Mouse Hunt - HELP!

Yahoo · September 2003

Saturday, I discovered that I had a mouse in my garage. At that point he'd chewed up some paper in my Camaro and found the dog food bag. EWW - I had a mouse in my CAR!!! :-S I cleaned up the mess, put the dog's food in a Rubbermaid bin & set out some glue traps. I sighed a bit of relief that he was only in the garage.

Last night, my husband and I are trying to enjoy the last of our weekend by watching a movie on TV. That's when I hear this little scratchy sound, followed by the pitter-patter of mouse feet. The mouse is now in my wall, which is right next to the garage.

I've added extra bait to the traps (peanut butter & dog food) - hoping this will draw him out. I'm scared it won't, though. I remembered a thread on this topic - where did you all find the poison traps with formaldehyde? I don't want him stinking up the house. Do any of you know if they make these safe for homes with pets?

Thanks!

ray a · September 2003

Get a cat. We used to get mice every year around spring. Got a cat in 1984 and haven't had a mouse since.

Yahoo · September 2003

That was my husband's first thought, but unfortunately I'm allergic to cats. However, I have contemplated borrowing a cat to live in the garage for a while......I have enough allergy drugs to handle that.

Parabeagle · September 2003

Pry open the checkbook and call an exterminator. And pray it's not a squirrel in your wall, which is what happened with me. The squirrel had apparently nested in the wall. One weekend morning while I was sound asleep I felt a very light touch on my fingertip and opened my (extremely nearsighted) eyes to discover I was looking into two shiny, beady little eyes inches from my face! I shot out of bed (almost killing myself) while the squirrel scampered back to the hole he apparently had found to get into my house. Spent the rest of the morning eating breakfast and drinking coffee with a broom in my hand until Animal Control showed up.

ray a · September 2003

Too bad you didn't get videos of that Parabeagle.

Parabeagle · September 2003

Videos of what? The squirrel or me jumping out of bed and nearly breaking my leg? x;-)

Yahoo · September 2003

Okay you guys - I'm going to have nightmares about waking up to a mouse in my face now!!!

ray a · September 2003

Then I won't tell you about the experiences my wife and her siblings had when they were growing up in an early 19th C. farmhouse.

Yahoo · September 2003

Good call!

Parabeagle · September 2003

Maybe it's time to desensitize, Yahoo. On the way home, rent a copy of "Ben" and enjoy it with your family. x;-)

Yahoo · September 2003

Maybe you're right.....

Just moved in this place a few months ago. It's a great house - I really love it! However, since we moved we discovered that the house was infested with brown recluse spiders & now I have this mouse. Small problems in the scheme of things - I'm just a bit jumpy right now.....

Parabeagle · September 2003

BOO! x;-)

sonny · September 2003

I'd take the mouse over the brown recluse spider, but that is just me

ray a · September 2003

But, I heard brown recluse spiders make such wonderful pets.

Human Resources Manager · September 2003

OK, waking up to a squirrel is bad, but at my previous residence we awoke (more than once) to the extremely unsettling sight of a BAT flying in our bedroom. It is very disconcerting in the early morning to have a bat flying in your direction (several times) as it tries to find to place to land. Usually we caught them in a net and released them out of doors. They do eat their weight in mosquitoes every day after all. But the one that landed on my husband's face in the pitch dark, middle-of-the-night, was not so lucky. My husband instinctively heaved it across the room into the wall (followed by his pillow) and the little flying rodent didn't survive the impact.

Leslie · September 2003

Brown recluse spiders are nasty. I'll take a mouse anyday!

Rockie · September 2003

You can get the traps that catch the critters live and then set them free. I hate the sticky traps that suffocate the mice (even though I can't stand them in my house). Any poison for the mouse will also be a poison to your animals.

Beagle: What a horrifying story about the squirrel in your bed!

Yahoo · September 2003

Question - how does the glue trap suffocate the mouse? I assumed they just got their feet stuck - and there are directions on how to release the animal once caught. (I planned on having my husband do that one!) As much as I want him gone, I'm still a softy for any animal.

Rockie · September 2003

Yahoo: Actually it was the exterminator that told us this is the way the mouse would die. I guess it depends on whether they get caught feet first or face first.

In fact, we used one of these and my husband found the mouse on its side struggling furiously to get away. He took the critter outside and literally peeled it away from the glue trap. The mouse was half bald but alive. He said he would never do this again to a living creature. That's why we had the exterminator lend us the "live" traps. He caught the mice and took them off in the traps down the road and let them out in a field. I told him later I saw a mouse at the side of the road with his thumb out trying to hitchhike back to our house.

A cat is the best solution. We have several neighbor cats who have started hanging around outside in the flower beds and the mice have moved on to a safer environment. However, I did have to put a bell on the cats because of my bird feeders.

karenosi · September 2003

I definitely agree with the catch and release program. Our office was infested with field mice after the first freeze last winter. They were all over the place, droppings on your desks, stained papers, etc. Really nasty, especially when someone received a half-eaten honeybun from the snack machine. Our exterminator brought in the sticky traps and one actually got on it while we were standing two feet away. The exterminator released that one, but a few days later we found one dead on the tray. It was horrible.

We also had huge rat make a nest behind a desk down the hall from me. Our maintenance man, with the help of a warehouseman, chased it out from behind the desk and then down the hall with a garbage can and a broom. It was one of the funniest sights I'd ever seen. We gave them an employee of the month award for going above and beyond the call of duty. We haven't had anymore since then, but winter isn't too far away...

