Monday, January 8, 2007

Mus musculus...other common names: house mouse



OK, get ready to squirm, I'm still doing so, I keep itching and feeling all crawly and I'm at work, not at home, I have not spied the little eyes of said mice. I will not sleep well tonight!

We are having a half-bath installed on the 2nd floor of our home, it's going into an attic space that is off a spare bedroom. Our contractor pulled out some insulation this afternoon and three mice ran out! One he managed to "get with a brick" according to my husband...hard not to get the mental image of that bloodshed taking place even though I prefer not to! The other two he said ran down the chimney hole...the chimney had been removed from our house before we bought it, so there's a empty chimney hole as I call it that goes down to our basement, which was so handy for the contractor to drop the plumbing down, well, now two mice may have met one of the following fates:

a. mice one and two may have fallen to their death (not such a terrible option since they would not be scurrying in my basement) ...bringing me to option b.
b. mice one may have made it down alive and two may not have, or vice versa...or
c. I may have two mice scurrying around my basement, in my stuff, or trying to find their way upstairs, not difficult if they just squeeze under the door and up the steps, which grosses me out further as the first place they would end up would be either in my kitchen or living room...GREAT! We also have two cats and an 18-month-old. Can you sense my excitement with the possibilities running through my head...I'm going insane with the thoughts and find it difficult to get any work done now!

My husband says we'll get some traps tonight and see what happens...WONDERFUL solution dear...let's hope & pray that "what happens" is not our daughter having any kind of contact with these mice, our cats don't leave us presents anywhere and if they do that our daughter...and me for that matter...have no contact with them!

Off to Walmart tonight for mouse traps...the recommended sticky box kind as well as the spring kind, my husband is dealing with this, I'm not risking my fingers in the springs and don't want anything to do with it. I'll call the exterminator (which I prefer) if we catch even one more mouse with these traps, in fact, if we catch none I still prefer a call to the rodent killers!

Wish us luck!

3 comments:

Melissa said...

I think mice are the cutest of all the vermin. Not that I want any uncaged and uninvited in my house, but they are pretty cute.

Hopefully the two who saw their buddy get bludgeoned with the brick realized that your house is not an inviting place to vaycay this winter and run fast in the opposite direction.

Although, if they're dumb enough to want to bunk with two cats, I don't expect that they'll be around much longer if they do decide to stay...

Elizabeth said...

Do you remember that Steph had little white mice in college? We kept them in the closet and I think they died while we were gone somewhere for vacation.

Gosh, I'd rather see a mouse in the house than some of the nasty-ass millipedes we get in ours *shudder* We had one so big that I was able to see it, sans spectacles from across our bedroom, which is long. Ick ick icky icky.

I hope, for your sake though, that the mice have either found a way out of your house or the kitties found the mice.

Happy trapping! ;)

Not So Anonymous Michelle said...

Beth-EWWW...millipedes...yes I must say I'd rather see a mouse than a millipede!! I do remember Steph's mouse, then I remember her pet rat too later on.

Missy-Yes, they are kind of cute, I just keep getting the willies thinking of Emma encountering the mice! Ick! By the way, are you still in touch with Steph? I sent her a Xmas card last year, not this year since I can't find her address since our move, but I sent one like the year before last but never heard from her. I hope she's doing well.