Mouse guest. Update: Here we go again.

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DadRat

DadRat

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 26, 2009
Messages
417
Location
TN
We've known for a while that our apartment building gets mice. It's old and the weather is turning colder. Few weeks ago we had been hearing some scratching in the floorboards, but nothing else.

So...last night I'm sitting on the couch after getting the boys settled back in their CN after a week long road trip to see family for the holidays. I have their travel cage sitting on the floor as I was in a "I'll empty/clean/break that down later, I'm tired" mood. I hear a little clink from the direction of their travel cage. And see a tiny little gray mouse hopping out of it with a piece of lab block in its' mouth. It then runs under my love seat.

Dang it. :gaah:

I look and don't see anything, mumble and mutter about uninvited house guests, and tell the mouse to stay away from the CN unless it wants to find out what happens in a "3 old boy rats vs you" cage match.

This afternoon I'm sitting on my couch and something in my peripheral vision makes me look up from my laptop...why hello there, tiny (and very cute) little gray mouse looking at me. From the armrest of the love seat. 3 feet away. Who then disappears INTO the cushions when I stand up.

Dang it again. :rant: :redhot:

So now my living room looks like a kindergarten class on PCP hit it. The couch and love seat are sitting on their sides with the cushions piled up. Found lots of mouse poop in both, and a nice little hole in my couch. Hmph. Apparently the sleeping bag I had under my love seat is the Best Mouse Bed EVER, judging by the amount of mouse poop in it. And found 1 dead mouse that has been that way for a while. (Really, do they HAVE to look so much like Eepers? Really?)

So, now I have a Made It Myself No Kill mousetrap (stack of books up to a small trashcan, toilet paper tube with peanut butter in the end balanced on the edge of the can) in the living room, and 3 confused rats who are peering out of their CN wondering why Dad is dismantling their play area (the couches).

Fun times.
 
I hope you can catch him. I know I shouldn't laugh lol but this made me laugh as I could see this little mouse just kind of mocking you lol they're crafty buggers!
 
I'm sorry but you paint a great picture in ones mind, and I am laughing my behind off! Silly Dad. Hope you catch him/her in your crafty mouse trap. What a neat idea! And sorry about your sofa :(
 
Ehh....to be honest the sofa is older than me and one of the cushions has to stay upside down because Dominic thought the yellow foam inside was cheese or something when he was about 6 months old.

Mainly I just don't want the little mouse to try and get in the boys cage for their food, I don't need a trip to the vet right now.
 
Ask Rodentrist what she did about mice.

You may want to leave out blocks and water from the mouse in another room.
A cornered animal, even a tiny mouse, can do a lot of damange if cornered.
Rats would normally kill mice, however,
if the mouse got into the boys cage and felt cornered he could hurt or even kill.
 
Oh, this brings back visions of my time in university residence my last year (needless to say, never went back to residence, and now have a HUGE phobia of voles, which is the particular infestation that building had). Saw the first one in October, and it being university, of course, the food piles up as the year rolls along (I was super careful in my own room, because I had Princess and Plumeria, so all their food was in glass containers, etc).

A very good idea - don't know if you normally keep your lab blocks in the package or if you put them somewhere unreachable - the key is to stop the smell of food from wafting out (which is why glass jars are ideal).
The voles were actually too small to be killed by actual mousetraps (I was too freaked out by them to want to live-trap, though they all wound up being alive). More than one got a leg caught in the mousetrap, and without the leg being broken or harmed at all, once I let them out outside, they just ran off.

Princess and Plumeria did help somewhat, but of course as they weren't allowed to free-range, they couldn't help too much. I'd read somewhere that rat poops would scare off smaller rodents (an ingrained fear as rats theoretically will kill any encroaching little rodent), and it did deter the voles... until they found a new hole through which to encroach on *my* turf! The girls actually took turns as sentry duty - I guess they figured out from whence the buggers came, because one would eat, rest, or whatever, and the other would just GLARE balefully at the little vole hole. Princess was the most determined in that guard duty, but Plumeria was no slouch.

