Apparently we were asleep at the switch when the rains came this fall. We neglected to reset the mouse traps in our garage and laundry room. And guess what? The little furry creatures took advantage of our negligence to move in. In force!
The first evidence was yesterday morning when I needed a seldom-used serving dish that we keep out in our back-forty-alias-the-work-room. Was that a mouse dropping? Yuck! And then, because it seemed a good day to do one of those inside chores, Nyel was reorganizing an area nearby and ran across a favorite winter scarf — well-chewed. Damn!
It is a fact of life around here that when the weather begins to turn cold and rainy, the furry creatures move indoors. We keep rat-traps set year round and, maybe because we haven’t had success (or evidence of need) regarding those nasty varmints, we became complacent about their little cousins. Big Mistake.
Last night Nyel baited six mouse traps with a bit of cheddar cheese and set them in strategic places – two in the garage, two in the work room, two in the pantry/laundry area. This morning: ta dah! Four dead mice! He is rebaiting and resetting as we speak.
I have to admit that I always feel a little sad when the traps work. I remember years ago when my mother (at age 90) was just about ready to move from here into an assisted living facility. One of her neighbors called and said that he had set some mouse traps in her bedroom. “In her bedroom! Yikes!” I was horrified.
I rushed over to see what was happening and there was mom, sitting in her recliner having tea and cookies! Nearby were two mousetraps-at-the-ready. I talked to her about the ‘problem’ and she said complacently, “Oh, I know. I’ve seen them running around. They are such sweet little things. I didn’t want to disturb them.”
Well… Nyel and I may be at the forgetful stage, but not yet at the co-habitating stage. Not with mice, anyway!
Sydney: About some 90 year old women: Elsie had a huge rodent population in the house on Garmont. She did set humane traps, little spring loaded doors, and caught a large number. Only problem was that she took the traps outside and released the little varmints who were very clever and able to return, quickly. When we cleaned out the house in which she had been living, guess what we found in every closet? A: Their stashes of edibles!
Nan, do you think we’ll follow in our mother’s footsteps a decade from now? lol
Oh yikes. When living on a remote research field camp in the Channel Islands we trapped 20-40 mice a night in our two wall tents. Feral oats all over the islands weren’t enough. They’d chew through the tents walls every night…. Ugh.
I always keep three mousetraps baited with peanut butter, which I’ve found most effective as it lasts a long time without rebaiting—I’ve caught “them meeses” (as Jinx the Cat would say) on three month old peanut butter. But a classic mouse story is about my Uncle Willard in Garfield, WA years ago. He found one spring that mice had set up housekeeping in his grain drills (for planting wheat) and he was late planting as he didn’t want to disturb the mice and their babies!