I'm disappointed in myself tonite

[DisMN]

We discovered a mouse in the bread drawer this morning so we set a live trap for him tonite.

I figured I'd hear the trap spring, go into the drawer, pick up the trap and walk out to the nearest field and let him go.

Well........I heard the trap go off and then a bit of rattling. "Good!" I thought......and headed over to the drawer to do my job.

Lo and behold the little bugger had sprung the trap but didn't get caught..so he's running along the edges of the drawer. BIG MOUSE!!!

I'm disappointed because I screamed like a girl! LOUDLY!!!

Then I slammed the drawer shut and will let hubby set another trap in the morning. LOL I'm SUCH a wuss......it's only a mouse, right?

Hubby said that toads are coming into the shop area at work. Does this mean too that the critters are getting ready for a long hard winter? YIKES. Best get some more mouse traps!!

 

[Cruisin]

I read somewhere that you should not just let the mouse go outside because it will come right back in. You have to release it at least 3 miles (I think???) away so that it does not find it's way back again.

That is pretty weird feeling, driving in the car with a mouse in a trap

 

[DisMN]

Yeah, I think that's a possibility...that's why we usually either drive them somewhere else or I walk over to the field with them. The field is a little more than 4 blocks away so I figure we're pretty safe at that distance.

It is weird though, driving them to their drop-off spot. LOL

 

[robinb]

Ummm ... aren't traps are designed to KILL the mouse, not just "trap" it so it can be released? If you want to kill the mice, usually be breaking their necks, then use mouse traps. If you want to "catch and release", you'll need a different kind of trap.

Better yet, get a cat!

 

[Beth76]

Originally posted by DisMN

I'm disappointed because I screamed like a girl! LOUDLY!!!

Oh are you kidding me??!! This will make you feel better.... We've been in our house for over three years and never had mice until about a month ago. I saw one in my baby's room!!!!!! I FREAKED out!!!! I had had about 4 hours of sleep the night before and I was just crying hysterically. The baby was crying because he just woke up and was starving. My three year old was trying to make me feel better for about 5 minutes before he just started crying because mommy was hysterical and the baby was screaming. So, the three of us--hysterical crying--drive over to my parents house and stayed there until my husband came home and took care of the problem.

OK, so he did catch the mouse and threw him into the woods behind our house. Then my cat was chasing one later that night and he (DH) caught it and threw it into the woods. Problem solved. NOPE! Just the other night we found another mouse in our closet, but DH couldn't get it. The cat did get it a few days later. My husband is pretty sure it was the same mouse that he threw out into the woods (the first one). So, yes, they do come back. Great, so now I still have to watch for the other one. BTW, we did set out traps and they didn't work. But, my cat did.

 

[ladydancer]

Originally posted by DisMN
We discovered a mouse in the bread drawer this morning so we set a live trap for him tonite.

I figured I'd hear the trap spring, go into the drawer, pick up the trap and walk out to the nearest field and let him go.

Well........I heard the trap go off and then a bit of rattling. "Good!" I thought......and headed over to the drawer to do my job.

Lo and behold the little bugger had sprung the trap but didn't get caught..so he's running along the edges of the drawer. BIG MOUSE!!!

I'm disappointed because I screamed like a girl! LOUDLY!!!

Then I slammed the drawer shut and will let hubby set another trap in the morning. LOL I'm SUCH a wuss......it's only a mouse, right?

Hubby said that toads are coming into the shop area at work. Does this mean too that the critters are getting ready for a long hard winter? YIKES. Best get some more mouse traps!!

OMG....You wouldn't want to be near me if I see a mouse! I am absolutely terrified of mice. Can't be near one, can't look at one, can't watch one on TV or in a movie. I have never seen "The Green Mile". I had girlfriends invite me over for movie night for that movie and had to decline because dh told me I had better not watch it as it had a mouse in the movie.

If I saw a mouse in a drawer I would die!!!!!

About the toads or frogs this year, I'm not sure which is which. However we have been over run with them this year. Can't even go outside with out seeing many everywhere.

 

[DisMN]

You guys made me feel MUCH better!!! Especially about that screaming like a girl part! LOL


I DO keep looking over my shoulder now, peeking into the kitchen. He's STILL IN THERE and yeah, it's creeping me out a bit. I can hear him walking across the packages of noodles, and I think he's ripping them open.

