talking about him on this thread and why and he responded (posted w/ permission):

But you're WRONG - I WOULD like it. I would like it so much that I don't know if I could stop killing, and the factors of mercy, swiftness, and humaneness would soon become unimportant.

So basically it's all on you to protect us from this madman by killing the mice your own damn self.

The last time Jeff and I had a mouse in our house, we trapped it in a measuring cup and released it outside by the dumpsters. I am not a reliable killer of anything I might possibly find even remotely cute. I don't even like killing bugs.

My preference for killing small mammals when necessary is to gas them. IMO it's far and away the easiest way to go. Last time I had to do it was a few years ago. My cat had maimed this adorable little mouselet (if he hadn't been hurt, I'd have released him down the street), so I put him in a jar and sprayed butane from a canister I bought to refill my BBQ lighter. He went to sleep and it was very easy and peaceful.

When I was in high school I had pet rats and one of them was dying, so I put him in a plastic bag and filled it with propane from my dad's homemade flame thrower (for burning one of our horses' and mules' grazing areas before winter).

omg

i was wondering why no one suffocates unwanted animal intruders though, so who am i to talk

I caught a rat in a pair of overalls once.

on hols in spain a few months back i had to hold a cockroach down while my mate throttled it, it was that big srsly

i go to great lengths to let other creatures live tbh

are you sure it wasn't a british expatriate?

Cockroach news of cockroack britain

feel like drowning is also a good option

8 years ago I opened up one of the drawers in our hutch and a little mouse stared up at me all 'SUP'

Without thinking I bolted to the front of the house, opened the front door, stood on the porch and then hollered to Mr Veg (still inside the house) that there was a mouse and could he please get rid of it

I never thought I was afraid of them but, wow hey turns out I am weee :(

Let me amend my previous statement. I would lose my shit and also gleefully take a shovel/boot/rocket launcher to a rat if I found a rat in our house.

http://www.ruthlessreviews.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/food1.jpg

L to R: Rats, me

I don't have anything against your garden variety Norway rat trundling down an alley or slinking in and out of dumpsters, and I am all for fancy rats as pets kept contained in the house, but a Norway rat in my house and it's war.

one time a giant rat or possibly a possum was staring at me through my open barred basement bedroom window and the only thing i could think of to do when i opened my eyes and saw its disgusting red eyes staring back at me is to hiss and scowl and tell it to get away from my bedroom window.
it did!

Did it introduce itself as Jody?

I was sleeping and I opened my eyes and there it was staring at me. No introduction whatsoever.

I had a mouse visitor once and drove it away w cottonballs doused w some peppermint oil. They hate peppermint oil and will stay away from anywhere that has that smell. Cayenne pepper too iirc

oooh, I love that kinda shit. "why am I dumping all this cayenne pepper behind the stove? because FUCK ROACHES!"

:D

one time i opened a head height kitchen cabinet and found a mouse staring back. fuck knows how it got in there, cuz while i was thinking of how to get rid of it it made its own way out by jumping in the direction of my face, landing on the kitchen counter, jumping off of that, landing at my feet, and scurrying into a hole.

Mice can squash themselves very flat and squeeze through some very tight cracks, if scrumptious food awaits them as their reward.

Humane traps work fine (though get one large enough for your pest) with the right bait. Peanut butter works well. I walked the three I caught a few blocks away to cower under some rocks, but I suspect they met the same fate as this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VyQipO4miw

As I once mentioned on a thread long ago, biologists sometimes refer to mice as 'nature's popcorn'.

we have RATS aieeee

they came because of the birdfeeders, sorry birds but no more food for a while

full on war has begun with snap traps, cayenne, and anything else we can do besides poison. don't want them dying in the walls, shudder.

we live like 500 yards from a river, so there have been sightings outside over the years, but this is the first time they have made a real takeover kind of move.

