Mouse Update

Just over a week ago you will remember that I posted about the unwanted visitor we had called 'mouse'

Well we set out the man size trap that Steve decided to now use and we waited.

We set it by the dishwasher, which is where we thought they were coming in from. We baited it with the food of choice, in this case apple, seeing as that is what they kept going after. We ensured that all the other fruit was not in sight, in fact it was in the microwave. We also made sure there was no other food at all around. Just the tempting apple in the trap.

We did this for several nights, as we have worked out they don't like change!

Nothing, narda, nout.....

Although one evening about 11pm we did hear it go off......but nothing, so we think they might have come across it but managed to move before it caught them, and then this in turn scared them for a while.

Then the other day we noticed that there were droppings in the cupboard under the sink again. We had put a cloth over and in the hole to hopefully stop them coming into the cupboard, and therefore they would go under the dishwasher and use the trap, but as mentioned before we have intelligent mice....!

It was then that I noticed the fluff on the floor in the cupboard and had to wonder what they had been getting at?

Then I looked at the oven gloves that hang on the door and loh and behold they had been chewing the gloves!

So Steve placed the trap, loaded into the cupboard. We didn't move anything or change anything, just the loaded trap and closed the door.

Guess what? This morning Steve found a visitor.

I won't go into all the gory details, but the rather nice size mouse didn't like us, nor did he like Steve after he was taken outside and dealt too.

We will continue to set the trap for a little longer...just in case there are some family members.

Mice

We have a mouse!

No it is not the nice kind that the kids have as pets in a cage in their rooms, no, we are talking the uninvited kind that visits you during the night.

We knew we had one several months ago when we started to notice droppings in the cleaning product cupboard under the sink in the kitchen.

There is a hole at the back where some water pipes come through and so we knew how they were getting in.

So we went through the usual treatments.

First Steve said he was not poisoning it, so we cleared the cupboard of all the bottles and laid a trap with food on.

Unfortunately we have a very wise mouse/rat because they proceeded to eat the food of the trap BUT never set the thing off! Including when Steve put thread round the food for the mouse to get its teeth caught, it still managed to get the food but leave the string and the trap!

After about 2 weeks of this Steve finally said to me "Get some POISON"

So we laid some poison traps at the back of the cupboard and left them to it. Over the last several weeks they seem to have eaten all the poison, poo'd green, but still come and visit us in the middle of the night!

Here you can see the hole, with the poison trap and that we have activity there.

Apart from the fact we can tell that they are back through the cupboard we have also noticed some strange going ons in the kitchen.

I came down the other morning to find an apple by the dishwasher.

Now I know this wasn't there when we went to bed, and the boys had not got up yet, so it was strange to find it there.

What was even stranger was the little bites all over it.

2 nights later we came down in the morning to find the banana half eaten. The black on the bench is banana skin, nothing else!

What amazes us about all this is just how they are getting up onto the bench? We can only assume they are climbing up the new curtains beside the bench.

2 nights ago we came down in the morning to find most of the apples in the bowl with lots of teeth marks over them where people had had little chews, and it is definitely not the boys, although I do know Alex likes to have a wee chew and put it back, but it is the wrong size and shape for him. Again the bits in the bowl are skin nothing else!

Steve informed me today that when he came down this morning there was another apple half chewed over by the dishwasher again.

The mouse can get under the dishwasher as it is next to the kitchen cupboard under the sink.

So we have now invested in an even bigger meaner trap, which I have been assured should work.

You load food, in this case we will use apple as he seems to have a liking for it, on the plate with the circle bit on and then when they step on the plate part to get the food the lid slams down shut, either trapping them or something worse!

Although Steve can be the one to come down each morning and check it.

And if I hear it go off in the night he will be the one that gets kicked to wake up and go check it out!

We will also look at ways to close off the hole under the dishwasher and maybe blocking the hole under the sink with temporary filling, as we do need to get to this hole if there is a problem with the dishwasher.

So I will keep you posted with our success and if any of you have any tips on how to get rid of our unwanted visitor then please leave a comment to let me know.

A Mouse Trap Story

A mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife open a package. What food might this contain?" The mouse wondered?
He was devastated to discover it was a mousetrap. Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed the warning :
There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!"
The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said,
"Mr. Mouse, I can tell this is a grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me. I cannot be bothered by it."

The mouse turned to the pig and told him,
"There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!"
The pig sympathized, but said, "I am so very sorry, Mr. Mouse, but there is nothing I can do about it but pray. Be assured you are in my prayers."

The mouse turned to the cow and said
"There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!"
The cow said, "Wow, Mr. Mouse. I'm sorry for you, but it's no skin off my nose."

So, the mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected, to face the farmer's mousetrap alone.
That very night a sound was heard throughout the house, like the sound of a mousetrap catching
its prey.
The farmer's wife rushed to see what was caught.
In the darkness, she did not see it was a venomous snake whose tail the trap had caught.
The snake bit the farmer's wife.
The farmer rushed her to the hospital, and she returned home with a fever.

Everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup's main ingredient.

But his wife's sickness continued, so friends and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock.
To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig.

The farmer's wife did not get well; she died!

So many people came for her funeral, the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide enough meat for all of them.

The mouse looked upon it all from his crack in the wall with great sadness.

So, the next time you hear someone is facing a problem and think it doesn't concern you,
remember when one of us is threatened, we are all at risk.
We are all involved in this journey called life.
We must keep an eye out for one another and make an extra effort to encourage one another.

EACH OF US IS A VITAL THREAD IN ANOTHER PERSON'S TAPESTRY; OUR LIVES ARE WOVEN TOGETHER FOR A REASON.

One of the best things to hold onto in this world is a FRIEND ! ! !