So we have mice in our house. We first noticed it when the cable TV got "weird". We could only get channels below 200-ish, and everything between like 75 and 200 was savaged by MPEG decoding errors (big blocks of color, odd sound). We had the cable guy out, and it happens that we were getting signal loss somewhere in between the jack in the garage where cable comes into the house and the TV in the family room. That's in the walls or the attic. And then we saw it: mouse poop in the garage.
The cable guy said that he was thinking mice when we told him of our symptoms. They apparently love to chew on insulation. So the little bastards have bitten through our cable wire somewhere inside a wall, and now I have to run a new line outside the house (I couldn't see any obvious breaks while I was in the attic). After more looking around the garage we found more mouse droppings, and a little quarter-sized hole chewed through the screen of the vent in the wall of the garage. So that's how they got in. Must have smelled Indy's dog food or something. She's been chasing something under our spa for a few months now. Maybe she scared one of them inside the house?
Sad part is that we found some droppings under the sink in the kitchen, too. They're getting in from where the drain goes into the wall. That cabinet unit has a large hole cut into the back for that drain. I'm really, really glad that we have those semi-custom cabinets. Each one is like its own little box, and they all get screwed together to make the whole kitchen setup. So the mice can't get into the rest of the cabinets, only the ones with the hole for the drain. So they've been going under the sink and getting into our garbage can for food. At least all our food and plates and whatnot have been safe.
We set out mouse traps under the kitchen sink and in the garage Monday night. We used peanut butter as a bait. I initially thought to use cheese, but as you can read in the horrific war story Harvey The Mouse Must Die, peanut butter is the bait of choice. We set 8 traps and got one mouse. But that is not even close to what you would call success. In fact it's downright pitiful. See, we also had 6 unsprung traps with the peanut butter eaten clean off them (one trap remained undisturbed). Eating the bait off a trap without springing it is Mouseese for giving us the finger. It's not at all like springing the trap and then eating the bait. That's pedestrian, average. We're clearly dealing with mice with attitude. Bait stealing is how mice laugh at you, see. They are laughing at us. Laughing, they are. And pooping all over the place. Yeah, we'll see who has the last laugh.
Last night we were casting about for a better bait, something that would ensure that the little catch holding the lever would spring the trap when they start mousing around. I figured some set of mesh/net, like maybe made out of nylon or something, that could both hook around the bait tray and also be embedded in peanut butter. Like a little piece of sponge. Or maybe something heavy, to better give the traps a hair trigger. I couldn't really find anything that fit the bill. We finally settled on actual cheese. (Tillamook cheddar, no less. Greetz to my Oregon homies!) Sometimes the obvious solution is the best one, right? I was skeptical.
Lo and behold, this morning has brought us three formerly alive rodents. As in dead. Not pinin', passed on. Those mice are no more. They've ceased to be. They've expired and gone to meet their maker. They are late mice. They're stiff, bereft of life, they rest in peace. If we hadn't snapped their tiny necks, they would be pushing up the daisies. Their metabolical processes are of interest only to historians. They've hopped the twig! Shuffled off their mortal coils! They've run down the curtain and joined the choir invisible! They... are... EX-MICE!
So the score as of 9am is:
| Mice: | 6 |
| Tessenwee: | 4 |
But the simple number of dead mice vs. empty traps doesn't show the "real" score, as it has no rate information. It doesn't show progress. So I made a small graph, which better illustrates the success we've had in our struggle against the mouse:
As you can clearly see from the lines on the chart, we are winning the battle and I'm confident of our victory. Once I get my ladder back from Todd & Wy, I'm taking the fight into the attic. Into the very heart of the mouse. I will soon be able to once again count on one hand the mammals living under my roof.
You used Oregon cheese to kill the cute little mousies with the little whiskers and the tiny, pleading eyes?
Here, we hit 'em with shovels.
Just kidding. We believe in gentle release when possible- catch the little bastards and throw them outside. But, the real hero is Watson, our wondercat. You needs to get a cat. Soon. (I must admit, however, that the wondercat is responsible for bringing most of the mice into the house in the first place, so he can impress us with his hunting prowess. Then he loses them. So it's a mixed blessing...)