I am the master of dealing with small critters in the house without mercy or squeamishness. Cockroach in the sink making my daughter scream? I'll take care of it. Cricket in the laundry hamper? No problem. This past spring a baby squirrel ran into my daughter's room when she had her door open to take advantage of pleasant temps. I cornered it in her closet and crushed its little skull with one poke of a walking stick. If I can eat a bacon cheeseburger knowing what I know about factory farming, now's not the time to go all faint with a rodent in the house.

― cops on horse (WilliamC), Monday, 19 August 2013 13:37 (5 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

"congratulations, you are ready to sitemod ILX"

^^ the addition of the quote marks creates an air of drama and mystery

Got to watch my cat wolf down a mouse today! He had been stalking that thing for about an hour while I was getting ready for work. He caught it right when my son came downstairs to get ready for his first day of school. He was squicked out by it, but the cat worked so hard for that thing, I just told him we would wait until he was done eating to pick up the pieces. But he ate the whole thing! Just left one little organ or piece of tissue or whatever. I hope he doesn't puke it all back up for my wife while I'm at work.

put some putty in a crack in the skirting board. little fucker's not been back. he was getting p f'ing cheeky. coming out at day, staring at me from under my desk. something had to be done.

Once found a mouse petrified in terror next to a flaming gas burner on the cooker. Didn't know what to do and felt sorry for the wee fella so just nuged it away till it came to its senses and scurried off.

there are really not enough 'hoots mon' references on this thread

God, I think there's another one. He's on the prowl again this morning. ; \

My toddler's been eating a lot of crackers all over the place these days. It's probably a smörgåsbord for these little guys.

Somehow a mouse got into our wall the other night. Woke up at 3am to the sound of something clawing at the inside of the bedroom wall. It continued until I had to get up. Little sleep was had. My wife is terrified of mice. Eventually the sounds stopped later than morning. I'd like to think the little critter found his way out, but more likely he perished.

put some putty in a crack in the skirting board. little fucker's not been back. he was getting p f'ing cheeky. coming out at day, staring at me from under my desk. something had to be done.

there was an amusing bit where he was scampering across an open bit of floor, and like a nazi guard I shone my reading light on him, and he paused, mid-step, leg hanging like a dog's paw, looked over, and then hot cha-cha'd behind the plastic storage boxes.

it was charming, but then I remembered suzy's key word "sphincterless" and got the putty out.

Real bold little fucker is making his way around this kitchen - I thought I saw something in the corner of my eye the other day, now it's confirmed

I had shoved some aluminum foil in various holes behind the cabinets (very old building), and he chewed his way through - so I cut up a beer can and nailed little barriers

Put the pasta in the freezer, cereal & crackers in sealed jars.. but I'm out for blood

(the weather has been wet & cold, maybe he's just looking for somewhere warm to sleep... I've seen no evidence of this particular mouse tearing into anything)

plz have mercy! i vote give the mouse a cookie 🍪🐭

I've been reading up-thread about using coarse steel wool to fill in the cracks.. apparently they won't try to chew through that

And I ordered some kind of ultrasonic repeller thing off eBay.. I'm a little doubtful but it was only $5

At the end of a long day, there’s nothing better than to reach for some pasta from the freezer

plz have mercy! i vote give the mouse a cookie 🍪🐭

― The field divisions are fastened with felicitations. (Deflatormouse), Tuesday, 28 February 2023 23:08 (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

hmm, i think we should wait to hear from poster 'cat' to get a more balanced picture.

ulrasonic things do nothing. coarse steel wool is the way to go. i think we sealed it with insulating foam but rat bastards can chew through that. we were terrorised by a rat last winter. chewed through a thick plastic container of oats, my new handbag, all the food. i can still hear the scratching in my sleep, ugh.

