Monday, January 4, 2016

The Mouse House


This picture represents a pickle we are in at present. 

We have been invaded by mice, I mean invaded!  They are in 
our dressers... not, so far, the cupboards where our plates 
and tableware are... but in our clothes dressers. 

UGH.  

The pantry, where everything I have is now in plastic.  

You know I can't kill anything, and we tried humane trapping... but I 
was facing a trip every single day to release mice out in the country. 

We have decided we have to kill them. 

One (or more) has been chewing between the sink cabinet and the dishwasher, and 
I have cleaned up numerous piles of what you see here, and I am afraid we 
are going to have a mess with the dishwasher.  As of today, we are 
using Tomcat traps that kill the mouse inside FAST, like a snap trap... we 
don't have to touch it, and can open the door and drop it into the trash. 

YES, this hurts me.  I can't kill anything... but since putting one down 
an hour ago, Keith has killed one, and I think I just heard the trap under the 
sink snap. 

Ugh. 

I hate doing it, but I hate mice ON our beds, etc. etc.  Keith took a nap in 
our spare bedroom today, and when I went in to wake him up, 
I found a mouse poop on the next pillow over. 
This is where it stops. 


These guys are amazing.  They have walked in the cold for a week now... this morning, Keith had an early doctor's appointment and he told me to stay in and keep the dogs in, because of the cold. 
I was already at the post having blood drawn, and told him I would stay in after errands... but...
we walked at noon.  So proud of the dogs, we are not working a full mile but we ARE walking!


I have seen this little guy in the rafters of one of the picnic shelters at 
the city park in Basehor, and after I loaded the dogs in the car, I 
grabbed the camera and went back to look. 


It looks to me that it has been living here for a while, instead of a nest in a tree. It is actually protected from winds, where it is living. 


The only hawk we saw close enough to get a picture! 


These two guys were in one of the Bradford Pears in our front yard as the dogs and I got home... and Saturday night, there were six males and four females on the patio, among the last to eat. 
They were last in the country, too. 


There are actually four males in this terrible picture taken with my phone through the window. 

I just took this ten minutes ago, 4:50 PM. 


I took this on the way home from church on Saturday night.  There was hardly any light left, and I was actually following a bird in the sky when I saw these.  If you click on this picture and make it bigger, you will see a nice surprise on the right! 

I have Christmas down, except for the spare bedroom tree.  I like it so much, I'm leaving it up! 


14 comments:

  1. i hate killing things too but it is survival of the fittest when it comes to mice. it's us or them and so far i am winning. those little buggers took the hand tied italian tassles that took a year to get from italy and made beds with them. that was it! i got out my shotgun. i turned into elmer fudd. i actually put down the bait that they take back to their nest and kills them all off. there are never just a couple mice.

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  2. Cold weather they come in. I heard something in the attic last night. It may be a cold winter.

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  3. We are invaded every fall and spring. The only thing that seems to work is mouse traps baited with peanut butter.

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  4. We have more cats than we want or need right now on the farm...but I will say, I haven't seen more than one mouse in our house for several years now! And it's an old farm house, so it's not very tight. We trap when we need to, but maybe we could send you a couple of cats! :) Your dogs might protest, however...

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  5. We are sending you our neighor Kevins 951 cats + 4 kittens, to take care of that little problem, do you hear them knocking on your door...........stellie rose

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  6. I feel your pain. From the end of September to December 6th, we caught 32 mice in our house (combination kill traps, humane traps and Hailey). We were lucky that they didn't get into too much (although we did have to repair the hose for the dishwasher as the mice ate it).

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  7. What beautiful cardinals!! Those are the one bird I haven't seen up here in the Northy North of California....

    So very sorry about the mice. I just hate killing anything too, but I would have to draw the line if they were in our dressers too! LOL at Stella rose!!

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  8. I don't suppose the dogs (especially Lily) would tolerate a cat. I have trouble killing animals too but a cat taking care of the rodent population works well for me. -- and is very effective.

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  9. We hate killing anything too... But we worry about mice chewing the wires, and the house burning down..
    Our 4 cats do a good job,, but no mouse can live in our house,,, They must live outside!
    Good luck, and hope all the entry holes get plugged too.
    Its cold and icy here,,, no walking for the humans.
    love
    tweedles

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  10. All our cats usually do our dirty work. But, a mouse can destroy things in a hurry. So unfortunately telling them to leave doesn't work and you have to take care of the problem.

    Have you found where the little boogers got in?

    Love the buck! That's a nice deer.

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  11. We had little tiny mice problems. Not moles, tiny mice. They were too small to set off those traps. I can't kill anything either, but my husband can...he used glue traps...it was sad... He killed 2 and we haven't seen any others since. We found a tiny hole where the cable wire comes in - we have used that foam spray to fill it now. I'm sure I have some in my old farm stone foundation basement...but, this is first time I know of that they were up stairs. Good luck.

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  12. Mice are a problem. When I used to own a camper, it was a constant battle and I used traps. I had to keep everything boxed up in order not to have to sterilize it over and over. Hope you get rid of them soon, what a bother but they can cause a lot of damage.

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  13. Check around all plumbing wall connections. That is one of their favorite places to come in. You'd be surprised how small a hole they can get through.

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  14. Oh, mouse troubles! Mom is a real killer when it comes to mice!

    Your Pals,

    Murphy & Stanley

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