"I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free"

Michelangelo



Friday, November 4, 2011

Mice

About a week ago, I heard something chewing underneath my heater.  "Dear lord, let it be Milo," I thought.  I was clearly wrong as Milo was in front of me doing nothing.  I kept hearing this awful chewing sound.  I know that noise.  It's truly Fall now.  It's been cold and I know they are back.  This year I'm taking a new approach.  Snap traps.  Last year I called the building and they came in and put out poison and I put out sticky traps.  I learned I dislike both those methods.  Obviously poison is dangerous.  Milo got into some I think.  I don't know if he truly did or not, but I treated it like as if he did.  Better to be safe than sorry.  That was not a fun nor cheap vet visit.  He lost a pound or two and some patches of fur on his neck from wearing a collar for a month.

I did not like the sticky traps because once I caught a mouse, it was still alive.  The first time I caught one, I tossed it in the garbage.  My bf made me go kill it for it's wrong to let it suffer.  Yeah, that was not fun because I did not want to kill it.  It was the first animal I have ever physically killed.  It was traumatizing for me, something I never want to do again.  I had to smash it with a hammer.  :(  After that, I drowned them.  I didn't know what else to do.  One was a baby looking one that was shrieking all night super loud.

Not only that but Milo stepped on one.  I thought I hid it pretty well, but then he was running around the room super fast and I couldn't even catch him.  My first thought was that a mouse was hanging onto his foot when I realized it was the sticky pad.  I finally caught him and had to cut off the pad from his fur and wiped his back leg with olive oil to get all the goo out.  October 2010 was not a fun month for Milo and I.

So yes, I picked up and vacuumed all the poison.  There are still some underneath the oven that I just can't physically get to.  But I do keep a super careful eye to make sure they aren't being moved.  So this year, I am bringing out the snaps.  It's a quick death!  I got some black snappy ones, A Better Mousetrap, and the old fashion spring ones.  I actually snapped my thumb on the old fashion one.  I hate them, but I can see why they work so well.  I am also waiting on my order of live traps.  At night, I bring out the snap traps and plan on using the live traps during the day.  I don't want my birds escaping and landing on a snap trap.  That would be awful.  I hide the snaps underneath the kitchen sink.

The other night I was woken up at 5 A.M. by a chewing or scratching sound.  I couldn't tell where it was coming from.  It sounded like it was behind my bookshelf, yet in the walls, or even under the floor.  It was driving me insane.  So I made a mixture of peanut butter, molasses, a few seeds, and vanilla extract and put them on the bait.  I was looking forward to waking up to see dead mice, but it's been a few days and I have yet to seen anything.

Either someone else found them and killed them or they ate some of last year's poisons I threw down the cracks underneath the heater.  Who knows.  I have not been hearing any noise at night too.  Who knows.  I will continue to set up the traps though.

I just hate mice.  I am so scared of them.  They can be kinda cute, but they're creepy.  The way they scatter across the floor, can squeeze through a hole the size of a pencil, and that disgusting tail.  When I saw one last year, I went hysterical.  I was on the phone crying, screaming, and heaving.  You would have thought I saw something else besides a mouse.  My birds were scared of me.  They flocked to the curtain rod and looked at me like, "ok, there is something scary going on because mom is freaking out, but we don't know what it is.  Why is she acting so crazy?"  Seriously, they had this "what is wrong with you" look in their eyes.  I know mice are harmless, helpless creatures just looking for food and warmth, but they are scary.  I have to tell myself they aren't gonna bite me nor kill me nor kill my pets.  I have to mentally talk myself out of it otherwise I will become that screaming lady.  I will admit I slept with a flashlight and spray bottle so if I saw one, I would spray at it.

Honestly, I pick mice over rats and bats!  Mice are fine as long as they are not indoors.  It's amazing how many people are scared of mice though.  I spent all night googling it.  Like I said, I don't like to kill them nor do I want to, but I have to.  They can't live here.  I did not call my building this time.  I don't need them to come out and put out poison.  I love my babies too much to do that again.  Not worth it.

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