Deflatormouse, do not read this entire thread!

you'll want a rat zapper, owltra mouse trap or some other electric trap if you want to catch and kill. load up with some peanut butter filled pretzels and you'll get your guy.

condolences to Deflatormouse, but the deed is done. Old fashioned Victor snap trap and a little piece of swiss cheese

I discovered that he'd invaded the pantry and pooped and peed everywhere, he had to go

I'm still gonna get some steel wool for the gaps & cracks

hmm, i think we should wait to hear from poster 'cat' to get a more balanced picture.

i (belatedly) second the motion to give a mouse a cookie. this will make the mouse plump and juicy, perhaps even cookie-flavored.

but srsly since our cat died in september word has gotten around the rodent community that it's open season on our asses and i've caught like 20 mouses since then? we use the little clear green plastic humane traps, smeared with peanut butter at the far inside end. then we sneak them to a nearby goat farm. i just released one there two days ago, in fact! its name was lil' bit. and i've heard its compatriot rustling in the walls, so once the weather warms again i'll snatch that one up as well. its name will be glimbo.

r.i.p. 2 mousie the grasshopper 🪦

I'm gonna invest in a live trap for future invaders, but I was desperate and had the old guillotine on hand

AYO IT'S YA GLIMBO

https://media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com/image/upload/t_social_share_1200x630_center,f_auto,q_auto:best/streams/2013/August/130806/6C8538891-tdy-130806-AT-skateboard-mice-tease.jpg

(^ not actually le glimbeau; yr man don't care for the paparazzi)

i put out the guesthouse last night, and this afternoon glimbus maximus sauntered on in. a while ago i released him at the little hippie goat farm where he'll have lots of space to run and play! just kidding, he'll probs die tonight, cold and scared and alone.

i am becoming too enamored of these feculent plague vectors :( i've been without a real pet for too long and now i'm catching feelings for anything furry & smaw. i want to keep the mice. i want to build them tiny hice. i wanna gather sticks and grass & constuct adorable fairy cottages for them, and cozy little beds of milkweed silk where they can cuddle together, warm and safe, while they dream of mousy things. i want to give them elaborate jungle gyms to play on, and miniature trampolines, and tiny castles of cheese, and and and and

but i cannot. i must not. there are many excellent unarguable-with reasons why this cannot be.

it is kind of bullshit that life has so many inescapable cruelties and u can't really opt out (bar going full jain or etc)

here are a few more nicknames for my lost glimbus:

glimbert
glimbergher
glimmy

I found more tiny turds in the pantry today.. i scrubbed the shelves with vinegar, it was gnarly

I think I have things more or less sealed off for now, but these little bastards...

lol yeah mice be poopin

more coarse steel wool stuffed in all yr homes' crevices will help, and thank u for reminding me, now that i am currently mouseless i'd better get on that too

homes'? well i guess if you happen to have multiple homes under siege then you might as well

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bhzpR0VF-hQ/Tlbd2lgNA8I/AAAAAAAAAEE/7ZkOli8ZCAM/s1600/ignatz.gif

i put the trap out yesterday after two afternoons of a mouse wandering across my field of view as i sat on the sofa. he's quiet, i have to say, his predecessors have always been louder

Our baby boy kitty caught his first Proper Mouse the other day! And then he didnt know what to do with it! He trotted around the house, dropped it, it played dead then tried to make a run for it, he grabbed it again and I guess killed it.

Then proceeded to dry-heave til we had to take the mouse away from him worried it had rat poison on it (we dont use any).

But yeah let that be a lesson to the rest of yiz, meece.

PICS

PICS OF BABY BOY KITTY

PICS OF BABY BOY KITTY AT ONCE (pls?)

good baby kitty, protecting his people from infestation! sounds like mama kitty didn't teach him that u can eat things u catch; iirc all kitties have the instinct to huntcatchkill but if they usually get fed by people then their mama has to show them the eating-yr-prey part (unless they hongrey)

i am awarding baby boy kitty a commemorative golden mouse trophy: 🐭🏆🐭

mice be poopin

otm

Heh he's not actually a babby anymore, he's 4 and a hulking big lad really :D

https://imgur.com/a/A3RW1EW

oh poo why didnt that work
https://imgur.com/a/A3RW1EW

they r precious snoogle babbies furever iirc

OMG THAT BELLY 🤍🖤🤍🖤🤍

Haha I dont know how you managed to make it show, but yeah. He looooves lying on his back and rolling around like a derpa.

cat bellies have a secret message written on them that means "u cool and i am happy & safe here" <3<3<3

meanwhile in mouse news i slacked off and now it sounds like we almost have enough for a circus.

