Friday, February 15, 2008

Rats!

Or rather.....Mice!

I had previously blogged about my ongoing saga with these four-legged creatures and I have to say, I think I would rather take roaches anyday. These mice are not only sneaky but also incredibly adaptive. Below are pictures of the previous mentioned damage done to soda bottles and dog treats. These were full! Not after the mice got to them.
I don't really understand how they drained them slowly from the bottom but they did!


Holy dog biscuits!

As an update, my first attempt with the old school traps was not successful at all. Those snaps I heard 15 minutes after I set them out did not catch any of them! So I decided to bait them, despite what the instructions said. I slathered them with peanut butter, replaced them and waited. Still no luck (even though some of them had been activated!) A couple had even been activated, moved and then the peanut butter licked off! These dang creatures! Maybe we have really underestimated the intelligence of mice and rats. Maybe "Pinky and the Brain" and "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe" are not that too far off and they really are going to take over the world!

So I went to go buy glue traps next. And when I went to put out the traps out I discovered that one of the old school traps had actually caught one mouse. Yicky!!! I needed gloves and some plastic thongs and a couple days to get used to the idea before I attempted to remove the little creature from under the sink. In the meantime however, the glue traps just disappeared from where I put them! Where did they go? I have not idea but the mice hauled them off somewhere. So much for the glue traps.....

I buy these dehydrated chicken breast treats from Costco for the dog in 3 lb bags. They were in a box in the basement that I checked regularly for any changes. Well, apparently the little sneaky varmits (to borrow a term from Yosemite Sam) had been siphoning these treats off through a hole that they had gnawed in the underside of the bag and had been stashing away about 2 1/2 pounds of these chicken breasts!

Well, this was about the last straw! I was starting to get really discouraged and was about to call the exterminator when I resolved that NO! I would not let these little furry rodents get the best of me!!! I took any remaining foodstuff or dog treat that was not in a can and put them in hard plastic containers. Then I took this expanding foam stuff and closed up the holes I saw in the walls that I thought the mice were using to travel under the sink and into the closet where the dog treats were. And then....... I went to buy POISON! Enough of this sissy stuff!! And I don't really care at this point if they die in an area that I can't reach them, I just want them out! These are protein-loading, dirty, furry squatters who are not paying rent and are eating me out of house and home! No more mercy for them!

I put out the poison in the areas where I know they travel and, with nothing else to eat, they have taken to it very quickly. In fact, I can't keep the trays full. After a couple days I was beginning to wonder if they were bionic, poison-resistant mice as well until I looked at the box and saw that it takes about 4-5 days for the poison to take affect. So today is day 5, all the poison trays are empty (and some of them even licked clean!) and I am waiting to see if those sounds of the mice crawling through the walls at night are finally gone!

5 comments:

Cluizel said...

Oh no! Wow...your mice are serious!

I had little visitors for a while...I wanted to get posion so bad but my nosey dog would definetly get to it since he isn't much bigger than a mouse anyway...

The only thing that REALLY worked for me was the rat zapper...it electrocutes the mice. Its was crazy how good it worked! But I live in an apartment so I found how they were coming in and got some steel wool...I SO was a few seconds from sleeping at my Moms house. lol.

Good Luck

WandaWoman said...

Dang, those are serious measures you've had to resort to. I hope the poison does the trick.

Unknown said...

I think the poison might be the trick for you. I had the same problem with them being attracted to my bunny's food that was in a storage closet. Like you, I used a number of different types of traps without success. I finally resorted to poison .. and voila ... no more nasty critters.

Good luck! Can't wait to hear how it turns out.

brunsli said...

Ewww. Have you considered a cat?

RedDredPrincess said...

You know, I had no idea that this was such a widespread problem. I have never had to deal with mice before but now that I have been talking about it, lots have people have told me that they have had run ins with these little creatures in the past.

Brunsli, a few people have suggested that I get a cat but I don't really like cats (and neither does the dog) and last time I checked I was rather allergic to them. So, I will have to stick to poison for now, which may actually be working. It was a pretty quiet night here last night!