DH:1, Mouse:0
 

Oh the joys of living in the country. A mouse in the house. Edit... Mice in the house - no such thing as one mouse.

However this morning, there is one less mouse in the house. The battle continues.

I know there are worse things.... but I do not like sharing my space with mice.

I hate meeces to pieces!

In our old house about 25 years ago, I was in the bathroom in the middle of the night, just minding my own business. Suddenly, a little gray mouse ran under the bathroom door, looked around, and ran back out. It was so quick, I didn't quite believe what I saw. In the morning, I told my DH, and he set some traps, got the little stinker! I was very glad, I'm not crazy about midnight visitors who can get under doors!

Our outside cat makes a deposit of mice and moles at our backdoor almost weekly. No rodent problem at all around here. DH says it's the only animal we have that earns it's keep. He went to the shelter and got another one to help out. They have a heated place with comfy cat beds to get in an out of at will before I get replies about outside pets LOL

I had a opulent little buddies in the ceiling tiles of my sewing room last winter...I gave the hubby his choice..get the mice before I actually see one or I get cats! He dosent want pets right now so he got the mice within two days..all gone! Haven't seen tracks from one since!

Yes I feel the same way as Tartan but it was a losing battle. I had a big one who had numerous hiding places. Put some poison out and he must have left and died. He got into some of my fabric and boy can they every leave their mark !! He would steal food from my Westie bowl as my Westie slept right next to it.

We will wage war with traps (sorry people - mice are dirty rodents that carry diseases that can kill humans) for now.

Plan #2 involves our grandkitty - having sleepovers.

Plan #3 - setting up those noise emitting deterrents.

We had a mouse last week! Only one, as it was brought in by DC (Dear Cat? Or D... Cat?). DH caught it and released over the fence. DC probably ate it next morning.

***
*** I have had one this year also.
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*** They seem to go in cycles -
*** some years none -
*** then the population explodes.
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*** They like to get into the motor of your lawn mower in my out building.
*** Cost me $60. to get the bed taken out last year.
***

I have four cats, and my sister next door has about eleven. I don't think I've seen a mouse in about 7 years.

I have two old cats who used to be great (indoor) hunters. Then they became fans of the 'catch and release' program--especially in my bedroom at 3 am!! Now they look at the mice and doze off. I have great clothespin style traps that I got at Home Depot. Easy to set and easy to dispose of the 'remains'. Never have to actually touch the body. We average about 1 mouse every week or so during the winter. They have been fat and sassy this year.

We have a ton this year! Have never had any trouble in the nine years we've lived here in the country, but we had a wet spring and summer. We've caught about 16 (!) since Thanksgiving. I am NOT a mouse fan, for sure and they have found hantavirus in mice in our county, so I'm constantly looking for poop or pee and wiping everything down with bleach wipes. Dh found a YouTube where a guy suggested using a piece of tootsie roll for bait. You chew it a bit to soften it and put it on the bait thing on a snap trap. Works like a charm! It sticks to the trap so they can't steal the bait.

One had babies in one of my scrap boxes. Lucky for me it wasn't a box of fondness. I put a trap in to catch "Momma and got her. Took her remains and the babies all 12 of them to the back corner and let nature take it's course. Smaller birds loved the scraps for their nests. 2 days later no signs of scraps or remains. Would I do it again? You betcha. There is just nothing cute about a rodent of any kind to me. They spread disease. The only cute rodent is an animated one on paper and still not even fond of Mickey or Minnie.

We don't have any mice problems. Kola is the "Great grey striped hunter". And with the dogs, anything that moves in the yard is caught and eaten...lol

Except moles.....Cali (our shy dog) loves to catch them but none of them will eat them.

do you know mice can have babies every 20 days?

I am with you.... I don't like mice in my space either. We have traps laid all around the house. It is a trapping of living in the country. But, I like the country.

I have an electronic mouse trap and an electronic repeller. I haven't had to use the trap for a long time. Now if I could just get rid of the opossums.

Ick. Before we moved here, our house was in the country. I never thought mice got in the house, but I found droppings in the kitchen cupboards when I was clearing them out for the move. It was so gross. When we moved here, as soon as one appeared in the garage, my husband put out the traps.

I live in the suburbs and they liked my cloth dish rags, it is the only thing they ate, never saw them but saw a lot of evidence and not just the dishrags. They did not touch the cloth ones only the ones my mother made for me from cotton yarn. Have not seen them in a few years since we set the mouse house trap.

My mother used to always get field mice in the Fall so she would take some peanut butter, add a string into it and then add it to the mouse trap. The poor little critter will play with the string and get zapped in the process......but it worked like a charm for her. So far I've never seen a mouse in my house here in Iowa. I have a feeling my kitty would just play with it instead of doing her feline duty of taking it out.

I have 2 older outside cats and they have an old dog house with a heated whelping mat in there to stay warm. When we have a warm spell, they go off for a few days but sometimes 10 days, before coming back to their warm house. I think they are just on vacation during those times and love to see them back home again.
Aren't they great to make sure we know they are busy 'working' when we see their treasure.

If my cats saw a mouse in the house they would just think it was another pet I brought home.

I hate mice, they can be so destructive. They will chew up anything for bedding. Cost doesn't matter. Fixing openings about 1/8" and larger sure slows down the traffic. I have heard they leave a trail of urine and others follow it inside.