Gonna have to throw away all that food....yuck. I want him OUT but I'm not about to set the trap again. That's a job for a MAN!


Oh, and it's a live trap. We'd rather live trap and be all Free Willy-like and set them free. *although at this point if I had a hammer.................he'd prolly have his little noggin' whacked*

 

[minniecarousel]

Oh, LAWD!! Reminds me of 25 years ago - we were in our new house and I was pregnant with our first child - we were over-run with mice!!!! I would stand on the toilet seat, 7 months pregnant screaming!! They were EVERYWHERE - even in my lingerie drawer! We think we solved the problem by stuffing steel wool hunks in every crevice we could find - they were also coming in the intake air vent from the garage - got a fine screen for behind that. My mother had bought some Mickey Mouse material to make some layette items, but decided not to use the material because it had MICE on it (I later told that Mickey was the ONLY mouse I would tolerate!)

 

[RNMOM]

It isn't so much the mouse itself that scares me it is how fast they move!!!! Just like spiders. EWW.

I have 3 4legged mousetraps in my house. Problem is they have to play with it for an hour and torture it so.

 

[DisMN]

RNMom, he WAS fast!! I think I screamed because I was thinking that he was gonna jump at my face!!! ACK!!!

Not gonna sleep well tonite.............

 

[MaryAnnDVC]

Me neither Patti! Obviously I was ALREADY having trouble sleeping, thank you very much!! LOL

If I saw a mouse in this house, I think I'd move. We did have one or more at some point, but never saw them upstairs...just down in the basement, and *I* never saw it/them, just DH. I just saw "signs" of them tho...blech.

There was a mouse in someone's desk drawer when I worked at IBM, and I was an absolute wreck for days...sat crosslegged at my desk, except when I had to open a drawer...then I got ready to RUN.

Ew. Now I'm sitting here {{{shuddering}}}.

 

[DisMN]

Originally posted by MaryAnnDVC
Me neither Patti! Obviously I was ALREADY having trouble sleeping, thank you very much!! LOL

If I saw a mouse in this house, I think I'd move. We did have one or more at some point, but never saw them upstairs...just down in the basement, and *I* never saw it/them, just DH. I just saw "signs" of them tho...blech.

There was a mouse in someone's desk drawer when I worked at IBM, and I was an absolute wreck for days...sat crosslegged at my desk, except when I had to open a drawer...then I got ready to RUN.

Ew. Now I'm sitting here {{{shuddering}}}.

DARN YOU.......now I am too again! LOL

I just heard him rummaging in the drawer again. I really SHOULD go do something about it but ACK, I just KNOW he's gonna jump at me or run up my arm or something! *shuddering*

I'm such a big baby. He was pretty big though compared to the usual cute teensy mousies we have.

I hope he stays out of the bedroom.

 

[aprilgail2]

Originally posted by DisMN
*although at this point if I had a hammer.................he'd prolly have his little noggin' whacked*

I set an ez set trap a few months back that was supposed to kill it..well the trap snapped then I hear it moving about the kitchen floor.....I called my neighbor at 10 at night and he cam over with a shovel and I am hiding in my room hearing "whack, whack whack" on my new ceramic kitchen floor ..it was SO gross!!...we actually had 3 this year and it grosses me out! I set the traps at night and if I hear them snap during the night I call my brother up at 5am before he heads out to work and he stops by and cleans it up for me!!

We had one in the bread drawer when I was about 5 years old...I had went and opened the drawer (before we knew there was a mouse) and the thing jumped up and was on my shirt...I just remember standing there screaming and my mom and brother jumped up on the kitchen table and left me to knock it off my shirt myself!! I never opened the bread drawer by standing in front of it for the next 20 years...I finally had the kitchen redone and took out that nasty drawer and put a dishwaser there!!

 

[powellrj]

we had 1 on Saturday night, so my DH set out some glue traps. The mouse ATE the glue off the trap and just left it there. Last night he went out and got BIGGER glue traps and reported that he found our little friend this morning and took care of the problem. This is the 2nd time we have had one eat the trap!!

 

[tiggerlover]

I'd be screaming like a girl too! I can't stand mice! EEEK

 

[EsmeraldaX]

No way I could ever kill anything cute and fuzzy, even if it freaked me out. And it would have freaked me out. And I would have screamed. Just because they sneak up on you and they're little and fast and wiggly.

