There is a children's picture book titled When You Give a Mouse a Cookie. It's very cute. If you give the mouse a cookie, then he wants a glass of milk, then more and more things. There are quite a few examples of adorable mice in children's literature.
We have more than one actual mouse in our house. One of them zoomed out of our pantry when I went to get something, causing me to scream. And I'm not a screamer.
I had been trying to catch them with the humane traps, but they are obviously too smart to fall for that. Somehow they even get the peanut butter without getting trapped.
I have also been securing all sources of food that a mouse might like and be able to chew his way through the packaging.
We used to have cats. They caught mice. One of our cats would bring his catches to our son in the middle of the night, meowing with his mouth full to wake our son up and get congratulated.
My husband is Mr. Research, no matter the issue. So we now know much more about mice than we did previously. There are two distinct varieties of common mice - ones that live outside in fields and such, and ones that live in people's houses. If you trap them in a humane trap, you need to release them at least 2 miles, or maybe 5 miles (sources vary), away from your house or they will find their way back to you.
Anyway, we tried the snap traps and caught and killed two mice the first night. We'll be setting them again tonight.
Mice in books are cute. Mice running around the house are not. We tend to get a field mouse or two in the early fall when the weather begins to change. I wish I knew how they get into the house. arjeha
ReplyDeleteThey can squeeze through impossibly tiny cracks and holes.
DeleteBeen there. Done that! Not fun at all. Except one time my husband and I created a maze for the mouse to scoot out our back door. And it worked! And we never saw him again! I wish you good luck!
ReplyDeleteThat is so clever!
DeleteMice are adorable-in illustrated storybooks. My son recently acquired the pet variety. Puts one in his shirt pocket and it pops out, all cute, as I imaging it would look in a storybook. "Here Mom, hold Basil." No thanks, it has a tail and it's squirmy. I stay far away.
ReplyDeleteI did have pet mice when I was a kid. They lived in pet cages in our basement. They can be very tame if you get them young and handle them gently.
DeleteSuggest a cat again, Becky, but one of our cats likes to gift mice to us. Sometimes she hauls in a live mouse to toss around. What does your husband’s opo mouse research say about flushing them? That’s my husband’s way of handling mice.
ReplyDeleteWe hadn't considered flushing so I googled it. Opinions are divided. I grew up in a house with a septic tank - we had to be very careful what we flushed, so I wouldn't flush a mouse if I had a septic tank. The cats were very effective but several family members are now allergic to cats, so no more cats. We had to have our house deep cleaned to get rid of all the cat hair.
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