The crowning panic moment for me was when I caught a vole trying to climb up the outside of the girls' cage - I had a complete panic attack, and moved out that night with the girls back to my parents' home. The girls certainly weren't harmed, they had no respiratory infections or other infections from theoretical contact with vole anythings, but I was a basket case, lol
 
You said you have a CN right? Then you would only have to worry about the mouse possibly climbing the cage and getting its toes nipped at. I mean I know you don't want mice in your apartment so you are going to trap it anyways but I don't think you have a huge concern for your boys right now.
 
This is either the bravest or dumbest mouse ever. It is apparently unaware that a rat is a predator.

So I have had the boys out with me on the bed for some out time, and I went to take them back to their cage. Their cage which has a mouse in it. :eeek: :wow:
A mouse that looks at me and then runs out of the top level of our double CN and scampers down the bars and away into wherever it happens to be now.

:? Bwuh?! :?

Rat cage. Smells like 3 boy rats. Needs to be cleaned actually...which I shall now go do since I see tiny little mouse poops amongst the boys shelves. This little thing is gonna end up getting killed...hopefully won't hurt my boys in the process. Should I have any worry about mites/disease/whatever with this apparently insane little visitor? Haven't had any luck catching it and I'd really rather not put out a lethal trap if I can avoid it. Although if it is a mouse vs my boys health/safety then the mouse moves down quite a lot in my priority of living things list.
 
A former roommate had a cat who brought her a live mouse (with a longer type of nose).

Needless to say, the mouse took the first opportunity to run and hide and we had the time of our lives catching this little guy!

Judy set up her version of a "mousetrap" which consisted of books and boards to corner the mouse in one area of her bedroom. Since I am not skittish, I was the lucky one who was tasked with placing the tupperware bowl over the mouse at the appropriate moment.

Well, our mouse managed to escape Judy's little wall and started climbing the bookcase. (try getting a tupperware bowl in between the top of the books and the next shelf up!!!).

The next thing I knew... I was face to face with a little pink nose. :giggle:

Since I was not afraid of the mouse, I looked at it and said "hi there little dude!!!"

Judy and I had been at this for over an hour and the stress was incredible because her cat wanted to help and neither Judy or I wanted BB to hurt the mouse. My greeting to the mouse sent Judy into a fit of giggles and we both laughed so hard we cried.

We finally managed to trap the mouse when he tried climbing up to the next level and I used the lid of the tupperware bowl to gently swat him into the bowl and then cover it. :bunnydance:

We jumped in the car and drove him to the park. He stood right under me (I understand that they will hide under their adversaries when trapped). I told him that he was free and he ran right over my foot and up the first tree.

There is nothing like the feeling of little mouse feet on your semi-bare, sandaled, foot.

This little guy was one of several rescues Judy and I conducted with mice brought to you by BB!

It's great fun to try trapping them. They are amazing animals who are obviously smarter than people may give them credit for. :dance:
 
Sounds like the little mouse is very healthy. I don't know if I'd be that worried but I would probably use ivermectin on my rats once the mouse is gone for good. Ivermectin takes care of worms as well.
 
Have you named the mouse yet?
S/he sounds adorable.
I still think the little mouse needs its own food and water dish away from where the ratties are.
 
I absolutely LOVE your description of what happened!

I went through the same thing in my last apartment. Searching for the stupid mouse, and waiting for it to come out of hiding. I had 3 in there and had no idea where they were coming from until I spent half the night in my kitchen with the lights out and a container to catch the stupid things in. In the middle of the night what do I see? I head peeking out of the bottom of our rads! I didn't catch them that night, but the next day we got some spray foam and insulated around the pipes where all of our rads met the wall and went into common areas of the building. That helped to not add more, but there appearantly was one trapped in the apartment now... figures. We ended up having to use lethal traps with the mouse (I know horrible, I felt so bad but there were potentially so many and I was scared for my little rattikins). We had no kill traps as well just in case they would use them but time and time again we found them set off with no mouse.

Goood luck out-mousing this little one.
 
You know you are a special kind of person when you catch you uninvited fuzzy little apartment crasher. Look at it, go "awww, you are seriously cute.", and feel bad for depositing it outside when it is in the 20F degree range.
 

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