<p>Roof rats - yuck! Has anyone seen wood rats? They are huge!!! My dog caught a huge rat creature in our backyard, and we tried to determined what it was. It was very heavy and weighed close to 3/4 of a pound. H and I searched the internet and found a picture of a similarly looking creature with a hairy tail. That was the first time since my college biology classes that I’d studied a dead rat up close.</p>
<p>H returned from his trip to the Land of the Bosses, said he could not sleep in his hotel room because there were scratching/scurrying sounds coming from the AC ducts. Although the hotel offered a nice breakfast buffet, H decided to eat his breakfast elswhere.</p>
<p>Thanks, BunsenBurner. Unfortunately, Vermont is a very moist place, so if that’s what caused a trap malfunction yesterday, it is likely to cause a similar problem today. I did set it again last night–haven’t forced myself to check it yet this morning.</p>
<p>my$0.02</p>
<p>I am painfully aware that poisoning the mice has the risk of dead mice in bad places, but the risk of my electrical system being destroyed seemed worse to me. I’m hoping the traps will remove them before the poison kills them, but I felt like I had to do something fast.</p>
<p>Anyone remember the movie Mouse Hunt? Nathan Lane I think was the homeowner and Christopher Walken the exterminator. Ha, ha.</p>
<p>Well the trap worked last night. I feel bad killing them, but it’s the only way to make sure they go. I can just imagine how dangerous it would be if one of them decided to run around the car while I was driving. Not a pretty thought. So for anyone following this because of their own mouse problem, the Victor Electronic Trap worked really well even in a VERY cold garage–I think it was down to zero last night, though the garage stays warmer thasn the outside.</p>
<p>I’m willing to move into the senior living home. My hubby wants to stay out in the middle of nowhere. I am tired of dealing personally with rodents.</p>
<p>Well, I had an entire opossum family living in my root cellar. There were five of them. There musky smell was coming up through the wide jousts between the floorboards of my vintage pine floor that had been laid in 1858. H kept telling me it was wet leaves in the gutters! Well, he finally cleaned out the gutters, and the smell remained. I nagged him until he finally went down into the root cellar and the biggest opossum face met him almost nose-to-nose.</p>
<p>We called a wild life expert who set cages and carried each healthy, opossum to the wild. We eventually sold that house (not because of opossums) and now they press their noses to French doors in the kitchen. I do not like opossums!</p>
<p>bethie: So glad the mouse problem is solved.</p>
<p>Thanks mythmom, but I don’t think it’s solved–I think constant vigilance is in order. I think if you see one mouse in the house–or car-- that means there are several others. It’s a gross thought, but I believe it’s true. I am NOT surrendering my house or my car to these tiny rodents!!</p>
<p>There is something rather primeval and frightening about oppossums. They look like characters from your worst nightmare. I have a back porch off my kitchen that sits high above the yard. We put things out to chill on the railing when it’s cold. Two Christmases ago, a pie crust was chilling, for our little dessert, in one of those dismal years when I need to work on the holiday. An oppossum somehow climbed up, and nibbled our pie crust, then stared at us through the window looking into the eating area. Very creepy. Then, as this year, it was just me and D1, as S and D2 were on exchanges. Added effectively to the free floating feeling of deprivation. Never saw an opposum there before or since. </p>
<p>I also had one hide behind the snow shovels on the front porch, thinking itself cleverly unseen. But the long ratlike tail protruded across the front mat, and as we were returning from being out, was hard to effectively scare it away to enter our house.</p>
<p>Bethievt, do you like cats? Maybe I missed something in preceeding pages, but for general prevention, a cat or two are very effective. I’ve had rare mice, but they don’t last long in our house. We are also plagued by bunnies in our town, and as my neighbors and I all have cats, I’ve realized my garden is less troubled than some.</p>
<p>I like cats, but my son is allergic. I like the <em>idea</em> of opposums, but I like the <em>idea</em> of mice too. It’s the actuality of them that I don’t like so much.</p>
<p>I’ve noticed several of these posts mention finding a mouse nest under the hood of the car. Are your cars parked outside near shrubs or bushes? My daughter parks her car at the top of our driveway right up against some shrubs. It sits during the week when she’s at school and when she would come home on weekends, she started noticing a horrendous odor. She said it smelled like something died in there. She took her car to Pep Boys and they checked under the hood. Found a mouse nest with a dead mouse so something really did die in there. They cleaned it out for her - she said for free - but said the mouse had starting gnawing on the air filter so she would need to replace it. Now a few weeks later, she is noticing the smell again. What can be done to get rid of the mice if they are still getting in there - other than parking elsewhere?</p>
<p>Our car is parked in a garage. Our car service guy says he’s seeing more problems over time with mice and wonders whether the plastics the car manufacturers are using are more palatable to mice.</p>
<p>Well, one of those mice came into our house and drowned in a half glass of water. I didn’t know whether to feel guilty or grateful. Our very own Grand Guignol. Of course, I found it.</p>
<p>As I’ve mentioned on other threads. D had a steady stream of visiting mice in her apartment last year. Of course, those were city mice. Bethie’s are country mice.</p>
<p>I suppose we could analyse the behavior of country and city mice. The country mice sound plenty audacious. City mice would be fearsome, if holding to stereotypes. Or maybe it’s not PC to typecast mice?</p>
<p>Perhaps rodents have some sort of innate love for the coatings of wires? We had a bunny, and the main issue in having a house rabbit is the tendency to nibble on wires. Ours was a rather well behaved bunny, but all the books mentioned electical wires as a big potential problem.</p>
<p>WashMom has a deal with all creatures of nature. They stay outside and everything is cool. If they come inside, they die. Of course, I’m the one who has to deal with their little bodies…</p>
<p>Just like the rodents, this thread will never die! ;)</p>
<p>My country mice are quite stupid. They migrate from a nearby city with a slogan “City living - country style” (or something like that). The mouse that ODed on D’s Powerbar? He was so full, he could not move! I wrapped my hand in a plastic bag and caught him! Frankly, I was not sure such a trick can work, and my sudden success left me wondering “What do I do now?!”</p>
<p>I’ve only gotten one in the electronic trap. I’m such a wimp I don’t want to look around to see if there’s a new nest. I’m with WashMom–wild creatures need to stay outside–we’ve even had bats in the house :eek:</p>
<p>Well, I have a new one for you. About a day after this thread started, we have been invaded by a horde of country mice. They have even gotten into a can of espresso coffee! Ate right through the plastic lid on top!! </p>
<p>It got nasty yesterday though…Went to the basement yesterday to - finally- get the Christmas decorations up. Over the past 10 years, my MIL has given me these beautiful Christmas carolers - I think they’re “Buyers’ Choice.” They have this very nice Colonial Williamsburg theme. I went to take the “Ye Olde Lamplighter” out of his box and his felt and cotton clothes were EATEN right off his body! Oh, the humanity!! There was plenty of “evidence” in the bottom of the box. I actually think it’s rather funny but what do I tell my MIL? She will certainly miss him on our mantlepiece. EEEKK!!</p>