My dining room has a little sitting area, and I was sitting there the other night in a big comfy upholstered chair. The light was off in the main part of the dining room, and suddenly out of the corner of my eye I saw a dark flash run by on the floor. It was either a mouse or a spider that was so large and fast that I'd have to move and burn the house down.
I went into full wartime mode and tried to hunt it down, but it disappeared. My concern was that when I saw it, it was headed directly for a large floor vent and that's the only place it could have gone.
I told the wife, but there was little we could do without knowing what type of Predator had invaded our world.
Well, tonight the wife was sitting in a different chair in the sitting area, and suddenly a mouse flashed by on the floor. She sounded the alarm and we went into high alert. She said that it had run underneath the large comfy upholstered chair. I got my bazooka and a bayonet and looked under the chair and once again the mouse was nowhere to be found.
She had been watching the whole time and said that it didn't come out from under the chair, so with great trepidation I drew a conclusion. If it didn't leave and it's not under the chair, then...
I flipped the chair on its side, and sure enough there were three holes that were chewed into the bottom of the lining.
It's in the chair! The call is coming from the chair!
We immediately dragged the chair out onto the back porch, despite the fact that it's an expensive chair and it's snowing and Von Miller lives in our city.
So what do I do now? We've got a mouse living in our chair, and we can't guarantee that it's one mouse. It's possible that there's a different mouse living in the ductwork and we can't guarantee that it's one mouse. But then again, all of this could just be one mouse. It's been warm and just got cold, so it's possible that an outside mouse somehow got in temporarily.
How do you get mice out of a house, and how do you get mice out of a chair? This is not the type of chair that you just throw away. This chair is the chair of royalty. I've called an exterminator, but is there anything else I can do?
The thing that worries me is that I saw a mouse last year in our kitchen. We bought a bunch of traps and put them out, but never caught anything. However, we never saw any mice other than the one time. But now I'm wondering if the mouse/mice has been in our house the whole time, watching us and waiting for its chance to attack. [Reply]
Originally Posted by PHOG:
Interesting. I know the peanut butter is next to irresistible to them, and with the M&M topper, it would put it over the, well, top.
Originally Posted by TribalElder:
Adopt a cat from one of your local kill shelters
once you save its life it will then owe you eternally for the other 8 lives
have the cat kill all of the mice before you feed it
or you could try mouse traps
firing a small shotgun indoors might be ok
Interesting factoid.
The cat doesn't even need to kill them all. Once you've had cats long enough, the mice can smell them. We haven't had a mouse anywhere in the house, garage, or attic since we've had indoor cats and the cats don't go in the garage or attic. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Rain Man:
Cats are more cuddly, but a snake could better navigate the duct system. I'll have to think about this.
Go with the snakes, and once they wipe out the lesser snakes, then go get bigger and meaner snakes to go take out those snakes... thats what I'd do, FWIW [Reply]
Originally Posted by prhom:
I like the regular traps, only with gummy bears or any other kind of gummy candy wedges firmly into the bait holder.
I’d advise against cats. I have one that was feral as a kitten. I figured she would be good at catching mice because of that wild start to life. I had her in my camper trailer one time and walked in from outside to find her playing with a mouse rather than taking care of it. The mouse ran towards me and I flipped it outside with my foot. Stupid cat!
They always toy with the mouse before killing it. Cats are assholes like that. I still love them. [Reply]
Originally Posted by srvy:
At nighttime turn on all lights and walk the perimeter of the house. Look for light coming trough gaps under doors even the smallest gap a mouse can get under. In the house inspect along walls for holes and gaps and droppings. Fills those temporary with steel wool they cant chew through it.
The best traps are the old victory wood spring traps. But they can be a bitch to set. I have tried many the plastic quick set traps but they are fragile. They even say that are one time use. The best of these I have found are the Tom Cat brand as I can reuse four to five times before the plastic trigger breaks.
Something like this trap. Or even the original old fashioned wooden ones.
Bait it with chocolate. They can't resist chocolate. Take a milk chocolate chip and melt it in the microwave for 20-25 seconds. Just long enough where you can take a toothpick while it is still partially melted and place it on the baiting mechanism. It'll glue itself to the trap.
A stealthy mouse will lick peanut butter off a trap but they have to work at a glued on piece of chocolate. SNAP. [Reply]
Try Mouse-X; it's a bait that's non toxic so any mice that eat it and die won't kill the next critter to eat it. Mice like it so well that they ate thru the bag and helped themselves in the drawer where I had it stored.
Watch some mousetrap monday on youtube for other ideas.
For mice that are tough to catch, bait the trap and don't set it. Leave it out for a few days and then re-bait and set it again. The mice get comfortable with the trap and when they come for a free meal...SNAP! [Reply]
Originally Posted by Easy 6:
Go with the snakes, and once they wipe out the lesser snakes, then go get bigger and meaner snakes to go take out those snakes... thats what I'd do, FWIW
Snake kills mouse, mongoose kills snake, leopard or jackal to take down the mongoose. After that you will need a high power rifle. [Reply]
