Did you ever see such a thing in your life?

[fluffymark]

I win! This kitten can catch mice! Yay! 3 mice all expunged from house! Hooray! :)

So lets start at the beginning. Late wednesday evening, my housemates spotted a mouse in the house. Definate mouse sightings and all that. snow_leopard was terrifed and couldn't sleep after spotting a mouse in her room. Soon after, I spotted a mouse crawling under the door of my bedroom - I didn't know they could squeeze through such small gaps! *terror* Scared and firghtened that the mouse could roam freely we worked ourselved into a hysteria. The mouse would eat us alive!

Sleep was impossible to even think about. We needed mousetraps. So, despite it being 2AM, we set out shopping to buy mousetraps. The huge 24 hour tesco was a disappointment (although in future I know that 2AM is an excellent time to shop - no other shoppers there to be scared of but all the shelves are full. Wooo!!). The odd 24 hour shop next to Leytonstone station claimed they had mouse traps, but couldn't find them. Waaaaaaaaaah! Nowhere else open. Nothing to do but face the mouse. Braved going back to bed, and fortunately the mouse didn't appear again Wednesday night. But was very scary.

Yesterday went shopping for mousetraps. Mouse friendly ones, that don't kill mouseies, just trap them. Bought 2 mousetraps. Baited them with peanut butter (which mice like, for some inexpicable reason). Set them in rooms. Ultrasonic repellers set up elsewhere in the house appear to work, in sending any mice to my room! My room was under seige from mouse attack last night. At first, every 5 minutes I was woken by scratching and sniffling noises of mouse. After noticing my chocolate advent calender was getting most of the attention and was the center of the attack (damn them) I moved it, put it safely face down, and moved the mousetrap to where the calender had previously been. 30 minutes later I was woken by more sratching noises, but they sounded different. Couldn't spot the mouse for ages, until suddenly I noticed.....the trap had been sprung. Picked up the trap and something was inside. Yaaaay! I'D CAUGHT A MOUSE! Now I needed to release the mosue outdoors. So at 3:30AM last night I put my coat on over my pajamas, and set off down the road, to release the mouse near the tube station (because mice like tube stations, we know that already!). I must have been a real sight, but fortunately nobody else was about at that time. After releasing the mouse, returned to my room, set the trap up again, and returned to bed.

10 minutes later, more scratching noises woke me, and I found that the trap had been sprung again. ANOTHER MOUSE! Yaaay! So, coat on again, and released another mouse near Leytonstone tube station, scurrying off into the darkness. And then back to sleep.

2 hours later, the trap sprung again - A THIRD MOUSE CAUGHT! By now I decided I'd leave it until getting up in the morning before releasing the mouse. By the time I did, it was raining and cold outside, and the poor little mousie emerged very unlike the others - all cold and shivery and rather than zooming off it shyly crawled into some nearby leaves to hide. I hope it's ok, poor thing. *worriednoises*

Three mice less in the house. I feel much safer now, and no scratching noises and the terror of mice has been defeated. Sadly I found a casualty this morning - as I'm not going to be around over the next few weeks, I finished off all the chocolates in my advent calender this morning (early, bad me!) and found to my horror that 3 chocolates behind closed doors were missing! Eaten by mice! *eeeeeep!* Noooooooooooooooo. Mice have had their revenge. Grrrrrrrrrrr.

Anyone have experince with dealing with mice invasions? *hopefulsmile*

Today has been very good. Christmas lunch yummy, unexpected large christmas bonus and I'm off home up north this evening. Yaaaaaaaay! Everything is very very sparkly, and I'm very happy! :)

Trying not to, but missing someone horribly. 3 weeks until I see her again. Waaaaaaaaah! If you see me go a bit nuts, this may explain it...

Comments

Bacon

[angryangeltoo.livejournal.com]

They can't resist bacon, well done you for getting humane traps, make sure you release them far away from home as if you stick them in the back garden they will just get in again. You need to keep laying the traps for two weeks as there may be babies and young ones running around

[elettaria.livejournal.com]

Also, you need to check the traps very often, as otherwise you will open a trap to find that the mouse has died of shock. This happened with me a few years ago. I wasn't at all keen on killing them, but hoped to trap them and release them alive. We'd been chasing them around the kitchen with strips of card with peppermint oil on the ends (mice USUALLY loathe peppermint) for ages, including little races under the microwave which no doubt the mice at least enjoyed.

There were discussions with my my-flatmate, P, and my ex-partner, J, about where they should be released. P was worried that they would come back if released near to home. (We were on the second floor.) So the discussion turned to taking them to the science campus, which was a good half-hour walk away. J suggested letting them loose in lectures. I was busy pointing out that any mice who could find their way home would be homing mice and probably worth showing off and making money out of.

If you're in flats you will probably either have to block up all the holes (not always possible, sometimes you'd have to rip out the kitchen to get at them) or have a look at the fancier ultrasonic repellents which do the entire building. Otherwise your neighbour's mice will get in. I'm worried about the second scenario happening here, this building is 130 years old and bound to be riddled with mice, but at least all the holes were blocked up when I refurbished the flat, in fact the old kitchen is now the bathroom so the holes are tiled up.

If there are mice who can chew through tiles, I'm fleeing.

[fluffymark]

Has so far always been obvious when they've been caught - they rattle the trap trying to escape making quite a noise in the process, so no risk of leaving them in there accidentally. I'll have to remember about the peppermint thing - that could be very useful in keeping them away from places. :) :) :) Thank you! You've been most helpful. :)

Re: Bacon

[fluffymark]

Ooooh! I have SO MUCH BACON in the freezer it defies belief (total miscalculation and misunderstanding about after-party breakfasts last weekend) and it needs to be eaten. Currently they are being baited with chocolate sprinklies, but it seems such a waste - now I know they like bacon I can put it to good use!