"hey mr. cat maybe we should pause putting offerings on the shrine til we get the pestilence sorted"

"nah ms. cat it'll be fine"

"k" *rides off in mouse-drawn chariot*

If you stop feeding the cat I predict mouse carcasses

I can live with mice, but I draw the line at bats.

lol stop feeding the cat & u get a cat who will pester u 94/7

alternatively the neighbors get a new cat who comes begging around with tails of woe (if they don't already)

bats cute but the rabies thing wld give me pawse

Having seen more than one up close, I would have to disagree with your position that bats are cute.

i shld have kept the pack rat who tried to move in a couple years ago, was v cute and we cld have disguised him as a chinchilla 🥸

hm i guess bats are best appreciated from a distance. when u see them flapping around at dusk in spring & summer they seem like lovely little sky mice!

how'd you get to meet multiple bats, jimbeaux? if i put a bug lamp outside my window will it draw spooky bat friends to me during the appropriate seasons? why are bats associated with autumn and bare trees if i only see them when it's warm out? ~bat mysteries~

One of the cats brought one in the house one time. We had to cover it with a wastebasket and kind of shuffle it out of the house.

Another one was lying on its back the brick wall outside our garage. I thought it was dead. To my surprise, when I nudged it with a stick it kind of flapped around and hissed. I guess cold weather can make them sluggish, so sluggish they can't fly.

that is pretty cool! pls hi5 yr cat for me

did you tenderly nurse the chill bat back to warmth, and did it then grant you 3 wishes or come back later to help you out of a jambeaux? wish i cld find a bat

I did not want to go anywhere near that bat. It was creepy af, especially the way it hissed.

u lost out bro bats have mad magical properties probably

I've always thought it would be cool to have vampire powers.

vamp stylee is perennial for sure. imagine going around with a lil bat dangling from your earlobe, you would be the baddest mfer!

oh shoot i just had a great idea for earrings

🚨2 of the suspects have been apprehended 🚨

https://i.imgur.com/sW5TN9e.jpg

above: le garçon du fromage
below: benevolent despot

they frolic with the goats now. shameless beastlings! how dare they look up at me all cute and helpless with their shiny eyes and delicate ears!

One ran out of my bathroom the other morning. I tracked it down and smashed it with a small bookshelf I had handy

As one does.

dang did a mouse like murder your whole family or something

how u smash things with a bookshelf

a bookshelf fell on me one time when i was sleeping, i was quite startled

cat I just bought two of those green traps on your recommendation, but I haven't had any recent visitors to test them out on

what ya gotta do, see, is rub cheese over your entire house so the neighborhood mice know where the party's at

but seriously, good luck Andy! hopefully you won't get any more visitors but if you do, may they blithely waltz in2 their guest quarters with a minimum of dallying/poop.

Benevolent Despot doesn't look so benevolent.

tim scurry finally had enough of my nonsense babytalk

https://i.imgur.com/mXlFWOS.mp4

moose & mousse & mathilde have all 3 gone to live at the cow shed by the creek, where i wish them many happy moons.

but why, one begins to wonder. why try to hold back the mousy tide? i could start a circus. i could start a mouse zoo & charge people admission. when it's cold out why not sleep under a heaving blanket of mice. perhaps this is how stockholm syndrome begins.

oh happy day, i've been blessed with a visitor 🐭 welcome little friend, hope you like peanut butter! 🥜🥜🧈

they'll piss in your pantry and eat your grape-nuts, get him out of there

do not listen to grasshopper, listen to me

start a mouse farm

swim in mouses

profit

i'm housesitting across town for the summer again, leaving mr. cat to his own messy devices, which in short order = more mices

he's caught a half dozen or so since i've been away 😑

Lemme come over, I’ll bring my little bookshelf and have a fuckin’ stake out

sorry, i can't hear you over the pitter-patter of little feet ♥️♥️♥️

calstars mousebane, slayer of rodents, wielding their dread bookshelf for the glory of lord orkin!

