Sunday, January 10, 2010

Yikes there's a mouse in my pantry!


I have known for years that I share my dwelling with mice in the basement and that was OK with me. I mean, I have a large house for one person (now two) and didn't mind sharing. He has as much "right" as I do to this space. Just because I pay a bank for my house, doesn't mean he hasn't lain claim to the same area through generations of mice before him. Someone built this house on his home and so I was ok with sharing. As long as they stayed away from my food.

I knew they were there because of droppings in one closet, and an occasional smell that told me one of them had reached old age. At least he hadn't frozen to death. Eventually the smell went away and I don't spend much time down there anyway. There never seemed to be a lot of them, I never saw one.

Well, tonight I opened the pantry and almost fainted from the shock of seeing something dark grey moving on the shelf. She or he was actually pretty cute, but not expecting to see any movement, I was startled.

So now I have to decide how to get rid of it.

I WILL NOT snap it's neck, stick it to glue paper, or poison it in an agonizing slow death. I'm looking for a humane way I can trap it and release it somewhere far away. It's really too cold right now to release it outdoors. I will have to find some abandoned building or something. Anyway, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

I did a little research and this is one idea I could easily make, having plenty of boxes, books, and bottles. I just have to figure out how to do this without the dogs around or they will have a tasty treat.

2 comments:

Dana said...

we've used live traps with success before, of course, you do have to release the thing after you catch it.

Single PAP said...

wow, you are a kind soul. i used less humane ways cause they scared the crap out of me and there was no way i was dealing with a live one! plus, you know if there is one there are many, many more and unless you know where they are coming in they will continue to join you in your home every winter.

good luck with that!