Ugh, Mice!

[annuin]

We have mice in the house. I'd say "again", but the last time there were mice we were living in our previous place.

This house is old, apparently built in the late 1800s. Not that you can tell, because whatever original facade this house may have had, has been covered with aluminum siding. The basement has extremely easy access from the outside for rodents and other creatures... gaping holes between the foundation of the house and the basement etc. When we moved in, I asked the landlord whether the rodents that would go into the basement ever got up into the kitchen and such, and I was assured they didn't.

Lies!

While making up something to drink for Dashiell last night I noticed a dark brown rice shaped pellet on the kitchen counter, which hadn't been there earlier. Having dealt with mice before, I knew what it was and what it meant. So just before bed I set up a bunch of traps that we had left over from the last house/mouse incident. I think I actually heard one of the traps snap not long after I went upstairs.

Anyway, there was a dead mouse in one of the traps this morning.

1 down. Who knows how many to go.

Meanwhile, I get to scrub and sanitize the kitchen today. A very necessary pain in the ass.

Comments

[pylaydia.livejournal.com]

how icky :(
Mice are smart little buggers, at least you managed a satisfactory span on the first night.

[pylaydia.livejournal.com]

And apparently I'm lysdexic today, I meant snap >.

[erg.livejournal.com]

You're within the window of discovery to make the ex owner pay for fixing this. Whoever closed the deal for you should know the specifics.

[erg.livejournal.com]

Sorry, I forgot, you didn't buy, you rent. Again, the onus is on the owner to fix this, particularly because you were assured it wouldn't be an issue.

[tanthe.livejournal.com]

The main thing I want the landlord to do is plug up any potential holes in kitchen cabinets (where the plumbing is) and behind the cooker so that they can't get in from there.

In our previous place when I pulled the cooker out from the wall I noticed that there was a 1x1 foot hole in the wall where the gas lines etc. were coming from which gave the mice ample entry. I did a patch up job there myself, using steel wool, cardboard and ducttape (along with some peppermint soaked cotton balls as repellent), but I don't really want to do that again. The stove in this place is electric, so I doubt there's holes that size behind the cooker, but I'd like any easy access from the basement plugged up as much as is possible.

I bought some more snap traps today at the grocery store, at less than $2 for 2 traps I don't mind springing (no pun intended) for a couple of traps. I'll be setting a bunch of traps up in the basement too, seeing as that's where they're originating from. All the glue traps that I still have will end up there too, I don't want those in the kitchen. And I'll probably put some peppermint soaked cotton balls around there as well once the mouse problem seems resolved in the kitchen. I found sites online that said it was a good natural repellent of mice.

It's a pain in the ass to have to deal with though. And unpleasant to deal with as well. I don't like having to resort to killing animals, but sadly mice don't just leave because you want them to.

The thing that really gets my goat is that we have one of those electronic pest repellents in one of the sockets on the kitchen counter. The instructions specifically state to keep pet rodents away from it. Obviously it's not working well enough, because there was mouse poo less than 2 feet from it :P