Mouse in the House

[annuin]

We still have mice. Or rather, we have mice again.

I already knew several weeks ago that we had some re-visitation, as I found mouse poo and caught one. But then it was quiet for a while, until I recently noticed more mouse poo. I tried making the big-ass hole behind the cooker inaccessible by coating cardboard with ductape, sticking steelwool on one side (the side to face the inside of the hole) and then to ductape it securely. I had put some cottonwool soaked in mouthwash inside the hole, as I'd read online somewhere that they hate spearmint oil, and that was a component.

As I was cooking dinner a mouse ran out from under the cooker and nearly collided with my foot, after which it ran across the kitchen and hid somewhere in the vicinity of the bin/some boxes with sewing stuff. So I guess that didn't work.

Not happy. I don't want to go through weeks of this stuff again. I think tomorrow I might need to go to the hardware store for some mesh or something to that effect to plug up this hole. Or I should just tell my landlords and get them to deal with it (and the cost). They were nice enough last time to give us traps etc. and it's their house too, being as they're upstairs. And it's also a substantial hole. Someone cut like a 1x1 foot square to install the gas pipes for the cooker, and didn't bother to close it off. Which also explains why it would be drafty around the cooker.

I'm partly pissed off about the fact that I told them before that I could hear mice in our ceilings/their floors (and have been hearing this on and off for months, as well as a year and a half ago with the mouse infestation), but they never did anything. Plus we never had these issues until they got rid of their cat.

So back to trapping I think. Gah! And lots of kitchen cleaning, double gah!

Comments

[funeralnight.livejournal.com]

but.. mice are cute! they are like mini-squirrels!

[captainflux.livejournal.com]

The pitter-patter of entirely the wrong sort of tiny feet, hmm? It's a shame kittycats present risks to wee bairns, or I'd suggest the feline approach to pest control.

I have always had success baiting my traps with pumpkin seeds. Give 'em a little soak in some warm water to soften them and make them smell more pumpkin-like. Pumpkin seeds straight out of the pumpkin are the best. There's no way known to get one of those suckers off a spike without setting off the trap, and mice dig them. Or at least the mice I had dug them, until a spring-loaded steel bar crushed their tiny spines.

[vgnwtch.livejournal.com]

I think I'd point out that having mice urinate and defecate all over the place around a pregnant person is not a good idea, and that they need to pay for the Gaping Hole to be properly filled and the whole place properly dealt with at their cost. Not in a nasty, confrontational way, but it's obviously their responsibility.

[ippagoggy.livejournal.com]

I say put the mousetraps INSIDE the cooker.
and WAHLA! instant mouse dinner.