Of course, my big, brave jack russell terrier would be hiding under the bed the whole time.

 

[pjlla]

Okay all you ladies.... time to get tough! You are a LOT bigger than the mouse and he is probably more scared of you than you are of him (um.. maybe not). Put on some nice heavy duty gardening gloves, reach in the drawer and grab him by the tail. Carry him out side and either finish him off with a rock or shovel or put him in a box and drive him to a new home. YOU CAN DO IT!

We have never had mice in the house, but we ALWAYS have them in the shed and once in a while in the garage. But we have had a chipmunk in the house (came in through the dryer duct). It was tough to catch him! But we got him and released him and replaced the dryer duct he had chewed through and never had trouble again.

If I lived near you I would come do it for you. Stop being wimpy!
...................... Pamela

 

[stacilee]

You said that it is a "big" mouse.
Consider this. It may be a baby wood rat. They LOOK like a mouse, but are a LOT smarter than a mouse. Their ears are a little rounder than a mouse's ears are and they have long tails that have little or no hair on them.

It is the time of year that their mama's have them and they are just coming inside to look for food.

I would either go with a big sticky trap or a larger mousetrap. Where there's one there's probably more. You may get lucky and get a two-fer since they tend to forage together.

We caught a pair of them a few autumns back.

We tried for 2 weeks to catch them. Called the exterminator to come out. He laughed at me, coming "from the big city and all..."

This is what I learned:

They tend to travel perimeters. With one shoulder touching the baseboards. The way they remember where they're going is by following a scent trail. They actually release a tiny drop of Pee-Pee every so far and that is how they find their way back to their hiding spot. It is so small we wouldn't even notice it. (although their poops are easy enough to spot.)

I finally freaked out and bought about 10 packages of sticky traps (the big ones) and literally LINED the laundry room with them, even all along the bottom step of our back stairs! I was afraid they would come upstairs and eat me! We caught them both that night on the same trap.

They were so pitiful we could hear them crying!

That is how we found out how to release them off of the sticky board which I posted here for someone else recently.

You need a big 5 gal bucket,
vegetable oil,
a pair of gloves,
a couple of pencils.

Pour the oil over the area where they are stuck and flick them off the trap into the bucket. Where gloves in case they are frantic and trying to bite.

Put the lid on tight. There is plenty of air in there for a few little furries.

You can safely drive them to a new home in the morning.

My husband is a softy too and even though he swore he was "gonna kill em", after he heard them crying he just couldn't do it.

we got them off the trap and into a 5 gal. cat litter container with a lid and put them in the garage until the morning.

After we had been in bed for a little while my DH got up and went downstairs. I heard him go out into the garage. When he came back I asked him what he was doing out there. He said "nothin".

In the morning I opened the lid to show the kids and saw that he had put a little pile of dry dog food in there and a tiny dish of water.

He was our HERO for not killing them, and feeding them too!!

After dropping the kids off to school in the morning I dropped the little furries off at a nearby statepark.

They looked up at me like "thankyou kind lady!" They were still all greasy from the vegetable oil. They really were a site!

At least if a hawk ate them they went down easy!

Just a thought.

 

[minniepumpernickel]

I'm afraid of mice too. I'm also afraid of snakes. Well, if you had a snake it might eat the mice, though. That would be really yucky though.

 

[DisMN]

Originally posted by stacilee


My husband is a softy too and even though he swore he was "gonna kill em", after he heard them crying he just couldn't do it.

we got them off the trap and into a 5 gal. cat litter container with a lid and put them in the garage until the morning.

After we had been in bed for a little while my DH got up and went downstairs. I heard him go out into the garage. When he came back I asked him what he was doing out there. He said "nothin".

In the morning I opened the lid to show the kids and saw that he had put a little pile of dry dog food in there and a tiny dish of water.

He was our HERO for not killing them, and feeding them too!!

After dropping the kids off to school in the morning I dropped the little furries off at a nearby statepark.

They looked up at me like "thankyou kind lady!" They were still all greasy from the vegetable oil. They really were a site!

At least if a hawk ate them they went down easy!

Just a thought.

OMG what a great story! LOL LOL
Your last line reminds me of when we let our daughters captured baby turtle "go free".........a big ol' seagull flew overhead and scooped him up while we stood there and watched in horror!