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NBFR clever little critter made me laugh!

ambrvanambrvan member
in Blended Families
So we have a mouse in the kitchen. A bold little thing that I have seen multiple times. He doesn't really cause a whole lot of trouble (now) because we have gone through a whole lot of trouble mouse-proofing our house as best as we can. The only thing we cannot fix is where he is coming from. Our stove is a prt of this home's character, an enormous, ancient, HEAVY monster of an appliance that even three people have not been able to move out of the space it has occupied since the 70s. It still works beautifully, and actually, I kind of like it. But... apparently, there is some opening hiding behind it that is providing entrance for this little mouse. So our uninvited guest is coming up from behind the stove... get ready for it... through the right rear eye of the stove! Yuck! I turn the eye on every morning to heat it up and in an attempt to sanitize it, and then I clean the stove and the counters like a mad woman. And you always know when the mouse came out or not because there is soot around the eye of the stove if he did.

So anyways... last night, I saw him poke his nose up out of the eye, so I put one of those sticky traps right in the path he normally travels (as evidenced by a soot trail every morning) and placed a little bit of my delicious honey oat cereal inside of it. No sooner had I sat it down did I see his nose poking back up. This morning, I check the kitchen, and what do I find? Get ready...

This little booger has left sooty paw prints INSIDE the sticky trap as he WALKED THROUGH IT, ate my cereal bait, and moved on about his business. He got in the trash can (and I'm even sure how he got into my tall, stainless steel, motion activated trash can...), pulled out a stick left over from a corn from last night, and somehow managed top drag it all the way back to the stove and leave it next to the trap at the eye of the stove. After all that effort, the cleverest little mouse couldn't figure out how to get the stick down the hole.

Any advice on how to get rid of him, would be great. As much as he made me laugh this morning and as cute as he is, I don't enjoy uninvited guests. My cats are ZERO help here. They have watched him run across the counter with no interest in even trying to find out what it is. They are more aggressive with flies. I raised them since they were 12 day old orphans, so obviously this a failure on part of their foster mom, me. lol. Ugh!. I have talked to one of the veterinarians at work about trading cats for a little while because they are great mousers, but I'm not keen on that idea. I really don't like sticky traps or any traps that kill or maim, but the live traps have been unsuccessful as well.
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Re: NBFR clever little critter made me laugh!

  • HopeforthebestHopeforthebest member
    As far as bait...my grandparents had a really old house that had a mouse issue once. Peanut Butter /butterfinger candy bars worked. But the used the old fashion snap trap thingy.
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  • twister22twister22 member
    Oh gosh! I would just suggest a trap that will kill - trading cats with the vet would accomplish the same thing. Good luck getting rid of the mischievous mouse!
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  • RondackHikerRondackHiker member
    Lurker... Don't do the sticky traps. They're cruel. Animals will chew off their limbs. They're just stuck their in a panic and many die from fear or the injuries they acquire while struggling to get away.

    A fast death, like the snap traps, is much kinder to the mouse.


    image image
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  • xmaryrickxxmaryrickx member
    We had a mouse like that in our old house. We were never able to catch him. We eventually just named him. Every night he would come up the stairs from the basement and sit and watch us while we watched tv. We lined his path with every trap imaginable, we hid traps where we thought he might live. We had probably 20 traps in 900 sq ft. After all of that I just figured he deserved to live ;) but we were also moving out so he could be the next persons problem.

    I agree snap traps are best. We have used spin traps too and while not as humane as the snap traps they are safer for the dogs. Who would inevitably find a way to get to the snap traps no matter how difficult we may think they are to access.
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  • ambrvanambrvan member
    I agree with the reasons not to use sticky traps but snap traps are not safe for my cats, who may not chase the mouse but still might get on the counter. I have tried the spin traps and the live traps. I will not/can't do poison of course.

    If he didn't poop all over my counter I wouldn't mind him. As long as he doesn't invite friends. We have pretty much mouse proofed all the food. But I don't want mouse doing and disease on my food prep area. Ring ding ding!
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  • twister22twister22 member

    ambrvan said:
    I agree with the reasons not to use sticky traps but snap traps are not safe for my cats, who may not chase the mouse but still might get on the counter. I have tried the spin traps and the live traps. I will not/can't do poison of course. If he didn't poop all over my counter I wouldn't mind him. As long as he doesn't invite friends. We have pretty much mouse proofed all the food. But I don't want mouse doing and disease on my food prep area. Ring ding ding!
    Is there somebody who can take your cats for a few days? I would be seriously worried about disease from the mouse pooping on your counter top, even if you do scrub really well.
    image
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  • ambrvanambrvan member
    I could board them at the clinic I work at probably. But DH is getting some more muscle over here tomorrow to try to move the stove and see what is behind it. He has some college football players coming. Lol. If they can't do it, we're in serious trouble.

    Moving the animals even temporarily is a last resort.

    For now I am doing food prep on a separate table that we are keeping covered with a vinyl table cloth, preparing nothing directly on surface, and washing our dishes and putting them away immediately.

    Our little friend has only been here about two weeks or so, and really there is not a whole lot of evidence left behind him. More soot from the stove than droppings actually. But still embarrassingly horrible none the less. If he would just mind his manners, we wouldn't mind him hanging around. We do have two pet rats, after all. We can be rodent friendly. But this is no Ratatouille.
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  • NineoceansNineoceans member
    We have a hole in our house that no one can find that allows mice in. After throwing literally $1500 at an exterminator just to set traps every month we bought these and it seems to be working

    https://m.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?productId=100617624&storeId=10051&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&ci_sku=100617624&ci_src=298346236&cm_mmc=shopping%2d%5f%2dgoogleads%2d%5f%2dpla%2d%5f%2d100617624&ci_gpa=pla
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  • +just+j++just+j+ member

    I am a farmgirl, so I'm not necessarily the best person to ask how to humanely kill or trap a mouse. They are pesky, dirty little varmints and well in abundance. I say do it all. And many for him to dodge.  Sticky, poison, snap traps...

    But you do NOT want that sucker dying in your stove, so you might want to pass on the poison since that is his safe place.

    We had a spot too in the bathroom that we couldn't block without tearing out our entire tub wall. So I put a gauntlet of  5 snap traps, as well as poison where they'd come in and out and would frequently travel. If one didn't get them, the other eventually did.  I caught and poisoned a lot of goddamned mice.  Especially this last winter. Holy crap we had alot, when they harvested the fields they come running to the house and because of the dry weather, they were abundant.  So I became somewhat of an expert.

    I do not miss that house. Or mice. 

    Good luck with this one. Get him before he multiplies.

     

    "he offered her the world. she said she had her own" - poet Monique Duval
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