Mice.... (Westbrook, Hope: living in, store, safe)

[Nor'Eastah]

Originally Posted by Easybreezy

I hate mice...It started to come down, and was walking around on a bookcase, and I crushed its skull with a hammer... I do hate mice. (shudder...)

I guess you hate 'em alright!

We also live near a wooded area. Every October, we have the exterminator. Even so - and with a dog in the house (good for nothin') - we still get the 'occasional' mouse. If you see ONE mouse, be assured that you have HUNDREDS in/out of the house. They don't stay inside all the time, unless it's really cold and snowy.

So, we bought some D-Con to augment the exterminator. Only problem with it is, it doesn't kill as fast, and we get "dead mouse" smell in the walls. Now THAT, I really hate!

But gosh...I never thought of crushing their skulls with a hammer...hmmm.

[chaosX5]

Originally Posted by Nor'Eastah

I guess you hate 'em alright!

We also live near a wooded area. Every October, we have the exterminator. Even so - and with a dog in the house (good for nothin') - we still get the 'occasional' mouse. If you see ONE mouse, be assured that you have HUNDREDS in/out of the house. They don't stay inside all the time, unless it's really cold and snowy.

So, we bought some D-Con to augment the exterminator. Only problem with it is, it doesn't kill as fast, and we get "dead mouse" smell in the walls. Now THAT, I really hate!

But gosh...I never thought of crushing their skulls with a hammer...hmmm.

HUNDREDS!!!!!!!! I might just have to become a "cat person"

[island mermaid]

Originally Posted by Nor'Eastah

I guess you hate 'em alright!

We also live near a wooded area. Every October, we have the exterminator. Even so - and with a dog in the house (good for nothin') - we still get the 'occasional' mouse. If you see ONE mouse, be assured that you have HUNDREDS in/out of the house. They don't stay inside all the time, unless it's really cold and snowy.

So, we bought some D-Con to augment the exterminator. Only problem with it is, it doesn't kill as fast, and we get "dead mouse" smell in the walls. Now THAT, I really hate!

But gosh...I never thought of crushing their skulls with a hammer...hmmm.

Nor,

I'm thinking we'd better be playing our A game in order to smash their skulls with a hammer! I don't think my reaction time is that quick any more. I'd have to bait them with booze, just to lower the bar and their ability to get around.

[CoastalMaine]

My cat (now 4 years old) has taught the dogs (originally 3, one American Staffordshire bulldog - majestic, proud, 110 lb., and two corgi/chow/whothehellknowswhatelsemix) how to hunt the mice.

When the bulldog was alive, there was nothing funnier than to see that HUGE, manly man dog hopping straight up and down in the air trying to catch a little weensy mouth!!!!!! When he'd get one, the look of utter amazement on his face was PRICELESS!!! The mouse tail would be hanging out of his gargantueous mouth, and he'd have this look of, OMG! I did it, NOW WTF do I do!?!?!?!, mixed with TOTAL euphoria he had caught an intruder! I used to have tears running out my eyes I'd be laughing so hard at him, (while I was jumping up and down on the couch screaming for them all to catch that thing!) lolol

The female Corgi/mix LOVES to catch mice. When the cat brings one in alive or finds one down cellar and brings it up to 'share' with us, Brownie BOMBS around the livingroom like a rabid freak, sniffing the radiators, sniffing under the furniture, etc., looking for it. Her brother, Sandy, the loyal follower of the pack, doesn't get nearly as 'heady' as she does.

One night, we all ran in a row after this one mouse the cat brought to us as a 'gift'. Except the cat who now sat in the middle of the livingroom with her leg stretched out, cleaning it minutely, while watching us with quiet amusement... ahem, anyone who has a cat will 'get' that attitude. lol

