Actually, mice don't bother me. Which is to say, they don't freak me out or make me scream. But that doesn't mean I like them creeping around eating my food and pooping in my cabinets.
Or, for that matter, scouting my dishwasher and licking my plates clean.
Which is the situation I have now. I opened my dishwasher and there was a little mouse sitting in there. A plump little mouse, living large off the residue of our dinners. It seems there's a small airvent in the back of the dishwasher, resembling the air vents that come out of the walls of houses to release the fluff from dryers, and he had found a way to wiggle down throught the top. Why a dishwasher needs an air vent is not something I can fathom at the moment, but there it is.
So he wriggled out the back and disappeared, and there was nothing I could do about it but shut the dishwasher door.
The next day I peered in and discovered that he had chewed off all the bristles of my pastry brush and left them in a neat little heap at the bottom of the dishwasher. He'd nipped each one cleanly off at the base with his nasty little rodent teeth. My pastry brush was still standing in the silverware drainer, a pathetic stick with little stubby bristles sticking off the top. It looked like it had been shaved.
Why would he do that? Retaliation?
So I got a sticky trap, loaded it with peanut butter, and stuck it in the bottom of the washer. No results as of yet.
But there will be. And then you can expect a post as I deliberate what to do with a live mouse stuck fast to a sticky pad.
Argh.
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7 comments:
When you catch him, tie the trap to the pastry brush handle and turn the dish washer on. Sweet revenge.
Oh, dear. When I was working at Barnes and Noble, at first the store used live, catch-and-release traps, but the powers that be decided that sticky traps were better and forced a switch. The first time a mouse was caught on one of these glue-traps, the critter was completely worn out by the time we found him, poor thing! We two vegetarians in the group tried to somehow remove him from the paper, but there was no doing so without hurting him, so my cohort took him outside and dispatched him quickly with his boot. The manager had advocated for simply throwing him, trap and all, into the dumpster, but the thought of such a slow death was not acceptable to us. I couldn't have been the boot-wielder, unfortunately, even though it was more humane than letting him starve or be eaten. I am beyond killing most things.
What a horrible thing to post on someone's blog when you don't even know them! Sorry for the intrusion, honestly. I couldn't help myself, but mean no disrespect. :)
Anyway, if a flea can hold within it holiness akin to a matrimonial bond, imagine the staggering sacramental capabilities of a mouse!
I caught a mouse on a sticky pad once before and was able to remove the mouse safely by wetting his feet with water. He didn't like it very much, but then I think he wouldn't have really much liked the alternative, either. Then I took him across the street into a field and released him. I was hoping he'd learned his lesson. But I doubt it. He was probably back in our cabinets in a week.
I don't think I'm capable of the boot thing. I don't like the steel traps that kill the mice, either. Not sure what the best approach is, really.....
I caught a mouse on a sticky pad once before and was able to remove the mouse safely by wetting his feet with water. He didn't like it very much, but then I think he wouldn't have really much liked the alternative, either. Then I took him across the street into a field and released him. I was hoping he'd learned his lesson. But I doubt it. He was probably back in our cabinets in a week.
I don't think I'm capable of the boot thing. I don't like the steel traps that kill the mice, either. Not sure what the best approach is, really.....
We used to have rats at my house when I was in undergrad. Usually a good whack on a table does them in.
Failing that, you can just throw them on the ground. Then you will experience what I call the Rat Bounce - a good foot at least.
http://www.stretcher.com/stories/981022c.cfm
Some ideas for humane mouse removal.
Rat Removal needs to be give required importance to make our surroundings healthy and better place to live..I do opt for professional pest control services for this..
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