Redundancy

Interesting Mouse Fact: Mice are considered to be color blind (http://icwdm.org/handbook/rodents/HouseMice.asp).

Death Toll has risen to 5

Redundancy

Well, once again we have committed a homicide.  Geoffrey had set the traps in our pantry again on Saturday night because of our encounter with the baby mouse.  I also had spotted what looked to be some droppings on the floor so it was back into battle for the Higgins Family.   Geoffrey loaded the traps with peanut butter since that had worked so well the last time we tried it.  He decided to put two traps in the pantry since this has been such a hotspot of activity.  Yesterday morning, he went in to check the traps.  Both traps were empty of peanut butter but had not been sprung.  Many of you have met my husband and know there is nothing he enjoys more then a mechanical problem to be solved.  He immediately launched into a examination of the workings of the traps and discovered that the flaps that hold the bait were stuck.  They could not push down enough to spring the traps.  Geoffrey did some sort of mechanical messing and fixed this problem.  Last night, he set the traps again with peanut butter.  He has decided that the battle strategy he will employ now will be called "Redundancy."  Redundancy means that he will have two traps set very near to each other so that if one fails, the other may be successful.  General Eisenhower, General McArthur, General Patton, did you employ Redundancy?  Or is my husband something of a military genius?  I may have to agree with the latter question because this morning, we achieved victory.  We walked into the pantry and both traps were flipped over and sprung.  One was empty of peanut butter and did not have a little mouse attached.  However, the second trap was full.  Tonight we will once again employ Redundancy and hope for the same if not better results.  The war may not ever end but battle by battle, we are hopeful. Stick with me people, the journey continues.

Interesting Mouse Fact: House mice were probably the reason for domesticating cats (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_mouse).

Death Toll has risen to 4

Oh Baby

We have not had the need to set traps for a while since we haven't been seeing any evidence of mouse activity within our living spaces.  The creepy crawling happening in our attic space is still something that I have not been brave enough to tackle.  However, despite the lack of trap setting, we have increased our death toll.  Thursday morning I was getting ready to go to work (finally mending from a wonderful battle against strep throat - I told you, biological warfare!).  My closet is actually part of the master bathroom in this house.  I was standing in front of the closet door trying to decide what to wear to keep warm in these harsh California winters.  

I have to stop here and mention a quick side story.  This particular closet is large enough to need two sliding doors - a full wall closet.  However, due to an unfortunate incident many years ago, the closet is missing one of its mirrored doors.  My sister, the agile thing that she is, was using the bathroom to try an new somersault style flip she was mastering.  She decided on this location because she wanted to watch her form while performing the stunt.  The problem that exists with many mirrors is clearly stated on most car mirrors - things are closer than they appear.  This was definitely the case when my sister flipped her body head over heels and crashed right into the mirror door.  Sister 1, mirror 0.  I now have one sliding closet door.

Back to the death toll story.  I was looking for a sweater when I noticed something. On the floor, just inside the track on the now single door, was a bit of grey fluff.  What caught my attention was the fact that the fluff was moving very slowly across the carpet.  When I bent down to investigate I realized it was a very tiny and young baby mouse.  I have looked up images of mice at various ages and my best guess is that this one was about two weeks old.  It didn't have its eyes open but it did have all of its fur.  I called in my exterminator (aka Geoffrey) to take a look and of course both of my kids had to offer up their observations (I have always believed my children are born scientists).  The baby was not moving very fast and appeared to be in pretty bad shape.  Geoffrey got a towel and picked up the not-so-healthy baby mouse. Before he could take it too far, I did snap a photo since that baby mouse was one of the cutest things we had ever seen.  Geoffrey took it outside and let it go.  However, when he returned that evening, the baby mouse had not moved.  We don't think it was supposed to be away from its other yet and so Geoffrey moved if further out to the field and let nature take its course.   Below is the picture I snapped before we had to say goodbye to the little mouse. 

 

The question I am left with, of course, is where is the momma mouse and how many mouse siblings remain? Tonight, traps are being set.

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.

Interesting Mouse Fact: Mice are not able to vomit (http://www.pestworldforkids.org/mice.html)

Death toll remains at 3 for mice...explanation to follow

Well, its been a few weeks since my last post but there is an excellent reason for the lapse in my writing.  The major reason is that I am now 100% certain that our vermin friends are waging chemical and biological warfare on my family.  In the last two weeks two various members of our family (myself included) have had near pneumonia, ear infections, flu symptoms, sinus problems, etc.  All of this happens to coincide with the start of our battle against our beasts.  Coincidence?  Perhaps but perhaps not.  If any of you are familiar with the writings of Douglas Adams you know that mice are assumed to be the most intelligent beings on earth.  I am beginning to agree with Mr. Adams' assertions. 

The Relatives

As I stated above, I feel the need to explain our death toll.  We have personally killed three mice. There has been one additional casualty I feel I must mention since I have felt for a while that we are battling more than just mice in our house.  My mother has a dog named Bonnie who roams freely around the property.  Bonnie is not the best at catching animals, she usually leaves that task to her partner/fellow dog Buck.  Bonnie is a bit loud and her run can only be described as more of a lumbering action.  Buck on the other hand is extremely agile and fast.  He also understands the value of stealth.  When Buck and Bonnie find a squirrel or other furry creature, they will dig at whatever hole the animal runs into with great enthusiasm and patience.  The problem Buck is constantly faced with is Bonnie's inability to shut up.  Buck digs and listens while Bonnie digs and barks - loudly.  Common sense tells us that if one is barking loudly while in pursuit of a very small subterranean creature, loud sounds will not help that animal to want to resurface.  Buck gets this, Bonnie does not.  So occasionally Buck is able to hunt solo and is usually very successful.  When he returns with his finds, Bonnie usually steals the dead creature and bites him if he tries to retrieve it.  This episode I am about to relay more than likely followed this pattern.  

I drove home from work on Friday and parked in my usual spot under one of our many trees.  As I was standing outside (weather in the 80's by the way) talking to my Dad I noticed Bonnie.  She was frantically trying to dig something out from under my car.  (As a side note, the car I drive many days is an 80's Porche which sits very low to the ground and is a piece of junk in my opinion - yet another blog I could write on my husbands' and my inability to agree on cars. Bright side is it gets great mileage.)  Back to the story.  Bonnie is laying down, trying to squeeze under the car and I knew she wanted something.  I leaned down and there under the car was a very large dead rat.  The tail alone looked to be 10" long.  Bonnie finally freed her treasure out from under the car and proceeded to carry it around all weekend. 

When I saw what the dogs had caught and how big the rat was, my worry that there is more hiding in the recesses of our house greatly increased.  My dad explained that the oat hay he is feeding the cows can really attract rats.  The cows get fed within yards of our house so it looks like we are now on watch for larger droppings that just the mouse kind.  Oh joy.