We set the traps on a Saturday night. When Ed woke up on Sunday morning they were both still empty so he continued on, made coffee and turned the computer on to check his email. A short time later he is just sitting down with his first cup of coffee when he hears the snap, we have killed our first mouse. When I wake up and he tells me about it I have mixed feelings - I am glad that one is dead because they were really ticking me off but I also feel guilty about having been involved in killing something and being happy about it on top of that. After that we have a quiet Sunday.
Monday morning - Ed is getting ready for work when he hears the first snap he gives it a few minutes to make sure it is dead and in that time he hears the second snap. When he goes to empty the traps he startles the mouse that is eating the cheese off of the trap with the dead mouse in it - apparently these creatures have very little remorse. So he resets the traps and goes back to what he was doing and he hears yet another snap - that mouse really liked that cheese. That evening we are putting Audrey to bed when we hear the final snap of Monday.
Tuesday morning the traps are empty. Wednesday morning we find one more in the trap. Thursday, Friday, Saturday all no mice. So by Sunday we had stopped checking the traps and when we got home from grocery shopping and I was putting the food away it was rather startling to see a dead mouse in the trap on the pantry floor.
On Monday I started cleaning up the mice's favorite areas in the hopes that they were all gone and even if they weren't that would be a good way to tell if there were any more mice - since dead mice don't poop. By Wednesday I was noticing little poops in the pantry again. By Thursday I was noticing little diggings in my plants.
That was last week, and as of right now we have still not gotten any more mice, but this morning I found that two of my plants had been dug into so thouroughly that I could see the bottom of the pots. This is not acceptable - Ed can tell you that the one thing you do not do is mess with my plants they are the one thing I have left - I have given up on art due to lack of time and space, there are friends I haven't seen in months since I have no social life, most of the music I listen to these days are sung by Sesame Street characters, I haven't read a book or gone out to the movies in almost 2 years, and I no longer have the time to bake bread, and since we have no yard I can't garden so my plants are the one thing I have left that are solely mine, they are my stability. When the racoon got into them out on the deck this summer it was okay since it only happened once and I understood that this was just a case of an animal exploring it's environment. But having to wake up every morning to my indoor plants being violated is just too personal. I have lost all my guilt about killing them, I think it is time to try new bait or move the trap.
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But that was when the invasion started. Mouse poop on the counters, mouse poop in the drawers, mouse poop on the broom closet floor, mouse poop everywhere.
So out came the traps. The first day we caught 7 - two in one trap. Then for a couple days we woke to traps licked clean of peanut butter. Learned to stick the peanut butter on real good! Got a few more here and there.
Then it was every time you entered the kitchen, they scattered.
Then they started standing there sticking their little tongues out, wiggling their butts and going nyah nyah nyah!!!!
I have never resorted to the next step before - De-con. But it works!!!
Haven't found any new mouse poop for about a week. But we went through about 6 of those little packets on the counter to get to this point.
But yesterday I found mouse poop in the computer room - and a nest under a washcloth on the bathroom counter - and there is a strange gnawing sound coming from my closet.
OH NO! They've just moved out of the kitchen. Time for more De-con in new places.
Maybe time to visit the pound and get another cat!!!
But I won't use De-con anymore if I do that.
Sharon - I am holding poison for the last possible option since I have a toddler who likes to investigate everything, though luckily she doesn't like putting things in her mouth, but so far the snap traps are working since we no longer chase them around the kitchen - though like you I heard some scratching in my bedroom the other night.
Kori - I am truly torn between wanting to know that story and really not wanting to know that story.