Interesting mouse fact: Mice like to eat 15 -20 times each day (http://www.pestworldforkids.org/mice.html).

Death Toll Remains at 3

Food Storage Woes

So, we have had a nice lull in the mice activities in recent days.  For the most part, I am able to place food in our pantry with minimal concern over it being shared by our furry friends.  It seems to be the sugar or pasta that they enjoy most.  This adventure into the world of pest control has caused me to reexamine the way I approach food storage.  Over the years I have owned multiple sets of canisters.  They seem to be the item that gets passed on to me from a wide variety of family members.  For the most part they have just cluttered up my storage areas.  When I got married, I picked out a set of stainless steel ones that I really liked and have had them tucked away in the corner of the pantry for over seven years.  My problem with canisters is not that I don't want to use them, but rather I put something in them and completely forget it exists.  A good example was a head of garlic I placed in a canister which had one of those tops that sealed up.  It was forgotten for I don't know how many weeks.  The smell that came out of that jar when I opened to see what was inside was not something I would wish for anyone to experience.  Rotten garlic could be used in police raids, seriously.  

Most of my sets of canisters were sent to charity when we decided to move into this house.  I admit now that this was a huge mistake.  Since living here, I have come to realize why people need these decorative jars and am kicking myself for getting rid of so many.  I am down to only the four stainless steal jars and they are just not enough.  I have found I need a canister for all of the following items: pasta, sugar (granulated/powdered/brown), flour, tea bags, hot chocolate packets, nuts, rice and the list goes on.  So, a lesson learned - never throw away a canister because the mice will know.  It is a weakness they will exploit. 

List Company

I said that we have had a lull but the activity has be no means been nonexistent.  If anyone saw the movie I Don't Know How She Does It, you will remember the scene where they discuss "the list" women frequently review when they should be sleeping at 2:30 in the morning.  As a full time working mom, I am by no means immune to "the list."  This list is the time when we women lay in bed and review all of the things we haven't done, are stressed out about, and the many things others are expecting of us.  I am not new to this activity but I have found that now I have company.  Many nights I wake up around 2:30/3:00am and start going over my list.  As I lay there, I start to hear "t,t,t,t,t,t," above my head.  It is the lovely sound of rodent feet scurrying around in my attic.  Now what is interesting about this is we have not seen any mouse droppings or witnessed any food smuggling happening in our kitchen/pantry for some time.  My questions are what is up there and what are they eating?  Now being the brave soul that I am, I have no desire to look up into the crawl space to see what the creature is that scurries throughout the night.  My fear is that I won't like what I discover, especially after the Bonnie/rat incident. This scurrying sounds is of course another item that goes on my "list."

A Thought: if mice are awake mostly at night and women do "the list" at that time, do female mice stress about their lives at 2:00 in the afternoon?  Do we interrupt them with our scurrying down below?  Interesting.