Marc and I were just getting ready to go to bed, when I heard the crackling of plastic in the kitchen. I called to Jack to see what wrapper he had inevitably gotten hold of. But no, Jack was in the family room with us. This is probably the first time I was wishing Jack had gotten some contraband to chew up.
I walked cautiously into the kitchen and could immediately tell that the suspicious sounds were coming from under the oven. I called Marc in to verify.
Now I should stop and say that I don't get too skittish about creatures. I can kill spiders, no problem. Most flying insects don't bother me. I don't enjoy 'pedes, but I am a pro at vacuuming them up. Ditto earwigs. Mice, on the other hand...
We had mice in our first apartment in Paris. That is a whole story unto itself. I caught a mouse (in a trap) in our laundry room several years ago. And when I moved the old refrigerator out of the garage, there was a petrified mouse underneath it. I shivered, I hated it, but I scooped it up in a dustpan and disposed of it.
But there is a mouse in my kitchen, people! My clean, quite well-organized kitchen! Marc emptied out the drawer under the oven (I was too squeamish). It has definitely been in there, but it's not there right now.
I told him there was a trap behind the dryer (I couldn't go get it because my knee isn't that well recovered yet). He brought up the trap with a petrified mouse in it! He cleaned it (EW), and re-loaded it with fresh peanut butter; it now resides under the oven.
And now I'm supposed to go to sleep??
19 comments:
I am sorry to say that I know your pain! We had lots of mice in our house this past winter. It was awful. I felt like it was so DIRTY. We cleaned out the garage and found some carpet scraps where they had been hiding. We still killed about 10 of them in traps before they finally seemed to disappear. I hate when I find droppings in my house. Yuck. The worst is when they get the pb or chocolate off of the trap and get away. That makes me crazy. We started using scotch tape over the chocolate and that seems to get them b/c they have to work at it. Good luck with your trapping!
...and you're typing this on the very threshold of your kitchen. (with your legs curled up under you, no doubt.)
Jess -- I WISH with my legs tucked up under me! Sadly, they don't do that now...
Oh my goodness, how did this happen? Your kitchen is even upstairs, what in the world? Maybe the mouse was checking out your very clean and organized kitchen and longing for days of yore. Ha. I want to know why Jack didn't detect the mouse and either take care of it or alert you to it's presence. Isn't that one of his jobs?
I thought the same thing as Jessie- that you were at the computer right in the threshold!
We have had a mouse here and there since we have that big field behind our house and it is gross to me. I hate hearing the snap of the trap- hate emptying it and all that goes with it. Gag! Luckily it has been a looong time since we have had to do anything. So sorry Michelle!
My parents get mice in their house every winter. It's awful. One of the joys of living in an old house in the country, I guess.
I would completely freak out about it, too! So sorry.
YIKES! I wish I couldn't relate to you - but unfortunatly I had this experience last year! It was so disturbing to me to have a mouse in my kitchen! Luckily, we only had that one incident! Good luck and happy trapping!
I hate mice too. Nasty little vermin! I killed 7 in one week at our house, what joy it brought. Good luck!
Gross gross gross. Rodents of any kind freak me out.
Thank goodness you found it quickly and were able to have Marc get rid of it.
Oh no! I did have to laugh when you referred to "pedes" -- yes, those are quite disturbing!
We had a mouse in our kitchen 2 houses ago. So disturbing. I would sweep and wonder why there was burned rice under the stove. I finally clued in and was horrified. Good luck with the trapping! Keith tried glue traps, but it was so awful because sometimes they would still be alive on the trap. It's never good no matter what method you use! Sorry.
YUCK! Yuck! Yuck! Been there, done that!
They like peanut butter? I didn't know that. We had a little mouse once, it actually came out the top of the stove! and then it would hide behind the flour canisters and then would run back under the burners and behind the stove. We set traps and some of them were sticky ones, it was gross one morning to find only a hand there!!! just writing it is making me sick!!! Hope you get rid of them soon.
Petrified??! EW! Mice freak me out. Last summer I had one in the window well of my bedroom--and when I finally realized what was causing the scritch-scratchy sound at night, Mark was out of town! My Visiting Teacher came to the rescue, though she was soft-hearted and didn't want to kill it. She wanted to release it into the back yard. Now what is the sense in that, I ask? I agreed to put it in a box, but after she left I duck-taped the thing shut, put it inside a garbage bag, and took it to the park up the street to throw it away. That way, I figured, if it somehow managed not to suffocate and was able to gnaw its way out of the box, at least it would go to someone else's house! EW. I HATE MICE!
Ewww Michelle, I can totally understand! Last fall I found two baby mice on my upstairs landing, they came down from the attic stairs. I had to get rid of them because Ben was at work! Uggh! He set traps in the attic but never caught anything. Now I am hearing sounds in the wall behind my bed and I know it is mice, but we don't know how to get them! I hate mice!!
Good luck catching yours!
Okay, just the picture alone grossed me out! Ughh. I think I would have to stay at a hotel until it is caught. GOod luck getting rid of it!
YUCK! Between my spiders and your mice, we are quite a pair.
My college roommate, in her first NYC apartment, woke up with a mouse running across her HEAD in HER BED!!!!! AHHHHH. She has since moved.
Dead mice freak me out.
Mice are just wrong in my opinion. They creep me out. So sorry you have to think about that crazy rodent. Bleck!
Jeremy told me a funny mouse story last night. Somebody left a bag of trail mix in our car--my car!--when they took off up the trail of their backpaking trip last week. When they came back, somebody found the food and asked who had left a bag of raisins in the car--the mice had taken all of the nuts and left the raisins behind. And, the funny part is that they had deposited them into the nest they had built in the second car the group brought up. So gross. I'm going to have to give my car a good, thorough vacuuming!
oh my! too much to deal with! yay jill. (good thing it wasn't a spider!!)
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