Onward with the story... we ended up following the mouse into the first floor bathroom which has a tub in it. The mouse leaped into the tub, but because the sides were so slippery, couldn't get a grip to get out and kept sliding back down into the tub. Brownie was acting all crazy, jumping and stepping like she was clog dancing in place... I picked her up and dropped her into the tub. OMG!!!! Hilarity!!!!!!!!!! Around and around they went, the mouse squeaking and squealing, and Brownie snapping her mouth at her trying to catch her. Sandy and myself standing outside the tub urging her on... finally, one good SNAP! and she had it in her mouth. Then, the look of total confusion. OH NO! I have a mouse in my mouth! What now??????? haha She let it go!!! I am now screaming at her, GET IT BROWNIE! GET THAT THING!!! (I am up on top of the toilet in case it gets out of the tub somehow). She SNAPS again and catches it a second time... YES!!! I cheer from atop the toilet lid. GOOD girl Brownie! EAT IT I start yelling... KILL IT!!!! She does a couple of quick jaw snaps and the thing dies. Brownie drops it from her mouth and looks at Sandy and I with this look of, 'THAT tastes GROSS' going across her face. hahahahaha

I got down off the toilet cover, helped lift her out of the tub, took the mouse in some tp and flushed it. Then I gave both dogs a couple pieces of rawhide chews and praised them to high heaven.

I don't think I would have good enough aim to smash one with a hammer. I have whacked them with brooms before, but I feel really primal and evil after I do it. lmao It doesn't bother me nearly so much to have the pets kill them for me.

Re the ODOR from a dead mouse.... it's GROSS. That's the only way to describe that nasty, musky smell. I'm enduring it right now. Even after steaming the area of carpet with the one that died on the heating element and its guts dripped on to the carpet, and squirting the pipe with Pine Sol, I can still smell it. Less often, but it's still there. It does linger. Blecccccchhhhhk!

[AliceT]

Originally Posted by forest beekeeper

Cut the cat food down to half rations for a week, and it really changes their attitude.

As cold as this sounds, this is quite accurate.

When I was young and boarded my horses at a stable, there was a barn cat that wasn't particularly friendly, but with all the feed in the place, there was never an issue with rodents. When individual boarders starting feeding the barn cat, rodents started appearing. A full cat will not chase mice or rats. A hungry cat will take on a wild boar.

[Nor'Eastah]

Originally Posted by Fort Lauderdale mermaid

Nor,

I'm thinking we'd better be playing our A game in order to smash their skulls with a hammer! I don't think my reaction time is that quick any more. I'd have to bait them with booze, just to lower the bar and their ability to get around.

You're right, mermaid - that does seem like a lot of work! And with you and I getting on in years now (nobody else here is, I guess!) our reaction times just ain't what they used to be!

It's just tough to imagine this situation: there's the mouse, weighing perhaps 3 grams. There's a human, weighing perhaps 150 lbs. And the little mousie scares the devil out of the giant! YES! So the giant goes and spends $$$ to pay the exterminator, puts up with the smell of rotting mouse flesh, and waylays the neighbor's cats to starve 'em into catching the little 3-gram mouse!

It's a classic case of T-Rex being pursued by fleas!

[MaineMathTCHER]

Originally Posted by Maine Writer

I use the snap traps that open like clothes pins. You don't have to touch the mouse to get it out, and it doesn't threaten to whack your fingers off at the elbows if you accidentally set it off. Is there room between a wall and the fridge to set a trap?

Well, we decided to use the traps that MW suggested and the trap was set last night with peanut butter and put behind the fridge-DH found a full trap this morning http://pics3.city-data.com/forum/ima.../eek.gif(ewwww) and brought out the trap to three very interested cats. We spent the day cleaning out all the cabinets and everywhere the little varmints could have touched. Another trap gets set tonight, but I am encouraged the mice are gone as all of the cats have migrated back upstairs to sleep at the bottom of the bed.

[CoastalMaine]

The big bulldog in my story and the cat who taught him to hunt... Mac and Addison together on the dog sofa....






Two great mouse hunters!! lol

[CoastalMaine]

MMT, the link to your pic doesn't work.

[juststoppinby]

Originally Posted by Fort Lauderdale mermaid

Nor,

I'm thinking we'd better be playing our A game in order to smash their skulls with a hammer! I don't think my reaction time is that quick any more. I'd have to bait them with booze, just to lower the bar and their ability to get around.

Maybe I will just drink the booze myself. Maybe then I would not be so afraid of the nasty, disease ridden, sharp tooth, beedy eyed, sharp clawed, thin tailed, filthy, wall climbing, paper shredding, food eating varmints.