My first comment! Oh, you're lovely. Thank you! All right, yes, to answer.
Until I recently moved into a 'no pets' home, I had hamsters so I can entirely understand your boys' desire to keep small rodents captive for the mutual amusements of both sides. The first time I saw one of the NIMH mice in a cage instead of streaking across the floor like an oversized cockroach I too entertained the 'but what if we keep him?' thought. I'm proud to say I was just as sensible about it as you were...
but only just barely.
all right - story time! Here, have a cup of something nice and settle in
So, to recap, this winter I had several mice decide the inside of my place was good winter lodgings. I disagreed. I managed to catch three of them and then my brother in law was kind enough to come over and help me. Mice activity seemed to be centered in the kitchen despite the fact I'd locked all the food up like Fort Knox and so he helped me move the stove and the fridge out of the way. Sure enough, the floor behind the fridge had sunk, probably due to water damage from the last tenant, and the gap it left was big enough for a mouse to saunter through and not even have to remove his feather cap for. My BIL did some magic with spray foam and steel wool. He sealed some holes under the cabinets as well. Then he checked the rest of my place and went on his merry way, secure in a job well done. I cleaned up the layers of mouse pee behind the fridge that told me this wasn't their first Christmas there.
So I think all's well. Things are sealed up. I know my other rooms are secure. I've caught everyone I was aware of already and anyone that shows up tonight will just have to realize the hotel has hung out the No Vacancy sign.
Except.
Because you already knew there was an 'except' coming. Except, that night, while I was at my desk working on the computer I heard a squeak. A squeak from under the cabinets. And it wasn't a small squeak, no. It was the kind of squeak that held all the indignite surprise and mousy curse words something that small could possibly pack into it. The way the cabinets are set up, the 'floor' of the cabinet is actually raised off the floor of the kitchen an inch or so and apparently someone had been napping under them while my BIL had been busy sealing up all the exits. Waking up and ready for a night of mischief (and waving at me as they ran past on the counter) they'd instead found themselves sealed in!
So I've got a mouse trapped underneath my cabinets. No problem. I get the trap out, put some peanut butter in it and pull out the lowest drawer in the cabinets drawers to put the trap there. I know rodents can crawl up the backs of drawers though (because that's how the hamsters would often come to visit me when I was writing at my desk) so I seal it up with my good old standby of duct tape and go back to work. There's a bit of foamy gnawing, a few more squeaky curse words but nobody emerges into the kitchen and I figure it should only take a day or two for the peanut butter to work.
Wrong.
By day four the trap is still safely guarding its peanut butter and I'm starting to worry that the little mouse might be starving in there. Now, its probably a very small mouse and I should probably let it starve despite the smell because its only going to be a small smell for a little while but -
yeah. I can't let him starve. A hoard of previous hamsters rises up inside my heart. I pull up the duct tape and put down a little jelly lid with water in it and some of the birdseed I've been feeding the local chickens.
The next day the food is gone. The cage remains empty.
I clean the peanut butter out of the trap and put the seed in there instead. Two days go by. No mouse. I cave again and put some of the seeds on top of the cage. They're gone the next day.
So yeah. Basically what I'm saying is I provided bed and board to a mouse all winter long.
I tried the trap various times. I tried a different trap. I baited it with everything I thought a mouse could want. No go. Finally I just kind of gave in, bought real mouse food instead of bird seed and just made it a routine to replenish and rewater every other day. The mouse never came out. I never found a single poop or nibble anywhere in the kitchen, though from time to time I would hear little gnawing sounds or the unmistakable sound of a tiny mouse body doing tiny mouse things in one of the now empty, lower cabinets. I did find all the little holes in the cabinet though because the mouse smell did leak out of them and there's now decorative painter's tape in several areas. Everything that had been in the cabinets now found new homes in my bookcase. The Underneath was Mousey Territory now and we both stayed on our sides of that demarcation.
And then, one day, early this spring, I went to change the food and no one had eaten it. I kept an eye on things for almost two weeks but whoever my little surprise house elf friend had been, they didn't need my mouse food anymore. I keep a suspicious and sharp eye out but no mousey poop or chewed bags showed up anywhere else in the house. Maybe he died somewhere under the counter, asleep in a little curled ball in its nest of dandelion down I'd left for it but I never smelled anything whenever I opened the cabinets. I like to think he found a gap between the cabinets and the wall and is now running free, living his best mousey life in the newly planted corn fields with a wild story to tell all his mousey friends.
The cabinets remain empty and will continue to do so for the rest of my time here. If he did find a way out, I see no reason to encourage anyone else to move back in.
Did you ever find out how they were getting into your house? Was it seasonal for you as well?
boy I just love it when a professor I look up to tells me snarkily that I’m not taking my future seriously enough. makes me feel real great about myself and my life choices.
Me, January 1, 2018: This year is the year I'm going to moderate my responsibilities and not take on more than I can handle! I'm going to say no to things that don't interest me and work more on projects that are important to me and my goals!
Me, January 7, 2018: *has already taken on three extra projects* *feels immense guilt whenever not working on them* fU CK.
Thats it. Im going on a rampage. Ive had the shittiest fucking week and my last straw is finding out that a butterfly i had pinned and was drying FOR A PAYING CUSTOMER THAT REQUESTED EARLIER IN THE SUMMER. HAS BEEN RIPPED APART AND EATEN BY MICE.
These little rat bastards just wont fuck off. I TOOK THE PRECAUTIONS TO PROTECT THAT INSECT AND THEY PULLED SOME MISSION IMPOSSIBLE SHIT JUST TO RIP IT APART AND NOT EVEN FULLY EAT IT THE DAMN THING.
Watch yourselves you annoying good for nothing rodents. One day im going to fix your asses permanently and then youll stop wrecking all my entomology projects and shitting in my coffee cups.
Had a mouse sighting tonight, confirms why Rocket was climbing up onto my desk (a place she rarely goes) to stare at the ceiling and why she had all kinds of dust on her face earlier today.
It's way too late in the night to do anything about it tonight naturally so tomorrow when we go to the post office we'll pick up some mouse traps and finally* go around the house to plug up any holes in the siding and so on.
*we've all been sick with Covid, the original plan was to have that done a few weeks ago but here we are with what we've got