anyway here's gerald jr. from last week

https://i.imgur.com/TVyPK96.mp4

o hai 💗

i always thought if i received a little visitor i'd call him Gerald but i'm liking Amos.

o dag Amos is a gr8 mouse name

yeah, cause Amo(u)s(e) 😍
pairs well with my first name too, i didn't even think of that.

adorable mouse alert!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLDPzQ42kws

<3

in defiance of the warnings of my youth, i have given cookies to mice.

a new brood has appeared so i busted out our wee guesthouses and slathered the far interiors with peanut butter + parmesan, but the very first night we had any takers the weather decided to snow!! intolerable. it's bad enough i'm exiling them from their home; kicking them out to make their way through the freezing streets like fuzzy little matchgirls is too much.

(or, idk, freezing could be a more merciful end than most mice meet? i feel obliged to give them some chance at life. wish i could offer them a haven but there isn't any way afaics? they're sociable, so can't be kept in isolation, but if kept in groups they'll breed themselves to ruin! plus our lease probably says something about not harboring vermin or whatnot)

right so anyway. the temps rise tomorrow and sally & sue are tucked in their adjoining capsule apartments for the night. i'll not have it said on mousebnb that i am an ungracious host, so in addition to the peanut pâté & fromage i have slipped them each wisps of apple and pea-sized chunks of a cookie that expired last year, which they both set to busily nibbling at once.

poor pitiful morsels, they're free now. sally leapt forth the moment i lifted the doors but sensible sue preferred to stay put and needed a few minutes of whispered encouragement before darting away (around and behind me, opposite the direction of her companion & my scatter of fancy granola, oh well). if they follow the smell of the goats they should find food and shelter. also i knelt in deer crap.

Karmic payback for helping the little monsters

well maybe i enjoy kneeling in deer crap, did you ever think of that mr. mouse murderer! maybe i did it on purpose! maybe i'm bragging about it and you're just jealous that you don't have any nice mushy deer crap to kneel on!!!!!!!

that's quite the feast! i keep peanuts and sesame seeds on hand for smol visitors but cookies are a special treat! you were so sweet to put them up and give them a fighting chance, it's what we all would want <3

this hero built them a village on his property
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-TDyQ7K5O8

Deflatormouse in the deflatorHAUS

subscribing to george mouse w/ very much passionate commitment, thanking u & parrying thus:

https://recordart.files.wordpress.com/2020/08/ricotta-shopfront.jpg

amazing, where did you find that?!

kisses incoming
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBQTHRLLn7U

hamster kisses >>>>>>>>>>>> hipster kisses

once i started watching tiny mouse house videos the algorithm suggested one on ANONYMOUSE and a new passion was kindled! the cover story is they're an anonymous collective of artists who install exquisite mouse-sized shops/bistros/hotels throughout (usually) sweden, but imho this is clearly the work of fairies

https://100bookseverychildshouldreadbeforegrowingup.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/1_vn3xaog1tm8ol_mbmxn5mw.jpg

^from the indian in the cupboard?

uh ANONYMOUSE rules, holy cow 🐄♥️♥️♥️

clearly the work of fairies

otm

endpapers of the edn of “the borrowers” that i had as a kid

not seen or heard any mice for ages...

but earlier i dropped a dorrito on the kitchen floor and, as my hands were full (of more dorritos), i left it there momentarily...

5 minutes later, some scurrying. i stomp into the kitchen making as much noise as possible. nothing.

5 minutes later i remember the dorrito, and not seeing it the previous time. i check. it's not there. it's been dragged behind the fridge.

seems like i have a mouse. or borrowers.

