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Mice in the House

Decorating for the holidays is not one of my favorite things to do, especially when you make the discovery you have mice in the house at the same time.

I wish I was one of those women who look forward to the holidays, who has the house perfectly decorated by the night of Thanksgiving, who constantly boils apple juice and cinnamon sticks and cloves just to make the house smell nice, who passes out all the Christmas goodies to her neighbors by the first weekend of December, and who has all the Christmas gifts purchased and wrapped by the end of October.  I’m just not that kind of woman.

I’m more the type of person who gets annoyed at all the unnecessary parties I have to plan or attend, and at the loss of every single weekend in December.  I have an Oh-Crap moment about the second week of December and pull out the dusty holiday decoration boxes that are completely disorganized after last year’s desperate holiday clean up attempt in the middle of January.  I have a second Oh-Crap moment about the third week of December when I have to finally finish all my holiday shopping, and end up getting gift cards for more than half the people on my list.

So, when I pulled out the box containing the pre-lit Christmas tree, I sighed for about the hundredth time that day.  I would have to rearrange the furniture in the front room so I could somehow fit this tree in there.  I would have to assemble the tree and make sure all the lights still worked.  I’d have to fluff out the branches in a sad attempt to make it look like a real tree, while trying to avoid scratching my arms too badly.  I’d have to sort through my tree decorations, toss the ones that broke during last year’s packing, and make it look festive enough.  I did this so my kids could enjoy Christmas.  I did not personally enjoy it.  So, I did the basic decorating while the kids were at school so they wouldn’t see my “Bah Humbug” attitude.

I reached in the box to pull out the first part of the tree, and gasped when my hand touched something soft that moved.  Then I had one of those delay-screams.  You know, when you scream after you realize what exactly happened, and then you have to wait until you have enough breath to get the scream out.  I’d touched a mouse.  Matter of fact, I’d touched several mice.  There was a nest in my Christmas tree box!

The mice were just as terrified and surprised as I was, because they jumped out of the box and scattered.  I now had mice in my house.  I continued screeching as I ran into the bathroom and locked the door.  Plunging my hand into water as hot as I could stand, I realized my cell phone was in the other room.  I’d have to brave the mice just to call for help.  Hopefully, I could get someone to my house before the kids came home so we could get rid of the mice before they had to know about it.

Merry Christmas.

I’m not decorating next year.

Mouse Removal

how to get rid of mice

“Are you crazy??  Asking me to get rid of the mouse.  Please.  Do you even know me?”

Jenna looked at her roommate, Ally, as they sat on the couch in her room, both making sure their legs were nowhere near the floor.  Jenna had shoved a blanket under the tightly closed door in the hopes the mouse they’d spotted wouldn’t be able to get in the bedroom.

This was one of the rare nights when they were both home at the same time.  Usually, one of them had a date, or had a shift at work, or had class.  So they’d decided to make homemade pizza and watch an old chick flick together.  They joked and talked about Ally’s boyfriend and Jenna’s most recent dating catastrophe while they pulled ingredients out in their tiny kitchen and laughingly argued about the best ways to make pizza dough.  Jenna had opened a cabinet to search for pizza sauce when something moved behind the boxes and cans.  “What the . . . ?” Jenna said, pulling things out.  She was, by far, the braver of the two girls, and thought it was possibly a large spider that needed to be killed.  Instead, as she pulled out a couple of boxes of pasta to see into the back of the cabinet better, a little brown mouse leapt out of the cabinet, onto the kitchen floor and disappeared under the refrigerator.  A breathless moment passed, then both girls screamed, dropped whatever they had been holding, and ran into Jenna’s room, slamming the door behind them.

Jenna was the braver of the two girls, but not by much.

Now, they were stuck in Jenna’s room.  They’d both left their cell phones back in the kitchen.  Jenna’s laptop was also in the kitchen, where she normally did her homework.  They were either going to be stuck in Jenna’s room for hours until Ally’s boyfriend dropped by after his shift at work, or one of them would have to overcome their fears and get rid of the mouse.  Neither option sounded really good.

Jenna had hoped that Ally would step up and offer to get rid of the mouse, since Jenna was always the one who killed spiders and other insects that got into the apartment.  It was a long shot, she knew, but it was worth a try.  Ally would have none of it.  She was a girlie-girl in all senses of the word, and didn’t get near creepy-crawlies on principle, as well as a deep-seated fear.  Jenna would have to do it, or wait until Ally’s boyfriend came by hours later.

Jenna used a hanger to peel the blanket away from under the door while she stayed on the safety of the couch.  To their relief, no mouse immediately ran in to attack them.  Then, she reached over the arm of the couch, yanked the door open and peered into the hallway.  With a deep breath and a squeal, Jenna jumped into the hallway, ran to the kitchen, snapped up her cell phone, ran back, and slammed the door behind her.  The first call to Ally’s boyfriend got them nowhere.  He couldn’t get off work early, but he’d come as soon as he could.  The second call was to Allstate Animal Control.  Ally’s boyfriend assured them they’d send someone out to get rid of the mouse, and make sure there weren’t any more mice running around.  Neither girl got any sleep that night.

