Reply #44: I am besieged by mice...

[chknltl]

I have caught close to 30+ mice over the last 2 months in my home. I use glue traps, snapping traps and I am about to use decon. I prefer to catch them in glue traps then with gloved hands I unstick them and toss them into neighbors yard...(more on this in a moment). A few have gotten squished in the traditional mouse traps but more often than not they steal the peanut butter I put there as bait.

OK normally I am a live and let live sort of guy but... 2 months ago I discovered that mice had eaten a hole in my large bag of dog food...there was mouse poop EVERYWHERE around broom closet that this bag is normally kept in. In 3 years this was my first time noticing any evidence of mice in my home. They had a chance to feed and breed before I discovered this. When I repaired problem by putting food in new plastic garbage can mice moved out into my house...first attacking dogs food dish then climbing onto my stove top and counter tops. How do I know this? They leave a tiny little calling card. I was finding this disgusting item on my stove top and on my counter top and in my sink!

So live and let live is out the window. To quote Bugs Bunny; "Of course you realize, this means war!" NOTHING, not even the toaster is allowed to sit unattended on counter-tops. All dry food and dishes and pots and pan are in upper cabinets as is the silver-ware. Dog dish is on a 1 foot high pedestal, (overturned flower-pot). Stove and counter-tops have been scrubbed and bleached and are armed with traps! Glue traps and snap traps got them under control. I caught about 35 or so over the last 2 months. I went about a week without catching any more mice or noticing any more of their droppings...I thought I was safe but then a snap-trap caught another one on my stove last night.

I may escalate this with WMD. I have a couple of unopened boxes of de-con. I believe one shall go up in my attic and one shall go under my dishwasher. I am not fond of this but I am even less fond of this infestation. I also discovered their entry way into my house...this has been sealed of course. Next step may be to bring out the big guns and call in an exterminator.

So if you are like I was and feel the need to trap the cute little mouse and release elsewhere fine...please understand that there are limits. Finding mouse poo in my silver-ware divider in a closed drawer changed me into an enemy of any mouse who may enter my home. Cats would be an option my dog would agree too but I already know that this pitt-bull's intentions for a cat are different than my own.

Ok about that neighbor:
I once wrote a post about my neighbor from hell so I will keep this to just the highlights. On my block this 40 year old female is known as the crazy lady. She lives next door to me with her almost normal mother and her almost normal kids. Again, I am a live and let live kind of guy but now and then.... well the mice is a great example.
This crazy lady is on par with that god warrior lady...hell they might be cousins.

She is constantly putting up posters in the windows facing my home...these posters have everything from hangman's nooses to bible quotes to requests that I stop spying on her and tons of other craziness. She also likes to place plastic skulls in her windows facing my home with paper arrows pointing at these skulls and a big letter "U" over them. She has placed a camera and flash arrangement in the window facing the back of my house so I get flashed, perhaps photographed whenever I go from my house to my garage. If she spots me leaving to walk my dog she goes to her gate and slams it then enters her house and slams doors repeatedly.

I could maybe still accept this but she loves to catch the neighbor on the other side of me, (a friend) and stop her from entering her home all the while accusing the 2 of us of stealing her mail. (She has ransacked my garbage and my recycle bins looking for this mail).
Her kids leave their trash in my yard. In the summer she places speakers in her windows and blares radio music at me...usually gospel.... There is more...much more and the poor guy on the other side of her has a similar problem with her. He calls the cops on her regularly! (He has known her longer than I have, he suggests that I do the same...).

Her kids spent last 4th of july throwing M-80s at the neighborhood dogs in each of the dog's own back yards...the neighborhood dog owners have signed a petition against these kids and submitted it to the police dept. Kids have also been caught rummaging around in my garage. The whole family likes to play street basketball sometime all night long. (It is easy to get annoyed at the sound of a basketball being bounced on the pavement at 3AM on a weeknight). (I have seen them doing this in mid winter in a rain-shower in just their t-shirts). Oh and did I mention the knock-em-sock-em screaming matches they have over there about once a month?

So back to my tossing an occasional live mouse in her back yard...after 3 years of her nonsense forgive me if I take a little satisfaction from doing this one evil deed. Maybe I am just a mean little man. At least the mouse is far happier this way then getting caught in a traditional snap trap.
c