(can you imagine being a mouse and having a whole Dorito to yourself? it would be almost as big as you)

Mice, not in the house, but in the cars. According to the laughable estimate we got from a dealership, it would cost $1,650 to repair the somewhat minimal damage done to our newer car. I've got no beef with mice in general, if they stay out of our house and cars, but enough is enough. I set out four traps yesterday. Trapped two overnight. We're also investigating using peppermint oil as a mouse repellent and wrapping some of the wiring with capsaicin-impregnated tape.

Mice in my kitchen actually getting into food, which is the first time there's ever been damage. We've had them on and off for years but they seemed to just travel across our floor and then disappear again. Never chewed through anything before, but they're getting on counters and into tough plastics now. Have trapped 2 but there are more. O_o

My mom said "Get a cat" but we don't want a cat. Maybe we can borrow a cat? A very sedate one that doesn't claw things. Idk.

Yeah also thinking of peppermint deterrents, Aim! Lmk if it works?

xp Rodent repellent sprays for vehicles are peppermint based and might be cheaper than peppermint oil. They do seem to help when applied to the tastiest areas under the hood (for us that was a fabric battery heat shield and some wiring insulation). It can also be helpful to avoid leaving the car parked in the same spot, especially if it's not driven all the time. Changing the parking spot by even a short distance seems to reduce the inclination of rodents to hang out in the engine compartment.

Today I learned

Myth: Rodents Like The Taste Of Wire Coating
You have probably heard rumors that car manufacturers use soy and other organic products when making car wires, which is why rodents chew on the internal wiring of cars. This could not be further from the truth. Unfortunately, rodents chew on things for a far more practical reason: they need to keep their teeth trimmed.

Fact: Rodents' Teeth Keep Growing
As we keep mentioning, rodents need to keep their teeth trimmed. This is because their teeth do not stop growing. If rodents like squirrels and mice do not trim their teeth they will grow so long they will not be able to eat.

I was just about to post “what is it about engine wire that’s so damn tasty”

i've had one that's run across the gap between the stereo and the cd shelves at about 6pm every day for about a week, but not for the last couple of days.

thinking it's time to rewatch Mouse Hunt

Trivia for the day: Apollo was associated with a lot of things, like the sun and the fine arts, but he was also known as the god of mice.

coat engine wire in calcium

I have to confess to having electrocuted a mouse in a trap this week. Up until last year, I'd always aimed to "live trap".

I didn't massively mind when they were just sticking to limited parts of the kitchen but was just too weird and stressful when I knew they'd been in some drawers of clothing (and I would see one every time I woke in the night).

ah, the wicked little darlings

we had to trash a dresser when we found they'd rummaged every drawer like it was a 3-storey apartment building

i'd have much preferred kitting it out with dollhouse furniture and spycams, but alas

It might amuse that I have just realised that the mouse is managing to hoard *cat biscuits* behind a book case. The cat has truly given up hunting.

that's awesome

I found where they were getting in the kitchen and covered all the holes with a cut-up soup can... Haven't had a mouse in a long time but the pantry still vaguely smells like mouse piss

The cat is old and is in for 23 hours a day. A mouse is managing to go to his cat bowl and steal, while he oblivious.

actual squeaking coming from kitchen yesterday, which I've not heard before. did the usual thing of walking around in there noisily, opening cupboards and wobbling the fridge and it went away.

A colleague had a rat coming into his house. It wasn't just eating food left out in the kitchen but things like the sponge he had for washing up. He used to close the kitchen door and then knock before going in.

We’ve had a mouse in the flat for a week. In case you were wondering, whippets are shite at mousing: Widget just looked at me as if to say “the fuck was that?” as one ran out from behind my sofa.

“The horror…”

> i've had one that's run across the gap between the stereo and the cd shelves at about 6pm every day for about a week, but not for the last couple of days.
> ― koogs, Thursday, 5 December 2024

back, and at 2 in the afternoon. has he been hibernating?

Our now-fatarse boy caught a mouse again recently so we opened the back door so he could take it outside to make a mess with but the fucker just dropped the mouse and ran outside, he was more interested in Going Outdoors than the damn mouse (which he'd killed anyway). He'd been stalking the fridge for like a week.

