O/T. Mice.

Hi there..

mice.. I hear you
had one in the apt
years ago.. Kitty caught it
ate it..
but I had to go out in the hall
she would not let me take it

then when on TX.
no cat
a mouse appeared
and I had to leave
for them to set the traps

I hope you find some relief
get on top of it
my pal at the beach had a bad time with them
and my cousin.. said they took over her cottage
in drawers and all over


best and hope you can get
rid of them

((

uggg

nasty wee critters

How about rats! Yuck. I once rented a house that a elderly man had previously lived in. I was doing laundry one day in the downstairs room that connected to a crawl space. I opened the crawl space door and there were millions of peanut shells. It turned out the man thought he was feeding squirels but he was feeding rats!

One night I was walking to the kitchen very late in the dark. I heard what sounded like someone kicking my stove. There were 3 rats under it. It still gives me the creeps thinking about it over 20 years later. I had no problem setting traps for those buggers.

Hi Isabella, you can get the humane ones that just trap the mouse inside and don't kill it. Maybe you could set a few of those. The only problems I get with mice are when my cats bring them in and I try to rescue them. One got away and lived on cat biscuits in one of my cupboards for about a month. It sure was fat when we caught it. They haven't brought any in for a while thank goodness. Good luck with catching them.
Hugs
Mags

We always get the occasional little brown field mouse and the cats usually get them and play with them for a while. This past winter when we had the unusual cold hit, my mom had a wee visitor at her assisted living center, in her room. She didn't get excited having had them around the house. But, she had them put down traps. She told them that if that mouse stays, he has to help pay the rent too! LOL The mice were caught by one of the other residents' cats 2 doors down!

This is why you cannot allow mice to set up residence in your environment!!!! This is especially important if you are immunocompromised as most of us who have had chemo are now.

What is hantavirus?
Hantavirus is a potentially deadly disease caused by a virus carried by rodents. Hantavirus can cause Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (HPS) which causes the lungs to fill with fluid and can cause respiratory failure.

The hantavirus was first detected in 1993 in the Four Corners area of the southwestern United States. Since 1993, approximately 400 cases have been reported in the United States. South Dakota has reported a total of 9 cases of HPS since the disease was first detected.

Who gets hantavirus infection?
You can be young or old, male or female, any race, living almost anywhere to be exposed to the hantavirus. Anything that puts you in contact with rodent droppings, urine, or nesting materials is a risk for HPS.

What are the symptoms of hantavirus infection?
If a person is infected with hantavirus, symptoms will usually appear within two weeks of exposure. Early symptoms are fatigue, fever (101-104°), and muscle aches. About half of the people infected with hantavirus will also develop headaches, dizziness, chills, and gastrointestinal problems such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pain. Later symptoms include coughing and shortness of breath.

If you have been around rodents and have symptoms of fever, deep muscle aches and severe shortness of breath, see your doctor immediately. Be sure to tell your doctor that you have been around rodents - this will alert your doctor to look closely for any rodent-carried disease such as HPS.

How is hantavirus spread?
Hantavirus infection is a serious, life-threatening illness caused by breathing in the hantavirus. The virus is shed by infected rodents in their urine, droppings, and saliva. When fresh rodent urine, droppings, or nesting materials are stirred up, tiny dust particles containing the virus get into the air which can be inhaled. You cannot get hantavirus from another person.

What is the treatment for hantavirus infection?
There is no specific treatment for hantavirus pulmonary syndrome. If the symptoms are recognized early, the patient should be taken to an intensive care unit. The earlier the patient is brought into intensive care, the better. In intensive care, patients are intubated and given oxygen to help them through the period of severe respiratory distress.

How do I prevent Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome?
Eliminate or minimize contact with rodents in the home and especially when cleaning outbuildings. Construction or utility workers who work in crawl spaces may be at risk and campers and hikers should try to avoid rodent infested areas.

Indoors:
1. Seal all entry holes 1/4 inch or larger (the size of a dime) with steel wool, cement, wire screen, or other patching materials.

2. Keep a clean home, especially the kitchen. Wash dishes, clean counters and floor, keep food covered in rodent-proof containers.

3. Keep a tight-fitting lid on garbage, discard uneaten pet food at the end of the day.

4. Set and keep spring-loaded rodent traps near baseboards because rodents tend to run along walls and tight spaces rather than out in the open. Before setting trap, treat area with flea killer.

5. Set EPA-approved rodenticide with bait under plywood or plastic shelter along baseboards. Follow product use instructions carefully, since rodenticides are poisonous to pets and people, too.

Outdoors:
1. Clear brush, grass, and junk from around the house to eliminate a source of nesting materials.

2. Use metal flashing 12" above to 6" down into the ground around the base of wooden, earthen, or adobe homes to provide a strong barrier.

3. If possible, locate hay, woodpiles, and garbage cans 100 feet or more from the house and elevate at least 12" off the ground.

