Mice

Subject: Re: Less painful alternative

bluedove wrote: The one mouse we had here was actually sitting in his food dish, and he just sat across the kitchen and meowed pitifully, like "Why are you letting that thing eat my FOOD?"

That's great. How obvious does it have to get? Is your cat waiting for an engraved invitation to the "eating a mouse" party?

every fall we get a mouse invasion. the only way to stop it is to seal every little crack and crevice in your home. i use this spray foam stuff that you can buy at the hardware store on flatbush and st. marks.

i thought that this year my apartment was finally mouseproof, but we got our annual rodental visitation a few weeks ago. how did they get in? when i was on a ladder replacing a light fixture in the ceiling, one of those round white globe things that were popular in the early 70s, i found a few mouse dropping stuck to the top of the globe, and when i looked up there was a tiny crack in the ceiling next to the light fixture. so the mice must have been air dropping into the apartment from the floor above. clever little beasts!

parrothead wrote: I know I am at wits end with a mouse and the little bugga just ate cheese off the trap in broad daylight!!!!

Thankfully I did not see it and my partner offered me $50 everytime there is a sighting!

excuse me, i said $20, not $50.

I second Back to The Land.
As for glue traps... While living in my first Bklyn apt, my Mom was visiting during a mice outbreak. She set up a glue trap. To my absolute horror, I found three baby mice stuck to the thing the next day. In tears, I tried to get their tiny feet unstuck. It was horrible. I ended up throwing the lot, with their broken legs, into the street. I couldn't deal.
Now I have cats. Sure, they leave the dead mouse at my feet after they've played with it to death, but at least they're not left to suffer for days. Just an hour or two of suffering for them, grade A entertainment for the pusses.

we had a visit from mickey last year. he was really into stealing sunflower seeds from our birds. so we baited a bunch of no kill traps (availiable at pintchik, for those of you who hate the thought of having either a kill on your karma or a dead thing in your house) with sunflower seeds, disposed of the birds food before going to bed, and sure enough, mickey was caught that night. greedy little bastard. the trap was heavy, so we knew he was in there. i would have just thrown mick out in the garbage which was going to be taken away the next day (let staten island have him) but the boy insisted that he get released "so at least he has a chance." and he brought mickey to mount prospect park. it was the middle of winter, i know mickey didn't survive, you know mickey didn't survive...but don't tell that to my boyfriend.

lirio wrote: my apartment is like crack heaven

Oh, really? :idea: :twisted: :idea:

Once, when I lived in Manhattan, a big rat died in our entryway. I wouldn't touch it, but my roommate (still in her suit after work, mind you), picked it up by its tail using a Circuit City circular, and carried it out to the municipal trashcan on the corner. The weird thing is, I was watching all this from the window, and nobody even gave her a second glance. And it was a BIG effing rat. :shock:

Okay, I'm sincerely thinking of renting out my cats.
"Mookie & Bobo's Mouse Be Gone!"
$10 per hour, or $150 for 24 hours. Food & kitty litter included.
These are two tough brothers, born in the wild back yard of Sterling & St. Johns between Washington & Underhill. Abandoned by their mother upon birth on a cruel winter's night - their three siblings couldn't rough out the freezing cold & snow. Left to fend for themselves until a kindly woman took them in and now they are two fat posh house cats who still enjoy catching the occasional mouse, bird or giant cockroach.

Oops, that was me, mc.
To prove it, I just had to remove Bobo from my keyboard.

Steve Austin wrote: If you know or suspect where the mice are coming from, stuff steel wool in the space. I have done it and it works.

Agreed. If you want it to look nice afterward, spackle over it. The gap-filling foam recommended by someone above may work, but mice may actually eat some brands of the stuff. They will never eat steel wool.

Did anyone else think, when reading the original post, that the mouse jumped up on the bed and screamed like a little girl? That would be so cool.

No mice suggestions. Haven't had them, but have always had cats.

I plug up holes with steel wool and plaster mixed with ground glass. Unless you have cats in the house I'm not sure anything will keep them out unless you apartment is hermetically sealed. If you think you have it bad now btw wait until they start digging for foundations for the Ratner center. All those vermin living underground will be looking for new digs. Get your welcome mats ready!

Subject: Re: Mice

lirio wrote: What do you do about mice? Ever since I moved back to the city, I've been waiting to see my first roach and instead I saw a mouse today. Squealed like a little girl and jumped on my bed, phone in hand to call the property manager. He said someone would come tomorrow to put down a glue trap but that I'd have to remove the mouse myself. Called my dad and he said I should go buy them myself tonight. Or get a cat! Sorry to be all girlie and shit but I can't pick up a dead animal. I can barely crush bugs beneath wads and wads of tissues. Yuck.

Glue traps are traumatic. I came home once and when I walked in, I heard high-pitched screaming coming from my stove. I lifted the top off and found an ancient glue trap with two mice fused to it. One of them had chewed one of it's limbs off. It was highly disturbing. I didn't really want to kill them, just get rid of them. Separating them from the trap would've ripped them in half, so after reenacting that scene from Silence of the Lambs where Buffalo Bill does the whole lotion in the basket and screams along with the girl (had to do it), I regrettably killed them by breaking their necks. I figured they'd suffered enough.

After that fiasco, I went to the hardware store and got this spray can of foam sealant. You spray it into cracks and it fills, sets and hardens in it. I went all over my apartment, sealing every single crack, making sure to hit areas like the cracks where the pipes come in and where the gas pipe for the stove is. That was something like 5 months ago and I haven't seen a mouse since, nor a cockroach (I have a neighbor underneath me who's disgusting and his massive roach infestation was filtering up into my apt.). I'd suggest giving that try because it seems to work well for me.