Thursday, October 14, 2004

Big pile of mouse dung

That's what the Pro-Tech guy found in the corner of the basement. A big pile of mouse dung. I thought it was wood rot.
This Summer we got a mouse problem. The last straw occurred last week when I went in the kitchen, turned on the light and saw 2 mice scurry into the stove. That and the ever increasing mouse evidence I see in the kitchen. Absolutely unacceptable. That's and my traps don't seem to be working. Darned things have eaten the peanut butter off the traps without getting snapped. There is a glue trap that keeps moving to various spots under the fridge. Time to call the professionals.
The guy came out yesterday and looked in the basement and the first level. He did ask about the top level but didn't venture there. There is evidence of mouse invasion up there too. I had a bar of Ivory soap under my bed, 1/2 eaten. Unacceptable.
Sitting down to tell me about the different packages and what the company does to deal with my mice problem the guy decided to try humor. He said the initial job is $2,800. As I mentioned before in a previous post, thousand is a very bad word in my house. I reacted by arching my eyebrow. He tried to explain his joke and I explained that "thousand" is verboten. The actual price is $280something with followups being $80some odd dollars every quarter.
Not only will he deal with the mice, he said they deal with spiders and other bugs. I have no real problem with the spiders in the house, provided they stay in the basement, and out of my way. I've been lucky in that I rarely see bugs in the house.
Anyway, they worked miracles in M&K's house where there were rats and many roaches. I hope they can get rid of our mice, so there will be no more huge piles of mouse dung.

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3 Comments:

At 10/14/2004 9:52 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

No judgements here, but my senior thesis in environmental education was to do a talk on 'urban wildlife' - the wonders of nature around us in the city. I talked about silverfish, cockroaches, chimney swifts, possum, raccoons, etc. After I finished, I realized I was basically doing PR for exterminators, but it was a fun presentation.

ANYWAY, an ounce of prevention is best in this case: keep trash covered & sealed, food in containers, counters wiped clean every day, and ovens free of food. A big one is also standing water...keep dishes in the sink free of that. Also, put the oven on the super-hot cycle for an hour, which will render the food within inedible (totally carbonized) to the mice.
You may kill the mice too, if you wish. - Jimbo

 
At 10/14/2004 10:06 AM, Blogger Mari said...

I will pass this along to my roommate, as we both have bad habits.
Of course, explain the 1/2 eaten bar of soap. Why the heck would a mouse eat soap? Soap!

 
At 10/14/2004 10:42 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

The soap is a new one. Perhaps your mice are self-flagellating Catholic mice, and are washing out their own foul mouths because they swear too much? "Damn! Mac and Cheese again? Don't these humans ever eat anything else? Oh no! I swore!" Perhaps they are churchmice?
- jimbo

 

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