Mouse in the House

With Spring comes the glaring realization that pests awaken from their Winter slumber and come back to haunt you. For the first time, we have a mouse in the house, maybe more, though fortunately they have been isolated in the mud room.

I actually saw the guy firsthand, though I suspect he’s a she, because she seems to be collecting stuff for what seems to be a nest. This includes tearing up our beach towels and N’s bathing suit to collect fiber, and the swim stuff is high up on a shelf. When I first saw her, she was running down the length of my raincoat, and disappeared behind the freezer.

If the bugger went about her business and didn’t infringe upon us, I’d be less inclined to be so militant about getting rid of her, but on top of tearing up our stuff, she’s been getting into the food, and we store lots of food in the mud room. The mouse has been eating through plastic packaging and getting to our nuts. She ate some walnuts in the brownies, and now she’s gotten to the pecans. Time to take action.

For whatever reason, our cats have been oblivious to this mouse, which dampens their credibility some, though the mouse is sly about keeping quiet. I tried leaving the cats in the mudroom for a bit, but they are so obsessed with getting outside that they can’t be bothered with these sort of distractions, so the impetus lies with me.

I obtained a humane mouse trap. I didn’t know they existed, and am a bit skeptical of their usefulness, but it’s worth a try. We got amazingly lucky last year with the woodchuck trap, so you just never know.

If this doesn’t work, then I’ll either have to get draconian or start digging around back there and flush the thing out and let our cats have a go at it. That would be a bit gruesome, but effective.

Until then, thanks for reading.