I live in a household of 4 women. Yes, it’s that world that so many other women dream about: no football on TV 24/7, no socks or underwear scattered abroad (well, not many…)and no tiny little hairs all over the bathroom faucet (just really long hair!)! However, it does have it’s downsides: lawn work, trash duty, no one to screw the closet shelf back up after it’s fallen right off the wall, but most of all no on to take care of the mice problem. Yes. Mice Problem.
We discovered a month or so ago, some lovely little “presents”, gifted to us by a mouse that apparently lives in our basement! These gifts were discovered by youngest daughter as she was going through some old toys in the basement, with dreams of all the money she could make when she sold them. I get a phone call at work:
Her: “Mom, what do mouse droppings look like like?”
Me: “Like little black, long seeds, why?!?”
Her: “Ooh, GROSS!!! I found some in the basement… I am not going back in the basement.“
And just like that, her dreams of riches disappeared. So, upon further investigation, yes, indeed, there was evidence of a mouse in the basement. I checked in the garage, and yes, evidence there as well. Then, while out picking weeds one day, my youngest comes running out of the house saying a mouse just ran in the house because someone left the garage door open. It ran in and upon hearing all the screaming girls, made a quick exit into the den. Blech. Now they’re in the house, on the main level!
So, I do what any person with a mouse in their house would do…I bought a few traps…traps that would cover their tiny little faces, so I didn’t have to look at them when I caught them. Traps that look like giant black clothes pins and that guarantee I will never have to touch the dead rodents trapped inside them. Traps that can be reused over and over again because my mom informed me that for every mouse we saw, there were at least 20 behind it. Now, math is not my strong suite, but it didn’t take me long to figure out that there could be a lot of mice in our house! Eeck!
I laid traps everywhere: the den, the laundry room, the garage, the basement and the pantry. The first morning following the laying of traps, I check the den and pantry…nothing. Then as I’m racing out the door to take youngest daughter to school, I glance into the laundry room, and there on the floor with it’s body hanging out of the trap is Mouse #1. Now what do I do?!? I put my stuff down, go get a sack and release the victim into the bag….trying my best to be brave and act like it doesn’t bother me, so my youngest doesn’t freak out. My body wants to break out in sweat and in anticipation of accidentally touching the thing, the inside of my body is spasming out of sheer grossness. But I must keep it hidden. I must be Super Mom Deluxe. I must show my daughters that I can do this.one.gross.thing…. Success!! Rodent bagged and boxed, ready for delivery to my dad’s huge trash container at his business. I feel good about myself. I feel like I could conquer the world. I feel like I just killed one of God’s creations, and ya’ know what!??! I don’t care!! I want those rodents out of my house!
After killing my 4th mouse, and seeing one race across my bedroom and down the heating vent one night, I decided it was time to bring in the big guns. This had gotten out of hand! I called pest control. They come out and assess that I have mice! Seriously? I paid you $140 to tell me THAT?!?!! I really am in the wrong business…..Anyhoo…. They put out some mice bait and a few a sticky traps (Sticky traps? Really? They want me to not only have to listen to a mouse scream once caught, but then I will have to do the dirty deed of killing it with my bare hands!?!? Blech.)
Once pest control has taken over the situation, we feel good. We feel confident that our mice problems are over. Then, on youngest daughter’s birthday, we’re sitting around the family room, watching TV and talking, and oldest daughter starts screaming “MOUSE!!!!” Can I tell you that in all the years I’ve lived with my daughters, I have never seen them move so quickly in all my life?! And the freaking out has now begun… The critter had the audacity to come into my family room, mocking me that in spite of all the traps and poison, it is enjoying life at my house! Now I’m mad! I pull out the couch because that’s where he went, and he runs out from under the couch towards the den. The girls just happen to be standing right where he exits the family room, so they begin to scream again! I see the little guy (or girl) has decided that he enjoys the foam from inside my couch so much that he has decided to start chewing it to pieces!! Are you kidding me!?!? Now he’s ruining my furniture!? I go to the garage and grab a sticky trap…I no longer live in fear of hearing it scream if it gets stuck on the sticky pad…I want them OUT OF MY HOUSE!!
Next day, the sticky pad has moved! Did the darn thing manage to detour around it?!? I pull the couch out again, and once again, the darn thing races out towards the den. I grab a mouse trap complete with peanut butter and set it out in the den. Then I proceed to add a trap AND a poison block next to the sticky pad….he’s not going to survive another night in my house! (By the way…by this time, I have called pest control and told them I no longer require their services because they weren’t doing their job, and quite frankly, I have now killed more mice than they have! Tonight they’re coming to get their stuff!)
Next morning I anxiously look behind the couch, knowing for sure he will be in at least one of the traps….NOTHING!!! WTH?!?!? So I open the den door…..PRAISE GOD!! We have apprehended the suspect! I bag and box him without even thinking about it. Has this become my life?! Will I be bagging and boxing mice for the rest of my life if I continue to live in this house?! My girls suggest we at least move, and at most, burn the house down. I’m thinking both are a little too drastic.
So now, poison blocks and mouse traps are part of our decor… Every morning I check the traps as if it’s now a part of my morning routine. I have not seen or found another one since the family room/den incident. Of course, it’s been a few days..for all I know, there’s a mama down in the basement giving birth to 20 more mice…. Welcome to the Mousecapades…
A Little Bit of Monica In Your Life 
It’s not always 20. I have some experience and sometimes it’s only a few. It could be you got them all. I hope that you have, though your adventures were fun to read…. 😉
So sorry to hear – Hoping every last one is gone!