Posted by suzi at June 23, 2004 7:41 PMYeah, and one mouse I found had one of his tiny pleading eyes (and his whole head, really) bisected by a copper rod. Which is just how I like them. Better there than in my house, peeing and pooping and eating non-food items. I noticed that they started to chew away part of the inside of one of our cabinets. The little bastards. I hope the one with the now-dodgy eye was the one that chewed my stuff.
I'm not so much the cat fan. Trey seems to think that rodents instinctly know the smell of cat urine/feces/dander/whatever, and the mere smell will get rid of the mice. He says that you can buy cat smell. Well, the part about cats I don't like is the smell of their by-products.
Having said that, if you're looking to give Watson a nice winter home down here in the tropics, I think I could hook a cat up. Just helpig out family, you know. It is, after all, Watson's senior years, and I think the warm temps would do him good.
:-)
Posted by wee at June 23, 2004 9:20 PMGive up the coolest cat in existence? I think not, although the little bast... erm, sweetheart occasionally brings us "presents"- live mice dropped onto our bed at 2:00am, bats and scrub jays pulled in through the cat window- also alive. And finding bodiless tails or beaks & feathers in the morning on the living room floor is a bit pants...
But he is very cool.
Posted by suzi at June 23, 2004 11:06 PMOh, do I have a mouse story for you. Over a beer, sometime.
The trick is to set the traps as tenuously as possible- if you're not getting your fingers snapped as you put them down, you're not setting it lightly enough. Also, a dab of cheese or peanut butter in the center of a sticky mouse pad= fold-n-toss, plaintive squeeks and all! I loves to kill them mousies!
I actually have a pretty high kill rate with a screwdriver handle. God bless those fast-twitch muscles.
Posted by E at June 28, 2004 2:07 PMYou are a stronger man than I, E. I have no compunctions about killing; when I'm eating what's dying no happier man will you find. And when it's a pest, I don't mind the liberal application of the bug spray. But lower-order mammals are in a weird niche for me.
I could bash them, certainly. And I don't mind trapping them one darn bit. The sticky traps I can't do. Likewise the "they enter, but they never leave" type of traps. The long, slow death is not for me. I just can't do it.
I need to get more Mr. Vandemar and less Mr. Croup and just get them gone.
Posted by wee at June 28, 2004 10:21 PMYeah, I'm more disposed toward the trap's quick spine-snap than a slow starvation sort of thing. That's what I'd prefer if I were a mouse, anyway. Just because I want them dead doesn't mean I don't empathize...
Of course, even the traps aren't a sure thing, as evinced by our little friend who only got clipped, then limped off to die under the saw in the garage, apparently several days ago. Bill managed a rather unspeakable cleanup effort in there last night, and the smell... oh sweet Jebbus, the smell.
Posted by Tess at June 29, 2004 10:06 AMHa.. ironically, I have my first mouse (or mice) in my house too. It's a brave little bastard too... ran from the kitchen to behind my TV last night while I was still up and lights were on. My dog _really_ wants to catch it too.
I gotta stop at the store tonight to buy my load of traps and then set them up.
Eagerly awaiting that first *SNAP* when one goes off. :)
Posted by Miguelito at July 6, 2004 4:13 PMHmm... now that I've read more... I wonder if the mpeg pixels I've been noticing on TV the last week or two might be related as well. Bastard was behind the TV and my stereo setup afterall.... hmmm.
Posted by Miguelito at July 6, 2004 4:46 PMYou know, Mig, I didn't think that chewing through part of the coax cable would affect only *some* channels, but that's exactly what happens. Apparently, you can attenuate the signal enough by partially removing the outer wire mesh such that you can't receive the higher-numbered channels. I figured it'd be like DC current or something: you get all of it or nothing. But that's not the case.
If you're getting MPEG decompression errors, I'd look toward the mouse. And if you really want to get emprical about it, set your TV to a channel with the errors, then string a known-to-be-good cable from the box where it comes into the house to the back of the cable box on the TV. If you get a good picture, you know what to do.
Posted by wee at July 7, 2004 10:05 AMYeah.. going to keep an eye on it. Only saw compression artifacts on high channels when a lot of action went on... HBOHD and such. Don't watch those much so I don't know. Will probably just check cables anyway.
Well.. one day gone, 4 traps and no takers. Damn.
Posted by Miguelito at July 7, 2004 12:36 PMsorry we held up the mouse hunt- ladder is returned. let the bastids die! die! that is if they're any left...
Posted by wy at July 11, 2004 8:52 PM