For those of you who are friends with me or Scotty on facebook you may know that we are currently dealing with a little mouse problem. This is a common problem in this house because we're out in the country. Just about every winter we have mice. However, most of those mice hang out on the 1st floor in the kitchen. For some reason the mice found their way upstairs.
We first noticed the mice when Scotty was home on a sick day. He was laying on the floor when he saw something out of the corner of eye. At first he thought it was just a bug, but he knew it was a little too big. So he watched the floor closely to try and see it again. And in the blink of an eye the little creature zoomed past him on the floor and then he knew.....it was a mouse. If you are on facebook you probably saw Scotty's facebook status that said "I don't like mice." Scotty hates mice. I don't blame him. Since Scotty was on the floor he didn't want to be down there with a mouse. So he decided to sit on the couch and not touch the floor at all. The next thing he knows, he is playing games on his computer when he looked over and there was the mouse...ON THE COUCH....watching him play games. As you can imagine, that is terrifying. So Scotty ran downstairs and didn't come back up till I got home.
Because there are mice just about every year Scotty's parents have a ton of traps. We only set one and put it on the floor where we saw him run before. We put a little peanut butter on it because apparently mice love peanut butter. We went to bed that night hoping that when we woke up there would be a dead mouse. As soon as I got up I checked the trap and there was no mouse....but he did eat the peanut butter. That jerk.... So then I realized this isn't his first rodeo. So we had to get smarter. The next day we reset the trap and left for the day hoping that when we come back it'll be dead. And it worked!
After that, we figured our mouse worries were over...but I thought wrong. I did a little research on the web to get more info on mice. I found out that mice are nocturnal, they can hardly see, and they can squeeze through spaces smaller than the diameter of a dime. That is small. Worst of all, I discovered that if you have one mouse you have SEVERAL!! Seriously? That's just great. We reset the trap just in case we had more and for a couple of days we seemed mouse free. Until one night when I was upstairs relaxing I saw another one. The trap was still set and the mouse ran right over to it! I watched him at first but when he started to eat the peanut butter I quit watching because I didn't want to see him get caught. I held my breath, closed my eyes and waited for the trap to go off. And I waited...and waited....then I finally looked and the mouse was sitting ON TOP of the trap just casually eating the peanut butter. I ran down stairs to get Scotty and tell him what I saw. He set more traps hoping that at least one would get him. He went back downstairs b/c he didn't want to see it happen so I stayed upstairs to make sure he would be dead. But no....he just kept eating all the peanut butter, like it was some kind of buffet! That jerk. Me and Scotty finally came to the conclusion that the traps were just too old and not sensitive enough. The next day Scotty bought new traps. They were more updated and A LOT more sensitive. Scotty's dad also bought us some sticky traps. For those who don't know a sticky trap is pretty much a piece of cardboard with extremely sticky glue on it. It's to catch mice or insects. I read on the internet that they are very effective and more humane than the traditional traps. Well, I could care less about being humane. Mice carry bacteria and diseases and they will eat just about anything and I wanted it OUT OF MY HOUSE! So we set 4 new traps and the sticky trap. The next day I was home alone, getting ready to go to work. I was putting on my make-up when I saw the mouse in the bathroom. He ran behind Scotty's dresser. I saw his little head peak around the corner to make sure all was clear but I moved and scared him. So then he peaked his head around the other corner, I moved and scared him. I played this game with him for a good 10 minutes. I couldn't get away long enough to grab something to get him. He finally braved up and just ran for it and that's when I found out how they were getting in. The mouse ran under Scotty's sink. The hole is very small, but he fit through. When Scotty got home we did further investigating and found lots of mouse poop under the drawers in the vanity.
What we have assumed has happened is that these mice made a home in the attic. The attic is attached to the upstairs. When we were getting christmas decor we put floor down and completely reorganized, probably interfering with their homes. So, of course, they wanted to make a home in our bathroom. We strategically put the traps where we knew they would go. We went downstairs to wait. An hour later we GOT HIM!! We were so excited. I came upstairs to check out the damage and I saw ANOTHER mouse. For Pete's sake!!! I'm not running a mouse farm here... The mouse ran behind Scotty's dresser again and the game started over. But this time I wasn't home alone so Scotty got in on the fun. We put a trap at either end of the dresser. He was really trapped. After a minute or two the mouse got tired of this so he made a run for it. He took a large leap of faith and WHAM!! The trap went off. I screamed and ran, Scotty ran after me. Scotty yelled "WE GOT HIM, WE GOT HIM!!....wait....I didn't see if it really got him.." So I run back upstairs and the trap was somewhat under our laundry basket. I pick up the basket and the trap started moving!!! I screamed again and ran for it. The trap got his back leg and the mouse was trying to get away. Me and Scotty are wimps so we made Scotty's dad come empty it. The mouse was still alive so Darrell took him out back and killed him. What a brave man.
So we were hoping that was it. No more mice...please! We put all the traps back up though just in case. We are about to go to bed, laughing, still about what just happened and we hear SNAP! Oh my goodness....yes....we just got another mouse. I go back to the bathroom to check it out and it got the mouse right across the body. His legs couldn't move but the rest of his body was still eating the peanut butter like nothing happened. Darrell had already gone to bed so we couldn't get him. Scotty got a box, scooped him up and threw him outside so the cats will eat it.
Unbelievable. 3 mice. Gross. Finally, we hop in bed. We both had a feeling like this just isn't over yet. Scotty had fallen asleep and I was almost asleep when I heard some shuffling around across the room. I sit up to see what's going on and then I hear "squeak squeak." GROSS!!! Another mouse got caught but this time in the sticky trap. It took me forever to go to sleep because of that. Humane my foot. That mouse suffered a lot more than the others who died quickly. EWE!!
Our traps are still set but it's been a good, solid week and no mice. Well, actually we saw a mouse but it ran downstairs. We saw it trying to get back up but it couldn't. We closed off all the holes we found in the bathroom with steal wool. Mice hate steal wool. That's why that mouse ran downstairs....we locked him out of his house. :) We are mouse killing machines and we don't feel bad about it.