Don D · September 2003

My family and I were camping 20 years ago in a cabin in the woods. In the middle of the night my wife, in an adjacent bunk bed, let me know that there was a rat walking along on top of her on top of the covers. I slipped out of my rack, reached for my 22 rifle loaded with hollowpoints and my flashlight. I laid out flat on the floor like a sniper and finally the rat appeared in the beam of the flashlight, way over there against the wall, right next to the cast iron, pot-bellied stove. I don't reckon I hit him, but I blew three holes through the wall and one through the bucket beside the stove. To hell with catch 'N release....hang 'em high!

Parabeagle · September 2003

Don, you must be a real hoot on camping trips! Your story kind of reminds me of a guy I went through training with whose idea of marksmanship was drawing a bead on the target, flipping the selector to "automatic," squeezing the trigger and closing his eyes until the magazine was empty!

HRGirl · September 2003

Okay...I hate both brown recluse spiders (one almost sent me to the hospital 2 summers ago...damn things have a NASTY bite) and mice. Don't bother with a cat...I have two and still have mice. My one cat is a princess and will watch the mouse run right in front of her...she is above such dirty work. My other cat will catch them, but only to play with them until she gives them a heart attack. Once they are dead and no more fun, she just walks away from them, leaves them where they died...under beds, sofas...you know hidden until you smell them (Thanks cat...really appreciated). We must have very bright mice, they eat all the bait of the traps and don't get caught in them. Although we had a mouse that got in the PLASTIC bucket (with a lid) we put our dog food in...my husband put it in the back of his truck to dispose of it (set it free some where other than my yard), he took that mouse all over town with him.

cebudragonlady · September 2003

Back in Cebu, we had rats in the yard with bodies as big as cats, real long tails...

Chari

Yahoo · September 2003

Thanks for the info on the glue traps - I would prefer to let the little guy live, if possible - just somewhere else. Frankly, the thought of getting out the gloves & holding the thing while pouring vegetable oil over his paws to release him from the glue was a little much for me.

I've put in a call to our exterminator (for the spiders)to see if he'll loan us a live trap. Otherwise, I'll go out & get one. He's still in the wall as of now & doesn't appear to have ventured out since we went in.

Thanks for the suggestions!

annie1992 · September 2003

My prior office was the old Sheriff's House, and my law library was an old jail cell. I shared it quietly with three bats that didn't bother me at all. They just hung in the doorway during the day and I wasn't there at night. Now with West Nile virus being carried by mosquitos and having had several cases here in my county, I'll keep the bats, thanks anyway.

As for the cat, it depends on the cat. Mine will catch mice and torture them for a couple of days but she won't kill them. I wait until she brings them in the open and then sic the WeinerDog on them. He kills them instantly and drops them on the floor where I can dispose of them without odor.

Spiders I step on. Bees I capture and release outside for pollination purposes (can you tell I grew up a farm girl? LOL). I'm about a thousand times the size of any of these creatures and at the top of the food chain, I'm not scared....

Now, for those who haven't the stomach for my methods, my advice would be to call a good exterminator. No muss, no fuss, no smell, you pay them and the problem goes away.

Annie

Tish · September 2003

This reminds me of my middle-of-the-night visitor. My husband was in the military stationed in Georgia. Picture this - mid-August, Georgia, living in a mobile home, needless to say you slept with as little as possible!

I woke up to feeling a slight tug of the sheet at my feet, just thought is was my husband moving, then I feel something crawling up my leg !!!! I started screaming bloody murder and flipped the sheet up over my head which resulted it something flying across the room and hitting the wall. By this time my husband in standing in the middle of the bed buck naked yelling "What! What!" When everything calmed down enough that I could talk I told him what happened and that "something" was under the bed. He tried telling me I was having a nightmare till he heard a noise right below him. He took a flying leap off the bed, grab a baseball bat and flashlight. We finally got the critter into a garbage can with a lid on it. My husband tried telling me it was just a rat, but I knew better! We ended up putting the can and critter in the spare bedroom - friends of ours were coming over the next morning and could tell us what it was {they were from Alabama, I figured they would know the wildlife in the area].

When they got there I took them to the can and warned them of the "creature". When I opened the lid it was gone!!! I didn't know what to do, sit and cry or sh*t my pants - that what ever it was was still loose in my house!! I explained what it looked like to our friends and was told it was a possum. That they usually sleep in the day and up at night.

I spent 2 weeks during the day curled up in a blanket on our sofa in 95 degree weather trying to sleep and spending the nights wide awake, same blanket, same sofa.

We did finally catch the little beast. Felt bad so we took it 50 miles away and released it.

Don D · September 2003

You committed a Cardinal sin! In Georgia Possum is a Sunday brunch delicacy. You could have sold that thing at the PX for thirty dollars!

ray a · September 2003

Yahoo, please notice that I have kept my word and not told about my horror stories with mice, unlike some other posters. x0:)

Yahoo · September 2003

I have noticed that Ray A & I appreciate it.

I'm afraid my little mouse has gone to that big trap in the sky - no more noise & no signs of him having ventured out from the wall. I did get a live trap & set it out, but my guess is we won't see him anymore. (Hopefully we won't smell him either......)

HRGirl · September 2003

A moment of silence for the mouse please.....xpray...........

Mouse Hunt - HELP!

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