I hate little things that scurry, especially if they are in my house. Outside, not so much a problem, but inside dreadfully horrifying.
In our old house mice were not common thanks to a hubby who heavily baited the basement, and the bull snakes that lived under the old back steps (we discovered these friends while tearing the house down). We had a few. The first one I found while doing laundry the first year we were married. I lifted the top layer of dirty laundry off the hamper and a mouse was there. YUCK!! I threw the clothes back on top, ran out of the laundry room, and shut the door. Not like that helped because there was a good 2 inch gap between the floor and door! I didn't haul the hamper outside and dump it because that would require being far too close to something that might run out and scamper up my arm!! Laundry was tramatizing for a few months after.
I think we may have had one or two more mice in the house, but the only other memorable one was the "drunk" mouse we had the spring before we moved into the new house. Deegan, Mazee and I were getting ready to head out to school. Deegan comes into the kitchen to tell me there's a mouse in "his room" (it's the old dining room so the poor kid really didn't have a room!). I'm thinking sure whatever, but no there is was stumbling around like a drunken sailor. Thank goodness Troy was still home because I told the kids just to leave it alone. Although they were intrigued and wanted to watch it. Troy corraled it quickly but the kids talked about it for months afterward. In fact I'm sure Deegan still remembers.
We moved into the new house and I breathed a sign of relief thinking I didn't need to worry about the creepy little devils any longer. We had a breach in security in the garage last fall, but I could handle them being in the garage. The only thing yucky there was the one that wouldn't die on the sticky trap for 4 days. When it finally kicked the bucket, I used the longest stick I could find, got the stick stuck to the trap and hauled the trap outside.
We had another breach in secruity a couple weeks ago thanks to our puppy who chewed a hole in the insulation and caulking where the air conditioner lines go into the house. At least we think that's where this all started.
I heard scratching a couple weeks ago coming from under my cupboards. I thought maybe it was a cricket (because we've also been invaded my them) stuck in the vent. A day later I find mouse droppings in my upper drawer where the pot holders are kept. YUCK! So I clean out the drawer and locate sticky traps. Okay, Troy located traps. Even they freak me out to a point.
Bait the trap and place in the draw. No mouse, no mouse, no mouse, no mouse sightings until a few days later when I catch some scurrying across the living room floor one morning. Deegan swears he sees it under my chair in the living room. Brave me moves the traps to strategically place them around the last sighting and we go to school. I'm sure we'll catch a mouse by time I'm home from school. What mouse can resist peanut butter?
Nothing, nothing, nothing again for a couple days. Then there is mouse turds in my island draws, the top one where utensils are kept and the middle one where the baking stuff is kept. Don't ask me what this mouse was thinking, but it didn't get into the bags of sugar or box of dried milk. I clean out the draw, put thinging in containers that cannot be biten into easily and place a sticky trap in the drawer.
The next time evidence shows up is once again a few days later when I find droppings in the bottom draw of Miri's dresser in the back of the house! By now Troy and I are frustrated beyond belief, and I am no longer scared of the darn thing, I just want him out. I'm also thinking that Troy is just messing with me as well! This time spring traps are our weapon of choice. I bait and set and strategically place them once again. NOTHING AGAIN!!!!!!!!
Friday night, I'm thinking about making biscuits. I open the baking drawer and catch mouse poo out of the corner of my eye. "Darn thing escaped being caught again" I'm thinking. Nope there is it, poor sucker, stuck completely to the trap. I didn't even freak out, however I shut the drawer and waited until Troy came home to remove it. We did not have biscuits for supper.
We checked the other traps just in case, but all are empty, except we can't find the original stick trap in the hot pad holder drawer. Some how it ended up in the bottom of that cupboard with all the peanut butter gone. I'm justing hoping it was the same mouse that we caught.
Some how I'm thinking this story may not have ended yet. So stay tuned, part two of little things that scurry may be in the works.
