A Mouse in the House

I know...my new home and there is a mouse living in it!  Can you believe it?  I think it was because I have been rather 'smug' about Dina having all the mice in her house (my 'old' house!) and just saying, "sorry, Dids, it is now your problem and I am soooo glad to pass it off to you!"  Well, the reason I was feeling particularly 'smug' was because Scott had told me that he "buttoned" up this house good, there was NO way, NO how any creature was getting into this house, it was sealed up good!

Well, surprise, surprise, the first place we saw 'evidence' of this little guy (aren't they so cute on the cartoon channels??) was in the guest bathroom, he/she started to chew up my bath mat...leaving little empty places here and there.  OMG I am thinking that SHE is getting ready to build a nest ( ?  is that what mice build when they are preparing for mice birth?) and is using the really nice soft cotton threads from my very nice bath mat!  Little black poop right where our feet need to be when sitting on the "throne"!!  Hah!!

So you know that I have set many a trap at the other house and have been very successful, however I have been scared a few times when the trap accidentally goes off and smarts the old fingers.  So I am sooo done with setting those traps.  But, will DH set a trap?  NO!  Will he release a trap once it has done its job?  NO!  But I have to get this mouse out of my house and NOW!!  I go to the store and buy two kinds of mouse traps...the cardboard tent kind that has icky sticky stuff on it so that once the mouse sets foot on it, it is there for good!  And just to be on the safe side, I bought two of the traditional traps that catch the mice in the act of going after that yummy peanut butter.  Of course I try the easy tent version and put a couple in the bathroom.  It has been two weeks and I still have NOT caught that little creature, but he/she is still nibbling away at my rug and leaving its evidence behind!  And NOW I start to notice mouse poop in my pantry!  I have plastic drawer bins, but they are not mouse proof, a big gap to allow those guys in and eat at their hearts content!  So I clean out my pantry and discover all sorts of places that he/she has been getting into.  I get containers with lids to seal up my packaged food to prevent the mouse from getting to more food.  I set two of the traditional traps in the pantry, HOWEVER....they were NOT the brand name, they were from Freddies.  And what did I discover the next morning?  Oh Yeah, the mouse had a great time eating that yummy PB (peanut butter!) and did NOT set off the trap!  DEFECT!!

Scott goes to True Value and comes back with an electronic mouse trap (are you laughing your head off now?)  Hey, I am up for anything!  So we put the PB in place and turn on the switch....we are good to go!  the next morning the light is flashing!!  Yeah!!  That means it worked!!  I lift the lid and what do I see...mouse poop and NO mouse!  Scott's theory is that the mouse was 'zapped', but not quite all the way electrocuted (yuck!) and managed to stumble out of the trap and is probably rotting away someplace in the house!  Now isn't that a delightful thought!!

So on it goes, the traps are not trapping any mice and I am still seeing evidence of a mouse in the pantry.  So I go out and purchase the brand name mouse trap, I have Joe set it before he leaves for the day...he puts it just inside my craft room ....oh yeah, I forgot to mention that two mornings there was mouse poop on top of my counter in my craft room!  Now that makes me MAD!  Scott and I go to bed that very night and we are in bed only about 10 minutes when we hear a big "SNAP"  I had to jump out of bed and check cause I was just positive that we caught the little bugger!  And guess what???  WE DID!  We caught him in my craft room!  It has been two full days now and there has not been any evidence of a mouse in the house.

But remember friends, I do live on acreage and mice do live down in the field, so I know they are all around me.  That is fine, they can stay in the field and I am happy about that, just NOT in my house!

P.S.  I placed the mouse in the trap inside a plastic bag and set it outside the front door to have Joe remove it. Later that day, I went to check on it and the whole thing was missing...bag, mouse, trap everything!  That is still a mystery!