KathieB Posted December 22, 2014 Share Posted December 22, 2014 Lloyd has seen him twice, scooting into the kitchen and diving under the dishwasher. He says it's bigger than a mouse, more like a small rat. Haven't seen any droppings or noticed any odors, so I'm guessing he hasn't been with us long. We set a mouse trap that may not be big enough to do the job. You can bet I'll be over at the office bright and early tomorrow demanding an exterminator get over here asap! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
havanaholly Posted December 22, 2014 Share Posted December 22, 2014 Oh, ICK! The little devils at our Havana house got into my linen chest and destroyed my grandmother's damask tablecloth. I totally love the cheap plastic traps; put on a rubber glove to keep your scent off of it, bait it with peanut butter, and throw away your unwelcome intruder next AM. We thought we saw one in the garage here when we first moved in, so I put a glue trap between two cabinets and it' till empty three+ years later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L Swearengin Posted December 22, 2014 Share Posted December 22, 2014 I have thrown away two of the glue traps out in the last week ...........loaded. WHY???? do I keep this useless cat????? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KathieB Posted December 22, 2014 Author Share Posted December 22, 2014 The crafty critter ate the peanut butter but didn't spring the el cheapo trap. I hate it when that happens! I had a feeling it might go that way, but it was the only trap we could find on a Sunday night when the hardware store was closed, and we just weren't up to facing the crowds at Walmart. There are several semi-wild or at least outdoor cats that roam the neighborhood who in the past have kept the rodent population pretty much in control. It's our first encounter of the furry kind here. We haven't seen evidence of one single mouse in Missouri in nearly ten years, as our back yard is home to at least one large and very hungry black king snake. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
havanaholly Posted December 22, 2014 Share Posted December 22, 2014 What you need is a friendly Eastern indigo to polish off all the local rodents. The problem with glue traps is that the critter can track the glue onto the floor and carpet or other fabric in it's fruitless struggles to get away; then there's the handling of the trap with the struggling beastie still in it. We used them before one of our less-than-a-week long trips and when we got home the mouse wasn't dead yet, so I had the fun of dispatching it, plus the joy of trying to get the glue it had tracked off the floor and the bit of carpet. I'm not a fan of the wooden traps; we have also had the bait eaten and the trap didn't spring until we did it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
minime Posted December 22, 2014 Share Posted December 22, 2014 What you need is a friendly Eastern indigo to polish off all the local rodents. That seems a little extreme to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
armymom166 Posted December 22, 2014 Share Posted December 22, 2014 That seems a little extreme to me. I'm afraid that thing would polish ME off the first time I saw it, because I'd probably have a heart attack! I think I would rather face the mouse... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KathieB Posted December 22, 2014 Author Share Posted December 22, 2014 That seems a little extreme to me. I'd be happier with a snake than a rodent. The building complex will send an exterminator tomorrow or Friday, but they only provide glue traps. To tell the truth, I'd never heard of a glue trap and with the above reports am not inclined to use one. Off to the hardware store for a trap that will dispatch that sucker to rodent heaven. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodentraiser Posted December 22, 2014 Share Posted December 22, 2014 *slinking out of thread* 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L Swearengin Posted December 22, 2014 Share Posted December 22, 2014 The ones we got are from Home Depot and work quite well. we tried the newer plastic traps, a total waste of time and money. I don't really like the glue trap, because it doesn't kill the rodent. I called my spouse last week in tears over the stupid thing. I was stuck real well, but alive. couldn't handle that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KathieB Posted December 22, 2014 Author Share Posted December 22, 2014 *slinking out of thread* Oh, dear, Kelly ... please excuse my insensitivity. Please know that I draw a very solid line between domesticated animals who know their place and feral rodents who raid my kitchen and build nests in my furniture. I enjoyed the company of pet mice, hamsters and gerbils back in the day. No rats other than babysitting the classroom rat over a holiday, but not because I have anything in particular against them. Please accept my apology. Still friends? :hug: 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L Swearengin Posted December 22, 2014 Share Posted December 22, 2014 I have no issue with pets, however, when cleaning the back room to turn into my building space, I was forces to throw out a contractor sized bag of clothes in the trash because of the little darlings that moved in from the farms around here. They ATE the clothes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mk56 Posted December 22, 2014 Share Posted December 22, 2014 I find this topic disgusting. The discussion of the inhumane killing of animals like that that's going on here regarding glue traps makes me nauseous. Then to read the detailed telling of the dispatching of a poor animal that had been left to suffer for three weeks in such a trap breaks my heart and angers me at the insensitivity of just not thinking. The only reason I don't complain to Administration is I try to keep an open mind vs closed. My trash may be someone elses treasure. If I don't like the topic, I don't need to come here. Death and trapping is an inappropriate subject like religion and politics. It's a hot button. There are people that value the life of any animal and their inhumane death is extremely painful. If you just HAVE to do it, please use a regular trap so their death is quick and painless. Thanks for allowing my my opinion and voicing it. As you will. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KathieB Posted December 22, 2014 Author Share Posted December 22, 2014 I find this topic disgusting. ... If I don't like the topic, I don't need to come here. Yep. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
me-barbie Posted December 23, 2014 Share Posted December 23, 2014 Snakes inna house means barbie is outta da house. When I was wee, and we had moved to Winnipeg from Vancouver, our first rented house was downtown near the river. It had mice and my kitty was most uninterested. So my parents set the old fashion wooden snap traps...only kind they could get. My sister was a toddler...still in the crib, but had figured out how to get out. My mother came into the kitchen one fine fall morning..... To find my sister sitting on the floor, gleefully playing with a new toy. A dead mouse in the trap, which she was joyously swinging around her head! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
havanaholly Posted December 23, 2014 Share Posted December 23, 2014 It's the snakes in the yard that keep the feral rodent population from multiplying to the point that they move into your house. One of the big selling features for us hen we moved into our present house was seeing our resident eastern indigo snake poke her head up out of the bushes to check us out. The snakes don't like to be indoors; the two times we ever found them in our Havana house I scooped them up gently into a container and set them loose outdoors to hunt their prey outside (both times was pre-rodent infestation). They were nonvenomous snakes, of course. I have the same zero tolerance policy towards venomous snakes in the house that I have towards feral rodents. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CheckMouse Posted December 23, 2014 Share Posted December 23, 2014 I think my love of mice started when I was about 13. During the night a little mouse, just a baby, had managed to crawl/fall into a metal waste basket and proceeded to jump incessantly trying to get out. My mother couldn't sleep, so she just grabbed a hand towel and stuffed it into the waste basket to keep it quiet. In the morning, she handed me the contraption and told me to go outside and get rid of the offending mouse. Well, I knew she meant for me to kill it, but when I gingerly peeled back the folds of towel, there was the cute little exhausted mouse sleeping peacefully on the blanket the nice lady had provided. Kill it? I don't think so! When I saw that Mother was not watching me, I went to the back of the property and let him go - asking him to please keep moving and don't come back. He never did, and I never told her I didn't kill it. I know the little critters can become quite large and can carry disease and can destroy things. The same could be said of cats and dogs, and we don't kill them because of it. We don't have any mice or rats where we live now so I haven't had to confront the living ones for many years. And I love all my figurine and miniature mice 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KathieB Posted December 24, 2014 Author Share Posted December 24, 2014 Update: we know the rodent likes peanut butter since he or she licked the mouse trap clean. We found its hiding place of choice in the house. It hadn't destroyed anything or started building a nest, thank goodness. We cleaned up the area and disinfected it with bleach. We set a rat trap baited with peanut butter; it hasn't been touched in two days and no sign of droppings or other disturbances. Have fingers crossed that it didn't like the new fragrance in what it thought might be its new living quarters, was disappointed because there is no food available and has moved on to a new home. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
havanaholly Posted December 24, 2014 Share Posted December 24, 2014 I love a happy ending! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deb Posted December 24, 2014 Share Posted December 24, 2014 Yay!! It's always great when the mouse turns out to be a traveling salesman or a lonely spinster and they leave of their own accord. <chuckling> I gotta share the story of the funniest thing I ever caught in a rat trap......my ex-husband. Oooh, the irony of it all is delicious. The divorce and restraining order only served to get him out of the house. Getting him out of the backyard, the driveway, the alley, etc., took another five years. As is the case with stalkers, there's not much the authorities will/can do so the war was pretty much on my shoulders and among other things I decided that if he was going to be messing around outside the house, I'd make it as hard on him as possible. I got *very* creative with the booby traps I set for him and you'd think that razor blades, rusty nails, fishing hooks strung on choke wires, and such would have changed his mind but it didn't. One of his favorite places to hide was under