My mice have developed my sense of humour!!
Discussion
Is it possible that the mice that have moved into my house this winter have assimilated my humour?
Just before Christmas my wife goes out the kitchen door to put some rubbish in the bins and a mouse leaps out of one of the bags at her. She has a phobia of mice (brilliant for living in the countryside, in an old hoise sandwiched between three country estates but it’s a great gag.
Two weeks later there is a load of screaming from the mezzanine landing and I rush over to discover a mouse had legged it past her upstairs into our bedroom. She slept in the guest room for three days!
A couple of nights later we are watching TV and she starts asking what the scratching noise is from the wall. She knows we have jackdaws in a nearby wall so I manage to blag that it must be them!
Next my children come downstairs in the night to complain about a scratching noise in the roof that is scarring them. Luckily they like mice so the explanation calms them but obviously the wife over heard and a stern lecture ensued.
But what I thought was the absolute pinnacle of genius piss taking was me ending up at 5am on Christmas morning, in the middle of the lawn holding a bedside cabinet in just my under crackers, shaking it to get the mouse out! I’d been woken up by a scratching sound emanating from the wife’s side of the room and having realised it must be a mouse, discovered a field mouse sitting happily in the cabinet. I then had to pick up the entire cabinet and carry it down two flights and out a door of a creaky old hoise hoping to God no one woke up.
Great gag. Surely unsurpassable. Well wrong, the b
ds pulled a blinder today. Family outing in the old Rangie for a spot of lunch. The children ask for a tic-tac, I lift up the lid to the cubby box and out jumps a bloody mouse. Driving at 50mph with a wife screaming away in Italian and trying to physically get out of the car is certainly a new life experience!!
Like all truly great comedians these ones are going to be dying young so I now have to go through a few weeks of sneaking bodies out of the house without being spotted by the wife.
Just before Christmas my wife goes out the kitchen door to put some rubbish in the bins and a mouse leaps out of one of the bags at her. She has a phobia of mice (brilliant for living in the countryside, in an old hoise sandwiched between three country estates but it’s a great gag.
Two weeks later there is a load of screaming from the mezzanine landing and I rush over to discover a mouse had legged it past her upstairs into our bedroom. She slept in the guest room for three days!
A couple of nights later we are watching TV and she starts asking what the scratching noise is from the wall. She knows we have jackdaws in a nearby wall so I manage to blag that it must be them!
Next my children come downstairs in the night to complain about a scratching noise in the roof that is scarring them. Luckily they like mice so the explanation calms them but obviously the wife over heard and a stern lecture ensued.
But what I thought was the absolute pinnacle of genius piss taking was me ending up at 5am on Christmas morning, in the middle of the lawn holding a bedside cabinet in just my under crackers, shaking it to get the mouse out! I’d been woken up by a scratching sound emanating from the wife’s side of the room and having realised it must be a mouse, discovered a field mouse sitting happily in the cabinet. I then had to pick up the entire cabinet and carry it down two flights and out a door of a creaky old hoise hoping to God no one woke up.
Great gag. Surely unsurpassable. Well wrong, the b
ds pulled a blinder today. Family outing in the old Rangie for a spot of lunch. The children ask for a tic-tac, I lift up the lid to the cubby box and out jumps a bloody mouse. Driving at 50mph with a wife screaming away in Italian and trying to physically get out of the car is certainly a new life experience!!Like all truly great comedians these ones are going to be dying young so I now have to go through a few weeks of sneaking bodies out of the house without being spotted by the wife.
I'm not sure that's a normal level of mouse, especially if there's a lack of food involved for them. It's also been surprisingly mild (most places), usually takes a cold snap to drive them indoors like that in my experience.
But definitely get a few semi-ferral rescue cats to keep around the place.
But definitely get a few semi-ferral rescue cats to keep around the place.
Wife has baited the kitchen floor trap with some "nut butter" ... almond I think. It's dreadful stuff. I won't eat it. Neither will the mice it turns out, so we have something in common.
Recent encounters include a staring competition around the side of a food processor on a kitchen work surface, and chasing one out of the booze cupboard under the stairs.
I'll get round to dealing with them properly at some point, but current priority is dealing with the two squirrels that survived the last cull and are still living in the loft. They're getting back into the habit of gorging themselves under one of the bird feeders which will make them easy targets. I will shed a tear when they go, but go they must.
Recent encounters include a staring competition around the side of a food processor on a kitchen work surface, and chasing one out of the booze cupboard under the stairs.
I'll get round to dealing with them properly at some point, but current priority is dealing with the two squirrels that survived the last cull and are still living in the loft. They're getting back into the habit of gorging themselves under one of the bird feeders which will make them easy targets. I will shed a tear when they go, but go they must.
DonkeyApple said:
Is it possible that the mice that have moved into my house this winter have assimilated my humour?....
.....Family outing in the old Rangie for a spot of lunch. The children ask for a tic-tac, I lift up the lid to the cubby box and out jumps a bloody mouse. Driving at 50mph with a wife screaming away in Italian and trying to physically get out of the car is certainly a new life experience!!
Brill. Utter madness. .....Family outing in the old Rangie for a spot of lunch. The children ask for a tic-tac, I lift up the lid to the cubby box and out jumps a bloody mouse. Driving at 50mph with a wife screaming away in Italian and trying to physically get out of the car is certainly a new life experience!!
We do about 5-10 a year in early winter, including often seeing one in the hall or kitchen, and several sightings in the garage.
Harmless enough unless your the bottom corner of the dog treats box but preferably outside not in.
Daniel
I don't know if it's the particularly wet season but some have moved in here too. Regularly hear scampering from the ceiling, no access to this bit from the loft either.