I do think Mickey and Minnie are very cute.

Many years ago I had a mouse chew completely through a ceiling tile! They are cute, but very destructive. We lived in the country and always got one or two in the house in the fall when the fields were cut down for winter. Traps with peanut butter always did the trick.

When we were first married, We would have them in the house all the time. We had refinished the entire old house. It had been empty for many years. I don`t know what was worse, a mouse running over a foot when you got up in the night or when the trap went off in the middle of the night in our closet, some were loud. Then came the barn work, My hubby thought it was funny to send me to the pig barn to get a shovel, after dark, and when I picked up the shovel there would be a rat. A whole bunch of near by farmers could hear me.

Yep when one lives in the country ya get em. DH's parents moved next door and they are catching mice-MIL thinks of them as dirty and their house is dirty. They want to throw something under the house to take care of the mice .. told em to go to a co-op as the traps aren't working.
We have them but not in the house as the foster cat takes care of them.

Onebyone: when we had our 40+ acres we had heated dog houses for the cats and they also led into the garage which was heated. Once in a while we would let them in the house to come by the fireplace to get warm if it was that cold outside and give them some cooked chicken as a reward. Usually they just got the leftover meats when out in the garage in addition to their cat food. Great cats tho. We did have one that was momma kitty and she would alert us if the kids were crying or in danger. Miss her for sure !
Oh and no mice .. LOL

What I hate worse than mice are roaches. Here in the south they are crazy lil creatures. Never had them up north but omg here especially if it rains. I use DE to get them. They eat this stuff and go back to nest and die and babies eat the mother and they die. I know its gross. Since I got this electronic device, haven't seem too many around. Mice are disease carriers like anything else that crawls.

Agree! Get the boogers! Hate them!

Sandy

Well at our house the cat does not go for the mice. My little wiener dogs get them. Great hunters.

No activity in the traps for two days now. So tonight we move them from the main floor up to the attic. This means war!

Put out the decon. I found that it works well, just make sure pets don't get to it, put it under something low. The mice will find it, but the others don't.

Mousetrap story to get your morning off to a good start....
Several years ago, while living with my younger sister while she endured "chemo", we moved into a house, in a little bitty Tennessee town, that had a severe mouse problem. The house was riddled with them. Sister's DH went to the hardware store to buy traps and found these wonderful sticky traps that were advertised as humane...not! The first morning we awoke to horrible screeching noises. All four traps had mice stuck to them! One even had two mice! Her DH had already left for a long haul run and would be gone six days. My sister starts bouncing up a down screaming ewwe! ewww! ewww! She carefully picks up one of the traps so the mouse can't touch her, and carefully caries it outside to throw it in the trash. As she stepped out the door, the wind caught it and blew it over to the neighbors house, and stuck glue side down, it to the outer wall of the house, about 7 feet up! Now my sister is faced with meeting her new neighbor, to ask for help in getting her mousetrap back to throw away...lol! All I could do to help is stand on the porch and laugh! The neighbor was kind enough to help get it down, but as he handed it back to her (with mouse still screaming,mind) and as she takes it from him, the wind caught it again! This time it stuck to the side of her pickup! I am still on the porch laughing all the harder, as she now gets to unstick it from the truck door. She finally got it pulled loose, mouse has finally shut up, she drops it into the trash, and we bought our first cup of coffee that morning on the way back from buying Decon! My sides hurt all day!

omg that's too funny but it is true -sticky traps are not humane in any way. lol I have a large wood pile and one year I seen between the fences (neighbors and mine) rats running thru there like it was the INdy -500. So I bought some decon and put it in between the fences. The rats ate it and ran into m y neighbors yard and died. One day my neighbor said to me, " hey have you been finding dead rats in your yard, cuz I been finding a few here and don't know where they are coming from"? All I could do is just laugh and laugh and think omg!. Thank go he is a good neighbor but the decon took care of the problem. Only seen 1 this year and a nite owl caught it...

I will have to look up decon on the internet - not sure what it is!

Some funny stories to laugh about - maybe not in the moment....

The only thing in the world I'm scared of (make that petrified of) is a mouse/rat. Alive or dead. They got into my a/c vent and I thought I would have a heart attack. One of my dad's cousins scared me with one when I was about 4-5. Snakes I can handle - literally but mice/rats make me hurt myself running away.

Thanks for making me laugh out loud! Although I am totally sympathetic to your sister's problem, your description of it was just what I needed today!

Very scary to use poison outdoors or if you have other pets indoors. Anything that handles the poisoned (hopefully dead) critter can also be killed. This includes your or your neighbor's pets and children.

The best rats, mice are dead one. Carry deadly diseases and can ruin an attic, chew through wires and cause fires…
Yeah, dead is best...

A mouse and a snake are two things that make me scream.

Best of luck with controlling them.

Hadn't seen any mice for awhile. Then just 2 nights ago, our Brutus (who thinks he is ALpha male) started barking like crazy in middle of night (about 130 am). Bridget not so much. She's like what the Hades are you b****ing about now? Got up and 2 small mice just watching him. I grabbed DH work boot (it was close) and threw at them. Got them both. Grabbed broom and dustpan and took them to the dumpster. Evidently just stunned them. DH heard them when he got up to go to work and set out for garbage pickup. Brutus will wake you if there is any kind of bug. He hates spiders.