(the mouse was prob behind the fridge. Not in it.)

this evening he just seems to be wandering around, first over there, then over there. always seems surprised to see me and scampers off even though i haven't moved. he was sniffing the (unset) humane trap earlier. let's see if he's stupid enough to wander into it.

flat is so cluttery that the odds are in his favour tbh, there's like 75% of it that i can't reach. and what would i do if i did corner him, catch him with my hands?

Killed a mouse in the "electrocuting trap" this week and I must confess to an odd feeling of relief. I'd prefer to catch them in humane traps but they often don't seem, um, tempting to them.

There’s a mouse in my flat, plus one useless whippet who hasn’t noticed it. Widget has seen mice outside recently, and went nuts trying to get at them. *sigh*

Ugh I think we might have a whole nest in the crawlspace/gap in our living room where the water heater and furnace live - theres a space large enough to stick ones head into and look about but you couldnt climb right in there easily. But I can see mousecrap everywhere. This house is such a shithole.

Can you stuff it full of steel wool or something?

I'm sure this has been covered upthread but I learned this week that you are not supposed to use a vacuum to get rid of mouse poop

Why

Yeah why bcs that is what I was planning on doing :/

so apparently it stirs up dust and is one of the main reasons people contract the hantavirus (and various other illnesses). There is also an exhaust on a vacuum which shoots the nasty stuff into the air, especially in rooms that are not ventilated. I know there are a lot of alarmists online, so after I read some very scary things I spoke to a few smarter-than-me real life friends about this and they confirmed that the consensus is to never sweep or vacuum mouse poop, but to spray disinfectant on it and then (yikes) wipe it up with a cloth, wearing a mask at all times. Mouse poop is serious business, I guess. Things you were shockingly old when you learned! I've used a small hand vacuum thing on mice droppings in the past, guess I dodged a bullet. Also FYI it's not only the poop that you can see that is dangerous but also the invisible urine and saliva that accompanies it

It is but hantavirus isn't everywhere. I believe it's only a N/S America thing and in the US the overwhelming majority of cases are west of the Mississippi. There's a good map here - https://www.cdc.gov/hantavirus/data-research/cases/index.html. Still wouldn't fuck with mouse poop but wouldn't worry too much unless you're in the Western US. The dude I dated during uni moved to Gallup NM the year there was a huge outbreak (which weirdly was a result of the santa ana winds because the winds meant more pinon nuts which meant more mice) of hantavirus. I did a lot of reading on the topic that summer lol.

> I've used a small hand vacuum thing on mice droppings in the past

I've used a small hand vacuum thing on mice droppings in the past week!

there was a guy on uk programme Car SOS who contracted something from rat dropping that fucked his liver. in fact, here you go

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/hantaviruses

talks about 'Old World hantavirus'

Yeah, there are similar viruses in Europe but they're not respiratory and I think usually milder but maybe not. Good practice not to vacuum or sweep mouse droppings in general. Was just saying I wouldn't get too freaked out about it because it's still pretty rare overall.

I hadn’t moved the washing machine from its spot for awhile, so when the pestie showed up last week, we had to move it, check for droppings, and remove the droppings. Pro tip: use dilute biological laundry detergent in a spray bottle - it breaks down animal wee of any kind, and said animals tend not to return to places that have been cleaned with bio liquid.

had a mouse in the bin bag earlier. was sat on the sofa and could hear it rustling. there's nothing approaching food in there, just plastic packaging so i laid it on its side and kicked it a bit and he ran out and under the skirting board.

i also notice the humane trap is closed. but did i close it when I'd not seen anything for a couple of weeks or is it full of starved mouse?

in the last 30 minutes the mouse has eaten the two pumpkin seeds at the mouth of the trap whilst resisting the temptation of the seeds and nuts within the tap. i didn't hear a thing, despite being 10ft away.

it was as quiet as a _____.