4. Trap or poison rodents outdoors too. Just be sure to keep poisons out of the reach of children or pets.

Clean up:
1. When going into cabins or other outbuildings that may be infested, open them up and air them out for at least 30 minutes before cleaning.

2. Wear latex rubber gloves. Don’t stir up dust. Thoroughly wet contaminated areas with detergent, general purpose disinfectant, or 10% household bleach solution (1½ cups of household bleach per gallon of water). Once everything is wet, mop or sponge up.

3. Spray dead rodents with disinfectant or bleach solution, then double bag along with all cleaning materials, and dispose.

4. Disinfect gloves before taking them off with disinfectant or soap and water. After taking off gloves, thoroughly wash hands.

5. For heavy rodent infestations, seek help from professional exterminators.



http://www.state.sd.us/doh/Pubs/hanta.htm

When my hubby and I were first living together in college we lived in a huge old Queen ann house in the student ghetto, right on the edge of the REAL ghetto. The hose next door to us was rented out to some less than savory neighbors. There were about 20 people living in the house. When they were finally evicted it was winter and the heat in the house was turned off. About 3 days later approximately 1,000 mice moved from the empty house in with US!!! OK…I probably exaggerate on the number, but the little devils were everywhere.

I am not usually squeamish about mice…but this was just tooooo much. We had to put all the food in the fridge, because every time we opened a cupboard there would be 3 or 4 mice sitting there looking at us. I made my hubby put the legs of our bed in coffee cans filled with water and pull it out away from the wall because I was scared they would end up in my bed nibbling on my fingers while I slept. We were trapping 6 mice at a time, 4 or 5 times a day. My hubby called it his trap line. I don’t remember how many he trapped before I got the wise idea to put out decon poison. Baaaaaaad idea. All the frisky little live mice turned in to slowly rotting dead mice in the walls. I burned scented candles and took out stock in Lysol spray for another few weeks. At least that finished them off….except for the lingering smell that is.

Still gives me the willies to think about it!

I too live in a rural area. But since we have five cats, we only get mice in the attic and walls.

A guy I work with was having trouble with mice in his motor home. He tried traps, poison, etc. and nothing worked. Then a guy at the hardware store told him to put Bounce dryer sheets wherever he found evidence (poop). So he put a few in the cupboards, drawers, counters, and he hasn't had a problem since. It's been a few weeks now. Apparently, they don't like the smell.

I plan on trying this in my woodshop, since I've found a few dead ones in there.

Dear Isabella,
We have always lived in old houses.And yes, as Beth says, the little field mice will come in when it gets cold.In fact once we had mice in the summer:they were living in the basement.They were living on a 40 pound bag of Rupert's food we were storing there.They were SUPER-MICE!EXTREMELY well-nourished and bright.They formed themselves a condo in a box of old linens I was storing.I went looking for a curtain one day and found--- mouse nests msde of chewed-up towels, sheets, lined in fluffy cotton..And baby mice in the nests.Really sweet!(Can you tell i dont hate mice?)I had my husband carry that whole box out, drive it (back of pick-up truck) to an open field, and put it down.Not one mouse jumped ship!They woudnt leave their babies!

The males, I guess, were working at food hunting & gathering.(That dog food!)And one drowned one day in Rupert's water bowl.I was busy and couldnt understand what Rupert wanted, coming up to me, looking more mournful than Retreivers usually look.Finally I let him show me.There was a wee mousie dead in his water bowl.We were both moutnful then.We buried him in the flower garden.(Rupert's bowl was strongly sterilized.)
The rest of the mice we set traps for.
Mouse hint:
As Deb has reported, poison baits are BAD!The mice do die and stink like hell, in the walls.
And NEVER use those glue traps, should they still be selling them.The poor wee things are caught, screaming, in the strong glue.THEN watta ya gonna do with it?
Friends have had both these experiences.
Another friend got Have-a-heart mousetraps, trap and release.Unless you ferry the mice FAR away, they will return!

So--peanut-butter-set traps are my choice of weapon.Dont use cheese-they can snatch & escape with it.Peanut butter, and smear it on really hard.

Good luck!


Another hint:I have a tendency to save cotton from suppliment bottles.It's handy for so many things.Dont do it!Mice LOVE cotton batting, I learned.They make their nests out of it.As witnessed in the mouse condo in my basement.
They also like to eat candles, and soap, BTW.
I wish I knew they dislike peppermint oil.I'd gladly have burned it and rubbed things with it rather than murdering the tiny creatures.

I've always had a 'live and let live' policy on varmints until I had my saddle and saddle blanket used as a mouse condo, they ate a hole in the blanket and shredded the fleece on the bottom side of the saddle costing $100+ worth of damage on a saddle that wasn't worth much more than that. I've also had them climb up my arm to my shoulder when scooping grain to feed the horses (they get in the grain tub, but can't get out.) Between them and the raccons, I decided that as long as they stayed away from my stuff they could live. But if they didn't...