Remember in my previous post, when I said about the mouse living in our basement “He is Legion”?
I had no idea.
The mice, they are everywhere. They are in my garage, they are in my basement, they are even in my office, a whole 10 km away from my house. I swear, I am beginning to dream about eight-foot tall towering, slavering mice penning me into a corner… it’s not pretty.
We’ve had some success with the traps. I think we caught three or four in the basement (one of which was triggered while the poor nanny was downstairs, much to her dismay) and one committed suicide by jumping into the recycling bin in the garage. The last remaining trap in the basement has been sitting without being triggered for close to three weeks now — I take that as a good sign.
Meanwhile, apparently my corner of the building is a hot spot for mice at work, as they do some work on the foundation. Last week, I had to call the janitor to remove a, um, full trap from under my desk. No more kicking off the shoes while sitting at my desk!
So while the actual vermin themselves seem to be under control, we keep incrementally discovering the extent to which they’ve wreaked havoc this fall. I told you about the kids’ Halloween costumes, and I also threw out our almost-expired newborn car seat when I found it full of mouse poop.
The very worst part, though? Last week I went into the garage to get my beloved almost-20-year-old Christmas tree, a tree that makes me happy every single year when I put it up, and when I pulled it out I found the bottom of the new-last-year red Christmas tree storage bag speckled with mouse poop. The suckers had chewed right through the bag, then used fragments of the bag as nesting material.
Farkin’ mice!!!
So I threw away the tree skirt and the bag itself, rescued a set of handmade wooden snowmen, and shook the holy hell out of the tree segments themselves. Hardly any mouse poop actually fell off of it, so after agonizing for a few days I decided to go ahead and decorate it. But I’m so mad at those damn mice for tainting my tree bliss! I would have happily used that tree for another 20 years, not least of which because I took a look around and I couldn’t replace it quality-wise for less than $300, and because I have always said that “artificial” trees are an environmentally friendly choice as long as you commit to one and stick with it. I think we might have to get another one for next year, though. It makes me so sad, but the tree is just not the same since the mice got into it.
Needless to say, I’m not feeling at all sympathetic to the mice in the traps any more.
When I was a kid, this guy used to hang on our family Christmas tree, and my mom carefully wrapped him in tissue and paper towels and shipped him up to me the first Christmas I lived away from home, back in 1988.
He’s always been one of my favourites, despite the fact that his fuzz is a little uneven now, and some time in the last decade or two he’s lost the jaunty red ribbon that used to be wrapped around his neck. He still sits in a place of honour at eye-level in our tree, but I can’t help but scowl at him whenever I walk past.
I think this round goes to the mice. Stay tuned for round three…
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
LOL!!!! Oh my, this post has me laughing! Damn mice, eh? They are all over our neighbourhood too. I get a bit paranoid about the stupid mouse poop … do you really think it can be harmful or is it just gross?
Mice are the worst! I hope that round 3 brings your total, complete and lasting victory in the mouse war. As for me, I’m counting on my cat. I’m not sure my hope is well-placed, but it’s all I’ve got right now.
Poor you! That sounds horrid.
Ugh! They’ve been bad here this year too. Our cat, while adorable, is completely inept as a mouser. I hate the thought of them in the house. My husband has a more laid back approach. Unfortunately for him I totally freak out when I find out there’s one in the house.
My husband came up with a sure-fire way to get rid of mice.
1. Find a bucket (approx. 2′ feet tall).
2. Drill two small holes at the top of the bucket, one on either side.
3. Find a metal rod (Canadian Tire has them) which will fit through the holes.
4. Find a pop can and drill a hole through the bottom of the can.
5. Insert the rod through the first hole on the bucket, then the pop can, and then through the last hole on the bucket (the can should rotate around and around).
6. Put peanut butter onto the pop can.
7. Fill the bucket halfway with water.
8. Place it where the mice can easily get onto the bucket.
9. You now have a very effective mouse trap.
My husband caught over fourty mice in our garage this summer using this trap. They were eating his lawn seed. But they do drown, so it’s not a pleasant clean-up.
Good-Luck,
Jen
Hi Dani,
We had a terrible infestation of mice in our house in Kanata, back when we lived in that area, which we didn’t discover until about 6 months after we bought the place. I’d recommend calling a pest control company. We did, and were glad we did. He discovered a spot around the basement window, under the deck, which had never been sealed properly. In the end, he was unable to completely seal off whatever other spot under the deck let the varmin in, but the number of invaders was veyr much reduced. He showed us the best places to place traps in the basement, his secret tricks for setting them just so, etc. After adopting his methods, we could catch 3 or 4 in spring, and 3 or 4 in fall, when the weather changed, and that was it. Mice are gross!!