A Mouse In The House; Or, Why I’m Leaving Soon
Last night I was reading, trying to fall asleep. Daniel had long since entered Snoozeville, and it was only ten o’clock. I keep a stack of crossword puzzles between my bed and my nightstand as my go-to insomnia cure, but I try to save them for “special” occasions and I’m not that desperate for sleep–yet. So I’m reading along, and I hear paper rustling. I am not turning pages, nor is Bad Hand causing the book to shake. But I try to convince it’s not big deal and continue reading.
Then, what do I see out of the corner of my eye but a Dark Thing scurrying around my room at the speed of light! My only logical response is that it must be a poisonous spider, and it is now fully justified to scream, since waking Daniel up is really only accomplished by high-pitched noises.
When he comes to, I don’t think he believes me, as there’s an absence of Dark Thing in the room by this time. Then he says, “No, it’s not a spider, it’s a mouse,” and points to the mouse tail now sticking out from under the bedroom door.
I am slightly paranoid about mice. Not because I am scared of them, as they are not in and of themselves poisonous, and thus not scare-worthy. I am paranoid of a little thing called HANTA. As in HANTAVIRUS.
Do not tell me how low the risks of hantavirus are. I do not care, and it will serve only to infuriate me. When I say HANTA I am referring to any of the myriad diseases mice carry. Mice are great and all, but they are NOT ALLOWED in my house.
Daniel set traps, baited with peanut butter. This morning the trap was empty. Today I have cleaned all my floors, which burst my buttons because I just vacuumed a few days ago and I hate to mop. But it must be done, because I will not allow HANTA to thrive in my house. If it means cleaning the floors each day, so be it. Though I am less than thrilled.
Please tell me anything you know about mice, their capture, and why they would dare come into a lit room as early as ten o’clock. Aren’t they supposed to be nocturnal?
It’s a good thing I leave for NCTE/ALAN on Saturday morning. I will be in Philadelphia, chatting with today’s best and brightest YA writers, English teachers, and YA literature academics. My idea of heaven. Anybody else going to be there?
I pledge not to ruin my trip with HANTA-related thoughts.
November 19th, 2009 at 4:27 pm
AAAAACL! Whoops, that was meant to say, AAAACK!
I swear, I think I have a great, clean house, and then the second I see a mouse, I think we’re living in a trash heap. That’s what happened when we first moved into this house.
I called a pest guy, and he set up traps that were child-friendly, and he said the mouse would eat the poison and then take it back to its nest to share with the others, and then we’d just have a bad smell for a week.
He was exactly right. A few days later, there was a horrible odor coming from inside the wall of our closet. But then it went away after a few days. No more mice. I guess they decompose quickly.
Have a fab trip to PA.
November 19th, 2009 at 6:48 pm
Eww…That gives me the heebie jeebies just thinking about it. Eww.
November 20th, 2009 at 10:24 am
Yikes, in your room?? Those little creeps can get inside anything. My mom once opened a basement window, and there was a dead, flat mouse inside the window track. As in, between the wall and where the window pane was before she opened it. How do they DO that? Good luck catching the little beast.
November 20th, 2009 at 11:53 am
Ew…I am so sorry! I hate those nasty little things too. Tell Dan to call some of his best pals and go on a scavenger hunt while you’re gone. It’ll be like a male-bonding type thing. Or call a pest guy. Yuck. I hate all creepy crawly things. Have a great trip and DO NOT think about HANTA.
November 23rd, 2009 at 9:26 am
I’m thinking you need two cats. (Not one, but two.) Just let me know when you get home, and I will bring them over.
December 7th, 2009 at 2:00 pm
My innocence was shattered when an exterminator kindly pointed out that it’s not like mice are potty or litter box trained. That means constant stream of urine over things. UGGG!! or UGH? (Since we are into correct spelling of exclamations as befits an author’s site.) I have found that flinging knives involuntarily and (yes) jumping on chairs are highly effective coping strategies.
December 25th, 2009 at 9:27 pm
I had a big problem with my house and little mice friends. I found a product called Havoc, it was at Cal Ranch, and it has worked wonders! You put it out, where children and other animals, cannot get to it, and it will kill the little mice. I also got several nice traps that are child friendly. But the thing that seemed to work the best was Victor mouse traps from Walmart, smoothered in peanut butter. Whatever you put out, put it next to a wall. Inbetween a wall and a dresser or something like that. From what I have learned, they run along walls, using their little wiskers to direct them. Use steel wool to plug holes that you find, the size of a pencil eraser is how small they can still get through.
Good luck. And if all else fails, screaming and jumping on something tall always works.
January 6th, 2010 at 12:57 pm
Everyone, THANK YOU for the support on ridding my house of mice. For now, all seems well. We have sprinkled poison all about our basement (good thing we don’t have kids or pets) and I think that’s worked. And I never even noticed a smell. Oh, poor olfactory sense, you come in handy yet again.