The Battle

There are so many beautiful and wonderful photos and poems being posted and written in the blogging world and here I am going against my grain showing another side. It is a 'necessary evil' to kill the tiny invaders but it is also important for me to fight this small battle against those little ones.

So far the Victor traps have very humanely ended the natural activity in the surrounding landscape of my abode. The count is climbing as is the purchase of new traps as they are activated and then deposited directly into the trash can.  

So far the mouse count is 2 inside, 4 outside plus 1 vole outside. Now if there were a humane way to discourage the little busy invasive red squirrels I might try it. They seem to have multiplied over the past few years and appear quickly and often. Oh well, I'd better leave that thought. So far they haven't destroyed my stuff but I do know of others who have been invaded and taken over by them in their outbuildings. 

Warning, the picture I took this morning might be disturbing to some. It felt no pain, believe me!

Get Real

Stop reading right now if you don't know that we kill mice that trespass and intrude and cause damage to our property. Do you know that there are many diseases mice carry that may be transmitted to humans or pets? ...that they can squeeze themselves into your home through a very small crack or gap?

I mentioned in yesterday's story about mouse #5 being trapped and the trap reset. It is a fact of life here that the mice invade our homes at this time of year. We kill them. Several years ago they got into the cabin when we were in SC and stored and hoarded the pellets that were left for them in my printer and completely ruined it with their body wastes. Another time we returned late at night from SC only to find that they had invaded all of my kitchen cupboards at floor level and dirtied every single bowl, pot, pan, utensil and shelf. I went to war because, later on I found that my linen closet had been invaded and many materials destroyed. We did find their main entry hole in a bottom log crack and plugged it well. We don't go south now and are here so the control is easier. A single trap placed outside by the back door is the most efficient method. Peanut butter is the bait we use. 

We also have glueboards on the floor in the closets to help with spider and millipedes - not mice. We don't check it often. This morning one of the boards was out of the closet (the bottom of doors don't reach the floor and there is about a one inch gap) and in the room by the door. A very newly expired mouse was there! Now we have to search for another entry. Maybe since we no longer have our dog, the regular snap traps will be used. I really don't like to think of the struggle it went through to free itself before dying. Of course, we could always get a cat!

Previous Story

Old Pal..

We have a Rat Terrier and he didn't do his job! "Pal" is 16 years old and deaf. His energy is high when outdoors, but he sleeps for hours and hours on "his" couch in the living room. He tells us when it it time to eat by waking up and staring. He wanders back and forth from the Mister to the back door when his out time is pushing. BUT, he is not doing his job. He is not finding the critters outdoors, both above and underground, that he is bred to locate and remove. If one were indoors he would ferret it out as he did when we had an invasion of mice so many years ago. 

It was a big surprise to find this critter in the MOUSE trap that is set by the back door, behind a step stool so the terrier wouldn't set it off. It is a FIRST. We have not ever caught one before. There is absolutely nothing, nothing at all around the cabin that we know of, that would attract these. We don't have a compost pile. We don't throw peelings or anything out on the ground.  Maybe he was looking for a warm winter shelter? We missed his demise by minutes as this picture is NOT altered. 

The poop scoop, formerly an old coal scoop, measures 4 inches across by 7 inches long, not including handle.  We wonder where all the feral cats that live in the woodlands here were, when this guy was wandering through. 

Back Door Visitor

6:30PM and the trap went off again!

This time I was cooking supper but took a breather to get his picture. They will try ANY WAY to get in here. There will be NO mouses in my house this season!

Victory Again...Different

click on photo to view larger

A vole is a small rodent resembling a mouse but with a stouter body, a shorter, hairy tail, a slightly rounder head, smaller ears and eyes, and differently formed molars. There are approximately 155 species of voles. Wikipedia

If you would like to know more about them please go to this link that is a very good site for information.

http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7439.html

Victory!

Click on photos to view larger.

We do it the old-fashioned way. They are vermin! As I write this, I know that several more are surrounding my home looking for an entrance.  They carry disease.  They dirty everything they travel over. They scurry along baseboards, sticking to the walls, hunting for something to chew. They even can chew through plastic water pipes. Yes, they can. That happened to a neighbor. Mice can chew electric cords and cause fires. They can bury their seeds in vehicle's innards and clog up the heater, air conditioner, and other parts. They will hoard the little green poison pellets, if you use this method of control. They can hoard a considerable heap in your printer and kill it. Ask me. I know. They aren't just pesky, they are dangerous.

Of course, there are many ways to kill them. We don't believe in the "humane" trapping systems. A quick snap of the neck does the job and they never know what hit. Peanut butter is our bait of choice.

Each year our dog alerts to their attempts to enter this old cabin. He sniffs, sniffs, sniffs at the door or wall and won't stop. After all, he's a Rat Terrier and they are very good at what they do. They are very capable of hunting rodents above and below ground. He once sniffed one out that had been hiding behind our couch and, when it ran across the room, he caught it! How proud he was.

I will rest well after the traps come up empty for several days in a row.