The house sits vacant during the winter and when she returned it was, to put it delicately, gross. Full of mouse droppings, chewed everything, etc. A fair amount of items that were just put in closets rather than bins were chewed on.
OK, we get it. This happens. She hired a friend to do a deep clean before she moved back in, I arrived the same day she was moving back in after the cleaning. The house was relatively clean although the friend apparently didn't do a lot of moving things around. So I've spent parts of the last week cleaning more upstairs, since that is my territory. Cousin doesn't come up much as stairs aren't super easy for her and she doesn't really have a need to be up here.
[Visualize picture of dirty house here]
Five mice, that we know of. We didn't name them but the first night we got two in the traps we put out. The plastic "jaw" style traps, btw, don't actually kill bigger mice because the spring isn't strong enough. So I lay awake that morning for a while listening to the trapped mouse thrash itself around the room with a trap stuck to its head/shoulders.
Next day we got another. Watched the fourth run back and forth between the three traps in the living room three nights ago, but never stop to check them out, most likely cause we were there. Woke up to chewing noises from the closet outside my bedroom, noises which kept going on. So I got up with my flashlight and looked in the closet. Well, hello. After some silent communication (by the mouse, I talked to it cause I'm weird that way) it ran off down the hall.
Next night, two traps in the closet gained me another mouse. Thinking we're done at this point (if you're keeping score that's four) but reset all the traps just in case.
[Visualize picture of mouse in trap here]
Next night, mouse in closet by bedroom ignoring all the traps and all the yummy peanut butter and chewing on the inside of the door. I wake up, open the door, and eventually she runs off down the hall (I say she because she won't be quiet and let me sleep so that makes sense to me).
New theory. When that door is shut they can't get out of that closet, so she's chewing her way out. Leave door propped open. Boom. Got a mouse. Except that it doesn't kill her so I wake up to the sound of her thrashing around with the trap stuck to her head. Get up, grab flashlight, pick up trap (and attached mouse) and deposit into garbage can in other room that is full of paper and stuff. Back to bed and slept the sleep of the righteous.
[Visualize picture of the last (hopefully) mouse in a trap]
Today's plan is to clean and rebait all the traps with more yummy peanut butter, but I think we may, for now, have them all. The only unfortunate part of this is that she will be going back to the Philippines at the end of October and the mice will have five months to reestablish themselves. Sadly. I'll be recommending poison bait traps in every room, several of them.
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