i keep my trash under my kitchen sink. lots of people do. one nice sunday in august, i came home from church and opened the cabinet under my sink to throw something away. it was then i noticed small, rice sized brown pellets.
and i nearly had an out of body experience.
mice.
after yelling, "hantavirus, hantavirus!", i grabbed a bottle of clorox cleaner and sprayed the heck out of the area before closing it back up. denial? maybe. but it was also sunday and i didn't have the tools nor the emotional capacity to deal with it right then. i called my mom and asked her to come over the next night to be my support team. and then i left. at least for a couple of hours. cuz i sure wasn't going to hang out while rodents ran wild under my kitchen sink.
the next night, my mom and i went to the dollar store and gathered up some equipment. rubber gloves, check. long rubber gloves to wear over the smaller rubber gloves so there is double protection, check. plastic sheet to pull everything out of the cabinet and set it down, check. traps, check. peanut butter for traps, check. a large bottle of clorox and some clorox wipes to supplement the clorox spray, check.
i rounded up some old clothes destined for D.I. and we both changed into mouse-catching uniforms. sporting old tennis shoes (in case one comes out and runs across my feet) and 2 gloves on each hand, i went in. i had a plastic bin which i filled with 3/4 bleach and 1/4 water. i soaked all of my bottles from under the sink. because one can never be too careful with mice and one can never have too much bleach in these types of situations. i hate mice. hantavirus. disgusting.
after we pulled everything out and i disinfected and disinfected again (and threw a significant amount of things away), i sealed the openings under the sink and we set the traps.
let me just say that if you ever have this problem and the idea pops into your head to use dollar store traps, don't give in. we loaded the traps with peanut butter and put 4 outside in the garage (where i think the little buggers were getting in) and 4 under the sink.
a few days go by.
nothing.
although i don't expect that the traps under the sink will catch anything, as i have sealed all of the openings.
a few more go by and i look outside at the traps. nothing has been triggered, but sure enough, the peanut butter has been nibbled away. on 2 of the traps!! ew. its so violating to know that the little buggers have been there and i didn't catch anything. which means they are still alive and roaming around. somewhere.
what now? i call for reinforcements.
1st on the list is erin. her husband chaz knows how to catch mice. she said they had a lot of them at one time in their attic. he told me to tie yarn to the trigger and get the peanut butter all up in it so they had to really work to the the stuff out. sounds good. i set the traps again, this time with yarn.
a few more days go by.
nothing is triggered but the peanut butter is gone again. the traps? they went into the trash. (not because the yarn suggestion was bad, but because the dollar store is no place to provide you with effective mouse-trapping equipment).
my brother suggested i get the d-con traps that twist shut when a mouse runs in so you don't ever have to see it. who knew? that's the best idea i've heard yet, so of course i buy 6. 3 for outside and 3 for inside.
a few more days go by. and still nothing. AND i'm dying because i'm not naive enough to believe they have packed up shop and moved on. i know they are still roaming around somewhere on the premises.
then one morning, i came down and one of the traps in the kitchen was twisted closed. one mouse caught. hey, to me, it's a victory and i'll take it. i figure that where there is one mouse, there are at least 6 more... so off to home depot i go. one of the guys there told me not to get the sticky traps because the mice get caught on them and are still alive. he said he caught one but because the mouse kept lifting itself off the sticky paper to try and get free, all it was doing was ripping it's hair off. oh man. i'm not in this for the torture. just want the things to find somewhere else to live. i opted out of the sticky traps. another guy at home depot shows me a plastic trap that resembles the traditional wooden variety. only this plastic trap has a small well in the center to put the peanut butter, meaning that if the mouse wants a taste, it will HAVE to come in contact with the trigger plate. and let's just say that this thing has super power sensitivity... i thought i would test it with one of my gloved fingers just to make sure. i couldn't get my hand out of there fast enough and it got me. barely, but it did rip a nice sized hole in the glove.
i set 4 of those out in the garage with peanut butter AND nutella since they are supposed to like nutty stuff and i figure, who doesn't like peanut butter and chocolate? besides, since they have already licked the peanut butter off TWICE, i'm starting to think that my house is the new hantavirus hotel with a free breakfast buffet. so why not play it up to lure them in.
but, as it turns out, i have only caught that one. the traps are STILL set and ready to go.
just in case....
as for the trash? i purchased a can with a self closing lid and removed the temptation from under the sink, but still....