Get Rid of Mouse

mouse removal

I thought I knew how to get rid of a mouse.  As a high school junior, I have no problems being in charge when both my parents have to go out of town on business trips.  I’ve been watching my younger brother and sister for years whenever both Mom and Dad are gone.  It’s been great, too.  I get paid for doing what I normally do at home, and all I have to do is make sure they both get their homework done, they’re ready for school in the morning, and make dinner at night.  The rest of the time, I can have my friends over, watch TV, do my homework, text my friends, and just do what I usually do.  Easy, right?

Sure, it’s easy.  Until something weird happens.  Like the time my little brother had one of his friends over, and his friend got really hurt while they were jumping on our trampoline.  But, I’m a great babysitter.  I helped calm my brother’s friend down, called his mom to pick him up, and made up new rules about the trampoline.  It’s never happened again.

Or, like the time my little sister stuck a bead up her nose while she was playing in the toy room.  I have no idea where she got the bead.  But, she stuck it up there pretty far.  I managed to help her get it out, though.  I just plugged up the other nostril and had her blow.  After like two tries, that little sucker shot right out of her nose, all gooey and sticky.  See?  Problem solved.

So, last night I saw a mouse in the house.  It ran right across the floor in front of us while we were watching TV before bed, and ran under the couch where I was sitting.  My brother screamed, and my little sister tried to chase it.  It was so gross, but I’m pretty sure I know how to get rid of a mouse.  I got my brother and sister out of the room and ready for bed.  After they were in their bedrooms, I marched back down to the living room and looked under the couch.  Yep, it was still there. I have no idea what it was doing, or why it was just sitting there, but there it was.  I could get rid of a mouse, one stupid little mouse.

I grabbed up our cat, Deacon, tossed him in the room with the TV and the mouse, and closed the door.  Done.  Deacon would get rid of the mouse by the morning.

This morning, I opened up the door to the TV room right before school.  Deacon ran out and headed outside.  Then, the mouse came tearing across the room and disappeared under the TV console.  Great.  Just great.  Guess I don’t know how to get rid of a mouse.

So, I texted Mom, and she told me to just call Allstate Animal Control.  They’d know how to get rid of a mouse.  Guess I don’t know everything, but I’m still a great babysitter.

Mouse Trap

“That looks like a mouse trap to me,” said Marcus, wary.  Since joining up with the mouse nest in this house, he was the new guy, and always picked on.  He had to stay on his toes constantly.

“Whatever, dude, you’re totally paranoid,” said Norman.  He was the worst of the bunch, and was always trying to set Marcus up.  So far, he’d convinced Marcus to dart across the kitchen floor in broad daylight, sun shining and people awake and everything, just to bring back a forgotten piece of toast for Norman to eat.  Norman shared with his buddies, and the only bite Marcus got was the tiny crumb left in his mouse after Norman grabbed the toast from him.

Just yesterday, Norman and his friends had gotten Marcus to run back and forth in front of the tiny mouse hole they’d chewed through the wall.  He’d told Marcus to make as much noise as possible to distract the cat while Norman et al feasted on an unprotected bag of cereal in the pantry.  Again, Marcus got nothing for his trouble except for an extremely near-death experience when the cat’s questing paw had gotten too close for comfort.

So, he was not taking anything Norman said at face value.  They were all facing a huge, delicious gob of peanut butter.  The only problem was, the peanut butter was attached to a flat wooden platform with metal and a spring.  Marcus was pretty sure it was a mouse trap.  He wasn’t a psychic mouse, but he could see into his not-too-distant future if he were to do what Norman wanted him to do.  He’d be dead, head and body sandwiched between the metal and the wooden platform, while Norman and cronies licked peanut butter off his lifeless form.  These guys were brutal.  No mouse mourned another mouse’s death, especially when food was involved.  It was a mouse-eat-mouse world, and peanut butter upped the ante considerably.

Enough was enough.  He’d been the under-mouse for too long and it was beyond time to stand up for himself.  Taunting a cat was one thing, as was darting across a kitchen floor, but a mouse trap meant the end.  No escape.  The grande finale.

“No.”

“What did you say??” Norman demanded.

“No.  If you want it so badly, you taste it.”

“All you’ve been doing is complaining that I never let you eat anything.  You’re upset about the toast and the cereal.  Now, when I let you go first, before any of us get a chance to dig in, you’re saying no?  You’re the most bi-polar mouse I’ve ever heard of!”

Marcus didn’t know what a bi-polar mouse was, but he wasn’t about to let name-calling goad him into a mouse trap.  “You’re right, Norman, you’re always right.  I have been whining, and it’s time to defer to your leadership.  You’re the head of the gang, you’re our leader.  You get to go first.”

Marcus was met by silence.  Until then, he didn’t even know that a mouse could look that surprised.  “Eh, I bet there’s something better in the pantry.  Wanna come?” asked Norman.