Taking a shower ones found his way in there too. Showering, look at my feet, and there's the wee fella washing suds off his whiskers.
(fortunately I'm not a shower urinator)
Taking a shower ones found his way in there too. Showering, look at my feet, and there's the wee fella washing suds off his whiskers.
(fortunately I'm not a shower urinator)
If it helps, we’ve had a mouse move in, I found the droppings the other day where they’ve got into the new kitchen through the hole where the my ran the pipes for the downstairs loo.
I’ve foamed them up but there’s scratching galore going on in the wall/floor under the living room where it is now holed up.
I’ve been lifting floorboards and peering under and have a humane trap loaded with peanut butter that is doing bigger all.
I’ve cut off the inside food supply but I think it’s either got a stash or is just using the warmth of the central heating pipes as overnight lodgings, the st.
No cat, we have a dog that can’t even be arsed to get off his bed, let alone poke his nose below the boards.
I’ve foamed them up but there’s scratching galore going on in the wall/floor under the living room where it is now holed up.
I’ve been lifting floorboards and peering under and have a humane trap loaded with peanut butter that is doing bigger all.
I’ve cut off the inside food supply but I think it’s either got a stash or is just using the warmth of the central heating pipes as overnight lodgings, the s
t.No cat, we have a dog that can’t even be arsed to get off his bed, let alone poke his nose below the boards.
Condi said:
Yours is probably a well fed pet cat.
Get a cat which is a bit more wild, and don't feed it, the mice will soon be gone
This, really. We moved into a house in the countryside in France, which came with a beautiful, but lethal (to rodents) cat. She kills everything, mice, rats, rabbits etc. And no bringing them in to play with them, she eats them. She's feral but is wonderfully affectionate, when she feels like it. Get a cat which is a bit more wild, and don't feed it, the mice will soon be gone
Cocknose said:
Condi said:
Yours is probably a well fed pet cat.
Get a cat which is a bit more wild, and don't feed it, the mice will soon be gone
This, really. We moved into a house in the countryside in France, which came with a beautiful, but lethal (to rodents) cat. She kills everything, mice, rats, rabbits etc. And no bringing them in to play with them, she eats them. She's feral but is wonderfully affectionate, when she feels like it. Get a cat which is a bit more wild, and don't feed it, the mice will soon be gone
Evanivitch said:
I'm not sure that's a normal level of mouse, especially if there's a lack of food involved for them. It's also been surprisingly mild (most places), usually takes a cold snap to drive them indoors like that in my experience.
But definitely get a few semi-ferral rescue cats to keep around the place.
Yup. The presence of mice has caught me out this year as it simply hasn’t been cold yet. But definitely get a few semi-ferral rescue cats to keep around the place.
Cats are a clunky solution as they can’t be programmed to just target mice and I’m generally a believer that we already have far too many cats in society regardless of how lovely they are, ultimately they are vermin like the mice themselves.
Suggest you seal any entry points into kitchen with chicken wire - rats and mice will tend to munch through everything else. Previous advice from pest control was that all building extensions move after a while causing some cracking of drainage pipes etc which allow the buggers in.
I tend to use big cheese pre baited traps alongside glue boards etc in the garage/workshop. Please read advice on pest control websites as trap positioning is vital - they have to be put long regular "runs" - i tend to group a few covering a specific area so if they jump to avoid one trap they are likely to be zapped by the adjacent trap. adult rats are much cautious and difficult to eradicate.
Car wise, rats developed a liking for the soy based wiring harness coverings in our previous Toyota Prius which caused £1000s of damage so had to sell the car. now put traps in car overnight in winter and after neighbouring farmer harvests as that's when to tend to arrive en masse.
Kids leaving half eaten snacks and fruit in the car are what attracts in the first place and once they have arrived, they tend to leave a urine trail for the others so even if you eradicate the food, etc they still come.
PS they come as part and parcel of having chickens and love compost heaps!
I tend to use big cheese pre baited traps alongside glue boards etc in the garage/workshop. Please read advice on pest control websites as trap positioning is vital - they have to be put long regular "runs" - i tend to group a few covering a specific area so if they jump to avoid one trap they are likely to be zapped by the adjacent trap. adult rats are much cautious and difficult to eradicate.
Car wise, rats developed a liking for the soy based wiring harness coverings in our previous Toyota Prius which caused £1000s of damage so had to sell the car. now put traps in car overnight in winter and after neighbouring farmer harvests as that's when to tend to arrive en masse.
Kids leaving half eaten snacks and fruit in the car are what attracts in the first place and once they have arrived, they tend to leave a urine trail for the others so even if you eradicate the food, etc they still come.
PS they come as part and parcel of having chickens and love compost heaps!
Thanks. I’ve never had them in cars before and there isn’t usually any food in them but the old Rangie was used for a couple of child road trips a week or so before Christmas and then hasn’t moved for a few weeks. It’s unusual for it to be stationary for that long or to be left with crumbs in it and these factors have probably been the catalyst. It’s also an older Rangie than the ones I’ve typically had being a 70s one rather than 80s and a two door so there are probably easier access points. Car is now cleaned and I’ve slung some bait bags in as a stop gap while I develop a formal strategy.
The house is more difficult, that just can’t be sealed off from the outside in an effective manner.
I think I will call in our local exterminator and ask him to show me an appropriate trap set up. Obviously, it goes without saying that the wife is as terrified of traps as she is of mice and so any set up has to take into account a complex 4th dimension of not being visible to humans!!!!
The house is more difficult, that just can’t be sealed off from the outside in an effective manner.
I think I will call in our local exterminator and ask him to show me an appropriate trap set up. Obviously, it goes without saying that the wife is as terrified of traps as she is of mice and so any set up has to take into account a complex 4th dimension of not being visible to humans!!!!
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