I live in an old house.
Well, shhh, don’t let the house hear me say that – she’s 119 years young. She was also moved here in 2000 from a town about an hour away. So besides the crap insulation (and by crap I mean none), single pane windows that are as thin as parchment paper, and iffy wiring that all tend to come with such an old place, there are also numerous cracks, gaps, and holes. Which essentially means it’s a critter hostel. If it flies, walks, crawls, slithers, creeps (you get the idea), my house discriminates against none and welcomes all.
Typically, it’s not so bad. I’ve learned to live with walking through delicate strands of spider silk, moths flitting around my head as I try to paint in the evening, reaching for the toilet paper only to come across a lizard staring back at me. (Yep, it happened.) So in general, we all coexist.
Cool, right? That's paint on my hands, btw, not blood.
But a couple of years ago, the inevitable finally happened:
The mice moved in.
This was before I got my cats and in fact the reason for getting the cats in the first place.
In my head, mice are in the category of ‘cute and fluffy’ so my first instinct is to get all googly eyed and start feeding them Cheerios; but unfortunately they’re terribly destructive behind the scenes and my house is already wobbly as it is. They also carry some pretty icky diseases. All the same, I absolutely cannot kill them. Poison, snap traps, glue – it’s not happening.
Cue internet search: natural fixes for mice. Let’s quickly go over the events of the next few months.
Step 1: Get kittens. Result: The kittens proceed to murder everything cute and fluffy except mice.
Step 2: Scatter peppermint oil bombs all over the house. Result: I discover I abhor the scent of peppermint. Oh and the mice don’t give a crap.
Step 3: Buy insanely strong balsam fir-scented sachets and again bomb the house. Result: The house smells like a glorious Christmas wonderland, but the mice again don’t care.
Step 4: Fox urine granules – a “guaranteed solution.” (sigh) Result: Nope. Just another nasty smell everywhere.
Step 5: Get humane catch-and-release traps and load them up with yummy cheese. Result: see for yourself.
Quick story about the traps. I bought two of them and they both went in my kitchen; one was on the countertop and the other was on the stove – both places seem to be popular mouse hang-outs judging by the poop they leave behind. If they bring coffee and donuts, they take that with them when they leave.
So the first night I put in bits of bread and a couple of pellets of dog food. (In the past, dog food was their go-to. I’d find little piles in the strangest places: inside one of my shoes in the closet, underneath a stack of shirts in a drawer, inside a dog-bone-shaped cookie cutter mold – which was actually kinda cute, but that meant they were crawling all over my silverware.)
The next morning, the stove trap was untouched, and the countertop trap still had the dog food but was missing the bread. Apparently they didn’t understand the catch-and-release concept. I’m the one that’s supposed to release them. They can’t just release themselves. That’s cheating.
So one night I upped the game. Cheese. Oh yea, I went for the cheese. I tossed the bread and dog food and loaded them up with bits of fragrant provolone. I don’t even like provolone, that’s how desperate I was. Let me just show you the result of that again.
The cheese was still there. They literally crapped on my idea. I set up my game camera, but it didn’t catch anything, which leads me to believe they are ninja mice. They slip through the night without waking the dogs or the cats, they avoid camera detection, they escape from traps. And they mock my attempts to stop them.
After several months, it was getting more and more obvious (to my utter dread and horror) that I might have to lay out poison. Seeing as how the cats had never brought in a single mouse, I was be reasonably sure they wouldn’t find and eat the guys that succumbed. But just thinking about it made me a little ill. I didn’t want mice in my house, but geez, they were simply trying to survive, just like the rest of us. I hate killing things (except scorpions and wasps and now centipedes).
So I forged ahead, adding ever yummier treats to the traps. And then one morning, lo and behold!
To be continued… 
Hahaha this was so funny, I know the deal in old farmhouses.
Thanks! There's never a dull moment, for sure. Now that the cats are older, they're bringing small field mice into the house to play with. I just let one out in the front yard before logging on!
