How we treat animals says a lot about a person. Would you kill a mouse you found in the pantry? What about in the silverware drawer? So it is the year of the mice in our part of the country. Apparently they have invaded many of my neighbors and even the elementary school.
Well, my dear hubby saw one in the pantry and while I was away from home he unearthed the nest and found three smallish house mice in a box. He then trapped them and put them in the bathtub. Don't ask me why.(I was out of town remember.) The children saw the mice and fell in love. Cries of "don't kill it, Daddy." rang through the phone as he announced that he had caught the culprits. Since then there have been two more live catches and two mishaps where the mice literally got scared to death.
5 mice have been released in fields anywhere from 5 to 10 miles from my house in the last 3 weeks. What does that say about us? Too lenient or just animal lovers? We do have a dog. She is useless at catching mice.
What would you do? Kill it? Poison it? Or catch it and drive it 10 miles from your house to release it in a field somewhere?
FYI one happy mouse couple can have 100 babies in one year. And apparently mice have a natural aversion to mint. (who knew?)
Death to all rodents. They are fine in the wild, they do not belong in my house. Horrible nasty things.
ReplyDeleteI do not like pests or vermin of any kind in my home, however, it makes me squeamish to kill just about anything, so I'd probably ask hubby to set it loose outside.
ReplyDeleteI do not do the actual killing--I married the right man for the job for that issue.
ReplyDeleteKill them. Set traps. Eradicate them from my living space.
ReplyDeleteDon't get me wrong. I love animals of all kinds. I grew up in a veritable zoo including (but not limited to) snakes, parakeets, turtles, gerbils, dogs and cats. But those animals all had their proper living quarters and didn't have the nasty habit of sharing their diseases with me.
Whether we like it or not, no matter how cute the mouse is, it's probably having more babies than you can count and leaving it's droppings and urine in more places than you want to know. You will never get rid of them unless you go to the mattresses.
p.s. Mice have no sense of personal space. They will crawl all over your face while you're sleeping.
And thank you Arlene for giving me nightmares. Crawling over my face--DISGUSTING!
ReplyDelete"Unless you go to the matresses" does that mean burn your mattress or go for the fight and take em down?
Both, if necessary. :)
ReplyDeleteSorry to give you nightmares, DJ, but why mince words? We actually had to take care of a pretty bad mice problem in our garage a couple of years ago. They were EVERYWHERE! I took the kids to Utah for a couple of weeks and Scott removed EVERYTHING from the garage and essentially sprayed it down with bleach and plugged up the holes. Not a fun experience, but I'm so glad they hadn't invaded our house yet. As a side note, we have two dogs who ARE good mousers and I'm crediting them with keeping the mice out for as long as they did. :)
I believe I asked this question two years ago:
ReplyDeletehttp://onagrahampage.blogspot.com/2009/01/man-versus-varmint.html
and answered it:
http://onagrahampage.blogspot.com/2009/01/varmint-7-roommates-infinity.html
I'm glad you guys keep up the good fight :-)
Studies have been done of some mammals (bears come to mind specifically) that, when relocated many miles and natural obstacles away from an undesirable spot (a town, etc.), they move heaven and earth to get back to their original "home." (Think Fievel.)
ReplyDeletePersonally, I consider some vermin necessary to euthanize.
So, I didn't want to share this story, but Arlene's made me think I do want to share:
ReplyDeleteWe had mice in our shed. Steve had emptied it and was spraying it out when little naked baby mice came bubbling up through a hole in the floor. Steve would scoop em up, throw them against the wall the stun them, and then smash them with a shovel.
I couldn't touch him for a few days cause of the death on his hands (not that I was opposed--but the death was still there). My skin crawls even now just thinking about it.
Graham I am SOOOOOOO mad at you. You have ruined my precarious balance today. I read your first post and enjoyed it, though I did have to scroll down to hide that thing with large ears. Then, happily, I link to the next post and now my day is shattered. That is horrible. I cannot even think happy thoughts now that I have seen that picure. I may kick you in the shins the next time I see you. I'm just sayin'.
ReplyDeleteWow! When we found little, hairless baby mice we just put them in the dumpster. I couldn't bare to do the actual killing. :/
ReplyDelete