“I think I’ll be better off searching for food on my own, thanks,” said Marcus, and walked off, sure that he had just avoided death by mouse trap.

Mouse Removal

how to get rid of mice

Some people just aren’t satisfied with television, music, internet or books – they have to turn to mouse removal tricks for their entertainment.

I’m an excellent babysitter, and there are several families in my neighborhood who consider me the best.  I know I’m bragging, but I’m really proud of the way their kids get excited when I come over to babysit them.  And, the parents know they can count on me to enforce their rules and help their kids have a good time while they’re out.

It’s safe to say I have a pretty great relationship with these families.  So, it was no big surprise when Mrs. Devreaux wanted me to look at some video that she took when I arrived a few minutes early to watch her two cute kids for the evening.  I obliged and followed her to the laptop in the kitchen.  I have to say, I was a little shocked when I saw the video was of her attempts at mouse removal.  I had no idea she had mice in her house, and now I was pretty creeped out at the thought of staying there for the next several hours, especially when she told me she’d been unsuccessful.

I watched the video, biting my tongue to keep from screeching.  She’d set up pieces of cheese and muffins on empty tissue boxes right next to the couch I usually slept on after the kids had gone to bed.  A little mouse popped out from under the couch, sniffing around the feast she’d offered it, and then helped itself.  After it had gorged on the easy pickings, it sniffed around the pieces of cheese tied up in twine, attached to the tissue boxes.  It was completely unaware of the fact that Mrs. Devreaux had meant it to be a mouse trap, her effort at mouse removal.

I watched, horrified, as the mouse pulled on the twine, eating the cheese, and tissue box after tissue box fell on top of it.  Each time, the mouse escaped, easily avoiding the empty cardboard boxes.  It polished off the meal and disappeared back under the couch.

Mrs. Devreaux stopped the video and looked up at me.  “Isn’t it the cutest thing?” she asked.

My throat was dry as I tried to figure out what to say.  “Did you ever catch it?”

“Oh, no!  It’s still running around, cute as can be.  It’s a smart little thing, too.  Oh, it just loves my laundry room!  I guess the dryer keeps it warm, and sometimes I think it sleeps in my dirty clothes.  I found a little hole it chewed in my favorite jeans.  I just don’t have the heart to get rid of the mouse.”

“Uh, huh,” I responded, just as the kids came running into the kitchen, grabbing onto my legs and yelling about what games they wanted to play with me.  I determined right then and there that all our games would be outside until bedtime.  I could only hope Mrs. Devreaux would come home soon after that.  My ankles itched as I wondered if a mouse would jump out at me at all.  I definitely would not be babysitting here again until Mrs. Devreaux got a mouse removal service out here to get rid of that thing properly!

Mouse Problems

Mouse on a table
A mouse, with mouse pellets, on a kitchen table.
(Artwork by Sharon Davis. Contact us for her contact info.)

I tried to tell my roommate that I thought we had mouse problems, but typical of her, she never listens to me.

I’d noticed some tell-tale signs a few weeks ago.  I was vacuuming our tiny living room (I always do the vacuuming), and saw some tiny little black pellets up against the baseboards.  I bent down to look at them more closely and realized they must be mouse droppings.  So glad I bent down to look at them instead of picking them up!  I vacuumed them up and then scouted the kitchen for more mouse droppings.  I found a few under the sink, by the garbage, but didn’t find an actual mouse.

I told my roommie about it, but she just laughed it off, saying I was making a bigger deal of it than it really was.  It was probably just one single mouse that had come in to investigate the apartment but was long gone.  She even suggested I’d made the whole thing up just to try to get her to help clean up.  I shrugged it off.

But, I soon began to realize our mouse problem was bigger than that.  I kept an eye out for a mouse or some sign that we had one or more in the apartment, just to be on the safe side.  When I found my cereal box had been chewed through, I tossed it out and put all my stuff in plastic containers.  My roommate and her boyfriend made fun of me, calling me obsessive-compulsive.  I cleaned my room thoroughly, not wanting anything to jump out at me from under a pile of clothes or anything.  Of course, my roommate’s a lot less clean than I am, and I tried not to think of all the many places a mouse could be hiding in her room.

I had a bunch of friends over one night so we could all watch the game.  My roommate and her boyfriend were being overly-cuddly on one couch, right in front of everyone, and talking loudly about how stupid I was to be afraid of one little mouse that wasn’t even in our apartment anymore.  The rest of us tried to ignore them as best we could, and just enjoyed the game and ate the chicken wings I’d made for all of us.  She bragged about all the “real” junk food they had, and pulled out a big bag of cheese-dusted snacks, which they kept all to themselves.

They sat there and loudly ate the entire bag, until they reached the bottom.  Then, they got quiet.  There was a little chewed hole at the bottom of the bag, and a couple of tiny little mouse pellets that were now all dusted with fake cheese.

I think, finally, she believed we had a mouse problem, and it was time to do something about it.