the bay window in the side yard. I was getting super annoyed with that because he was squashing my flower bed so the next time I got to the hardware store for "supplies", I picked up three or four rat traps and hid them in the flower beds. It was around 2am when I heard him (those were the years of endless, sleepless nights spent sitting up with my .38) and it wasn't long before he made his way around to the side of the house. I sat down in the window seat and waited. It was only a minute or two later when I heard, "Snap! SNAP! SNAP!" and then the most ungodly howling followed by his fists pounding on the wall and then he turned the air blue with his cussing and ranting and raving. I was laughing so hard I literally fell off the window seat and was sitting on the floor holding my sides. I thought he might have been mad enough to come on in and we'd finish it right then but he left and went home to his wife instead. Later his stepdaughters told me that he ended up with a couple of broken toes for his troubles that night. It was probably the best $2.95 ever spent and the very best way to catch a "rat". <grinning> Still warms my heart thinking about it now. It didn't stop him, but it sure made me feel better! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CheckMouse Posted December 24, 2014 Share Posted December 24, 2014 Oh, Deb, that's funny and sad at the same time! So sorry you had to put up with that "rat" - but what a wonderful way to get some comeuppance! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nsmar4211 Posted December 26, 2014 Share Posted December 26, 2014 I don't do the glue traps after finding a perfect fur coat in one...but no rat. I was picturing a half naked rat running around for weeks! In my case, they were getting into the livestock feed and that can make the livestock very sick so there was no live and let live allowed. Poison is dangerous with wild snakes and feral cats around, so traps are the only answer in that case. My recent mouse story was my own fault...I have a tank full of mice on the porch, typical white mice. A few managed to escape recently. Caught most of the porch ones, didn't realize one had gotten in the house. Didn't think anything of it when both cats and the dog were staring at the pantry door.... until one of the cats tried to slink past me and go under my bed. Cat never slinks unless he's up to something sooooo I got in front of him....to see a tail dangling out of his mouth. Cat was relieved of his "find" and said find was a surprise meal for the snake (too late to put back in the tank). The two cats sat in front of the snake tank , the one that had caught it glaring and me and MEOWing everytime I walked past like HEY that was MINE. He still hasn't forgiven me and I now have a nice clean pantry floor from checking for others (luckily it hadn't gotten into anything yet). Roommate was freaking out thinking there was going to be a colony in the house until I pointed out both cats....no there won't . 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodentraiser Posted January 5, 2015 Share Posted January 5, 2015 Oh, dear, Kelly ... please excuse my insensitivity. Please know that I draw a very solid line between domesticated animals who know their place and feral rodents who raid my kitchen and build nests in my furniture. I enjoyed the company of pet mice, hamsters and gerbils back in the day. No rats other than babysitting the classroom rat over a holiday, but not because I have anything in particular against them. Please accept my apology. Still friends? :hug: Sorry I haven't been here in a while. I'm sorry, Kathie, I was just being funny. You don't need to apologize to me in any way. I am not offended in the least. Even though I raised mice, I considered the wild ones to be vermin. I kept HavaHart traps around my cages because the wild ones would hang around mine if they got into my trailer. They carry diseases, lice, and fleas, and I didn't want them near mine. So I understand someone wanting to get rid of the wild ones. They're cute, but they're not THAT cute! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
havanaholly Posted January 5, 2015 Share Posted January 5, 2015 As a former pubic health nurse who had a pet mouse at university, you have echoed my sentiments exactly; except that I have no problem removing the feral ones from the food chain altogether, having had an aunt nearly die from a rodent-borne disease. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deb Posted January 5, 2015 Share Posted January 5, 2015 Interesting concept of having feral and domestic rodents. The school where I was admin was in an older building with a large attic where we knew there were mice. They stayed out of the school space for the most part but I'd sometimes catch one in a trap. Well, one of our much loved blonde hamsters got out of his habitat (sneaky little escape artist) and was gone for a few days. I lured him back by putting one of his favorite oatmeal raisin cookies into his habitat---the cookie was too big to fit thru the opening so the next morning there he was all curled up around his cookie. Greed had once again lured him back into captivity. I thought he looked rather snug tho and wondered what he'd been up to on his vacation until a few months later when I noticed that we were trapping rather large, very blonde mice. <cackle> No wonder he looked so smug!! I always speculated that there were female mice up in the attic wondering whatever happened to that big, blonde guy and why he never called. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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