I need to vent!

We had some mouse droppings in our pantry the other week, but have yet to see the little bugger, tho i can hear him sometimes scratching across the roof! God knows how it gets up/down from there. The cause seemed to be the huge bag of rice my wife loves to keep on the floor of our pantry, removed that and haven't seen any signs since.

Reading on the net, apparantly they can jump up to 12 inches and fit in a space as small as the thickness of a PENCIL. Freaking crafty buggers! Traps are supposed to be a messy last resort though, if you can identify what they're coming in for and remove it, generally they have no reason to come in.

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Originally Posted by kurdt_the_goat

We had some mouse droppings in our pantry the other week, but have yet to see the little bugger, tho i can hear him sometimes scratching across the roof! God knows how it gets up/down from there. The cause seemed to be the huge bag of rice my wife loves to keep on the floor of our pantry, removed that and haven't seen any signs since.

Reading on the net, apparantly they can jump up to 12 inches and fit in a space as small as the thickness of a PENCIL. Freaking crafty buggers! Traps are supposed to be a messy last resort though, if you can identify what they're coming in for and remove it, generally they have no reason to come in.

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So far this seems like an isolated incident. I usually keep all foods sealed in bags or containers although the cereal box now worries me a bit. Only the weekend before last I performed a full cleaning including mopping the kitchen and bathroom floors so there are minimal scraps laying about if any.

I've had pet mice before, and yes, they can get ANYWHERE... basically anything they can poke their tiny noses through, they can fit their bodies through. When I had mouse cages with bars, they constantly got out. I finally got out of those plastic habitats which eventually put a stop to their escapades (although you gotta make sure they're closed properly!!).

I strongly suggest that you either get rice sold in a resealable bag, and/or get a large airtight container to store your rice in. Remember that there are other things besides mice that can also get into your rice, like lice, weevils etc. Mmm... unwanted protein...

If you've found droppings and you can hear them, then it definitely means you have mice. Get some mouse traps -- I find baiting them with peanut butter on bread works really well. If you and your wife are too squeamish to look at or handle dead mice (note: sometimes the trap doesn't kill them, sometimes they escape or it just breaks their neck but they're still alive) you can get special traps where the bait is on the inside and when the mouse goes in, the trap shuts and in doing so literally breaks the mouse instantly. The trap cannot be reopened, so you just chuck it away (you can't see the mouse as it's shut inside).

For more humane measures, you can also get mouse traps which only trap the mouse but don't kill them - usually hardware stores will have this (I used to use them when I wanted to trap my escaped pet mice!) But erm... make sure you don't look into the trap from below to see if it's worked and trapped a mouse, cos when the mouse is trapped it freaks out and unloads its bladder and bowel contents (and you don't want that falling on your face!). :D :cool:

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Originally Posted by Sky Shadow

I think I know how to solve your problem. Put some traps on the left and right hand side of this shelf:
:D

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Problem Solved! :D

http://kupscigar.com/fun/mousetrap.JPG

Seriously - Got home and my improvised trap was untriggered with the bait and small biscuit scraps leading to it untouched. The mouse seems to have either gone or hasn't come out of hiding.

I hope that it isn't dead as I don't want a mouse corpse rotting somewhere inside my kitchen and unable to be found. When it went behind the cupboard, I used insecticide on it just in case it was some roach, I hope that hasn't killed it.

I'd leave those traps baited and lying around for a while longer just in case it's still around.

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Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime

I'd leave those traps baited and lying around for a while longer just in case it's still around.

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Yeah I have done that, one where I saw the mouse last and the other on the opposite corner of the Kitchen. My Kitchen is actually pretty big with half of it open space and mice always like to run on the edges of a room so if it's still around, it should at some point come across one of the traps.

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Originally Posted by kup

Problem Solved! :D

http://kupscigar.com/fun/mousetrap.JPG

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I LOLed heartily at this. :)

6 hours by public transport to get a doctor's referral (which itself took all of 10 minutes after getting to the place and waiting the requisite half hour past the appointment time) and get back home...including 1 & 1/4 hours waiting for a damn bus in a thunderstorm.:mad: :mad: The only freaking rain we get all summer and I have to be waiting in a crappy windblown bus stand for a bus that runs hourly and is 15 minutes late to boot.:mad:

EDIT- pics ahoy.

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Originally Posted by UltraMarginal

I think the best solution to this problem is an automatic shotgun.

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Why when I read this did I think of Mousehunt? :D

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Originally Posted by kup

Problem Solved! :D

http://kupscigar.com/fun/mousetrap.JPG

Seriously - Got home and my improvised trap was untriggered with the bait and small biscuit scraps leading to it untouched. The mouse seems to have either gone or hasn't come out of hiding.

I hope that it isn't dead as I don't want a mouse corpse rotting somewhere inside my kitchen and unable to be found. When it went behind the cupboard, I used insecticide on it just in case it was some roach, I hope that hasn't killed it.

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Kup.... Why'd you have to post such a pic... now you got me wanting to collect Beast Wars show characters..ARGH...