Dunno if you have tried this, but the Seabright humane mouse trap is the best i've ever used. I've caught several mice in an hour with this trap and even two mice at once (lol). I ended up filing down the latch/trigger mechanism a tiny bit so that it became even more sensitive.
Good luck!
http://www.seabrightlabs.com/mouse.htm
Oh wow, that's awesome! I am defintely going to try one of those. My cats have gotten wise to mouse murder as they've gotten older, but it's always good to have a trap on hand.
Thank you!!
Amazing post !
The ninja mice probably moves too fast for your camera's framerate.
If you are REALLY interested in catching them on cam, get yourself a high-speed camera...
you can tell us all if the mice really are ninja's
Ha, you're right - they move too quickly for a mere camera to detect. Or they might have powers of invisibility... I wouldn't doubt it.
Thanks for reading! :)
A friend has been having the same problems (old house out in country, with all the external integrity of swiss cheese). We tried the non-toxic baking soda, flour, sugar thing from this vid and it seemed to work. We tried both the salt version, and the sugar...and the sugar won out and got results. As a bonus, as my friend said, "I don't have to worry about crazy, industrial grade poisons in my house too."
Oh man, that's cool that something natural actually worked for you! If I put sugar out, I'd probably wake up to ants. I'll check out that video though.
Thanks for reading!
You are lucky it are just mice. Here a lot of old houses have rats. They are awful :-(
Ooooh, I have a story about a rat... just you wait. That story is coming up soon. ;) But you're right, I am lucky that they don't live here. The cats bring them inside and then murder them. I can't imagine having a rat infestation!
I live in a 12th floor... and I still fear mice coming in.
gwah **shudders **
Oh my. Do they cause any damage?
LMAO! Glad I found this post! Just so you know; I found it on the facebook page that you are a memeber of. 😊
Following . . .
Awesome, thank you! I'm excited about the facebook page. There are lots of other stories like these on my steemit page. And the latest Mouse Tale is about this incident as well. Thanks for the follow - I followed you too!
Haha very funny! Greetings from the sphere ;)!
Thanks! :) What's the sphere?
The facebook group haha
Thanks :) I just read your crypto bubble article - really good info! I'm trying to learn as much as I can about crypto currencies but my brain won't let a lot sink in at once... Followed and looking forward to more posts!
Thanks, I appreciate the support and I feel you on that! My goal is to provide as much as I can about crypto in a easy to understand way! Looking for more posts from you as well!
Thanks! I'm still confused about the difference between SBD, Steem and Steem Power. Every time I seem to grasp it, the next day it's gone. LOL
Lets see if I can help you out then! Steem is the currency that can be traded on exchanges into bitcoin or ethereum, then into us dollars, euros, or yen depending on which currency you normally use. Think of SBD's as bonds you can buy from a bank that gains interest over time and will normally stay equivalent to the US dollar, so it's good if you want to avoid the fluctuation of price steem normally goes through. Think of Steem power as stocks you have bought from steem that raises or decreases your account's value and utility depending on the price of steem. Steem power is the best, in my opinion, because I think Steem is only going to go up in the future and it gives us a way to build wealth while supporting this amazing community! Steem power can be withdrawn in a span of I think 3 months in equal installments, so your steem isn't permanently invested. Hope this helped! Let me know if you have any questions about anything crypto related, and i'll do my best to explain it to you!
I'm looking forward to seeing who won the battle! Awesome post, you made me feel like I was back in the country reading this... city life is feeling pretty boring now. Upvoted and following you for more adventures.
Awesome, thank you! City life has its perks for sure. I can't deal with all the movement and noise personally though.
I'd take the country life in a heartbeat... city life is a necessity right now. One day.... as long as there's wifi ;)
LOL yea, I want to live far away from people, but not so far that I can't get an internet connection. That's just unacceptable. heehee