Mouse (and other Pest) Wars

[FourAceDeal]

The trap behind the bin has just bagged mouse number four.  This one is smaller than the first three.

[WolFish]

This morning when I went out to do the compost I saw the neighbor's discarded mousetrap. So she's got them too. That means three potential sources of infestation.

The ones that chewed everything are all dead, i think. I am going to try soda and also the thing that I should have been doing all along - putting a trap on the kitchen counter. Cleaning up a blood spatter might not be as bad as all that. Also going to leave them a cape cod sans vodka.

Can mice get alcohol poisoning?

["couldbecousin"]

This morning when I went out to do the compost I saw the neighbor's discarded mousetrap. So she's got them too. That means three potential sources of infestation.

The ones that chewed everything are all dead, i think. I am going to try soda and also the thing that I should have been doing all along - putting a trap on the kitchen counter. Cleaning up a blood spatter might not be as bad as all that. Also going to leave them a cape cod sans vodka.

Can mice get alcohol poisoning?

  Never been drinking with any before. 


  A Cape Codder without alcohol would be just ... cranberry juice?  Are they allergic to that? 

[WolFish]

This morning when I went out to do the compost I saw the neighbor's discarded mousetrap. So she's got them too. That means three potential sources of infestation.

The ones that chewed everything are all dead, i think. I am going to try soda and also the thing that I should have been doing all along - putting a trap on the kitchen counter. Cleaning up a blood spatter might not be as bad as all that. Also going to leave them a cape cod sans vodka.

Can mice get alcohol poisoning?

  Never been drinking with any before. 


  A Cape Codder without alcohol would be just ... cranberry juice?  Are they allergic to that? 

I don't have the enzyme that lets people drink, so I had virgins - the version they made at the bar where I hung out made them with ginger ale, cranberry juice and vodka.
maybe I will make sangria for the mice. we have lots of white wine. if they drink they may exercise poor judgement and run into the traps.

["couldbecousin"]

This morning when I went out to do the compost I saw the neighbor's discarded mousetrap. So she's got them too. That means three potential sources of infestation.

The ones that chewed everything are all dead, i think. I am going to try soda and also the thing that I should have been doing all along - putting a trap on the kitchen counter. Cleaning up a blood spatter might not be as bad as all that. Also going to leave them a cape cod sans vodka.

Can mice get alcohol poisoning?

  Never been drinking with any before. 


  A Cape Codder without alcohol would be just ... cranberry juice?  Are they allergic to that? 

I don't have the enzyme that lets people drink, so I had virgins - the version they made at the bar where I hung out made them with ginger ale, cranberry juice and vodka.
maybe I will make sangria for the mice. we have lots of white wine. if they drink they may exercise poor judgement and run into the traps.

  So do you get that alcohol flush reaction? 

["couldbecousin"]

maybe I will make sangria for the mice. we have lots of white wine. if they drink they may exercise poor judgement and run into the traps.

  Either that, or they'll just become high-class drunks.

[Queen Victoria]

maybe I will make sangria for the mice. we have lots of white wine. if they drink they may exercise poor judgement and run into the traps.

  Either that, or they'll just become high-class drunks.

Or they become low-class drunks, sing "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall", smoke mousy cigarettes and leave tiny burns in your carpet, and order Pizza that you're expected to pay for since you're the host

.

[WolFish]

So I cleaned everything off the counter, including the toaster and other appliances. Cleaned any spatter I could find on any wall, floor or cabinet. Took away the soap  and all but one sponge (it's holding the faucet from hitting the wall). Left a jar top with white wine on the floor, reset the snap trap with bacon and brought the live catch trap down from my room. Took out the snack bar and put in buttered toast and bacon. Covered it with a cardboard egg carton and put that where they run.

Just heard a sound that is either the mice getting into the pots in the dish drain, or one got into the live catch trap. Pics to follow.

[FourAceDeal]

My mice are best trapped with peanut butter as bait.

[WolFish]

As best as we can figure, last night they ate the baked on oil on the bottom of a low hanging cast iron pot. Twice I heard noises that sounded like the trap - it's possible they escaped the ramp before it could swing away. We may need to find something that works with a smaller mouse.

The snap traps are untouched.
There was little evidence of a counter incursion except by the spice rack, so we are taking that away tonight as well. Haven't cleaned the oven since there's no evidence there and also, if the oven were viable they would not be visible in the rest of the house.

There was one on my bed last night. I didn't hear it but I did find evidence on, of course, the mouse tray attached to the laptop cooling board.

They don't seem to have touched the wine. Maybe I should sacrifice my port. They might like sweet things better.

Clearly the mice in the house reflect the intelligence level and personality of the human occupants.

[WolFish]

No sign of them.

Not anywhere. I wonder if they all have little hangovers from drinking wine all weekend?
Moved the trap to another place on their trail that's less inconvenient for me.

Maybe they're mad that I ate all the bacon instead of putting more in the trap.
I have to admit, if I had to eat the grease black off the back of a frying pan, I'd be trying a new restaurant.

['andersom']

Checking in, preparing for battle. Just got message at work from kid. There's a mouse in the house.

["couldbecousin"]

Checking in, preparing for battle. Just got message at work from kid. There's a mouse in the house.

  Oh shit!  My sympathies!  Are you giong to hand-catch, or is it time for the big guns?   

[WolFish]

Maybe it's the weather. We got 15+ cm of snow and voila - signs everywhere. We did leave out a bowl of kiwi fruit but the signs were in other places - the usual ones. I suspect that they were not expecting the storm.
We are supposed to get more snow on Saturday - we'll be prepared.
I am positive we have NIMH mice. They haven't touched any of the traps. They didn't touch the wine either and I am loathe to give them my port, so it will be back to pepsi and hope they go outside to die.

['andersom']

Checking in, preparing for battle. Just got message at work from kid. There's a mouse in the house.

  Oh shit!  My sympathies!  Are you giong to hand-catch, or is it time for the big guns?   

If it was only one, then we've got it and sent it away in the wide world outside.
Cooperation of cat, kid and me.
Put all furniture away from the walls so cat could go behind them. Mouse crawled under a cupboard. Shifted that a bit more. Then cat angled with her long front legs and finally got the mouse, to play with.... So, mouse escaped, I got it, mouse escaped, kid got it, mouse escaped, cat got it, mouse escaped, and then I got it and brought it outside, far away enough to not come back. And with nice shrubberies to play hide and seek with cats, magpies, buzzards and other critters.

Now there is hoping it was only this one.