Well, these super mice would lick the peanut butter, cheese, etc. clean most nights and never get caught. Jared then went and bought those sticky traps-these also seemed to feed the mice every night and only catch paw prints. We were getting pretty discouraged and the furthest we got was injuring two mice, as the traps would be sprung with blood sprayed around them, but still no mice. I was sanitizing my counter night and morning because I didn't want them to find any scraps of food at night, and because I was completely grossed out at the thought of them running all over my kitchen! They were consistently leaving urine and about 6 droppings most nights. I don't even want to tell you what they did when we were out of town for labor day! Yuck! Let's just say they made themselves at home...
At this point we called the landlord and told her the dilemma. She said that the neighboring unit had an issue recently and that our house would qualify under the warranty so she would send the exterminator over. The first day he came, he looked at the droppings I had put in the trash and told me "That's your problem, Lady...You don't have mice, you have Rats!" I was totally disgusted even after he tried to reassure me by saying "That's good news because then you probably only have 1 or 2 rats rather than a family of mice with all those droppings." Good News! Was he kidding?
The main issue was that we had trained the rats to be "trap shy" by feeding them and injuring them so then we couldn't do anything. I mean I had to let them take run over my kitchen for a week and we are finally now getting to the point where we are allowed to put out traps again disguised under a pile of shredded newspaper and see where it takes us. So just to warn everyone, if you have "mouse" droppings you may want to double check that they are REALLY mouse droppings, and if you are trying to catch a rat, get a RAT trap. See picture-You will notice the traditional mouse trap alongside a rat trap. I found it a little comical. It is basically just a mouse trap on steroids. Jared showed the girls a demo (with a stick) of how they can injure you so they would get scared and hopefully never play around the traps...Wish us luck as we continue our rat war this week!
Grossed out for you! We've got black widows you've got rats. When we had mice (it might be different) we only put the traps out at night after the kids were in bed so there'd be no chance of them breaking a finger. Also you can read tips online about the best places to put them and how to position them. Good Luck!!
ReplyDeleteOh, also go make Jared check the traps in the morning before you get up because you don't want to see a smashed rat in a trap believe me.
Okay Cait that is totally disgusting!!! In fact, I had a hard time not gagging while reading your post. My mom would DIE if she read this... her worst nightmare is mice/rats. I sure hope you catch them soon. I'm not gonna lie, I think I'd have mine and my kids bags packed and we'd be staying in a hotel until those creatures were found! Good luck to you and your rat hunt! You'll have to update us when you catch them.
ReplyDeleteoh man that is terrible! rats! not even mice! Both are bad but i think rats could just be a bit worse. ick. ugh. i hope you get rid of them very very soon!
ReplyDeleteGoodness gracious! You poor, poor mama. We've never had rats, but frequently have mice problems in our forest house in Sweden. At night we hear them scratching their way up inside our walls, and then Bjarni set traps with sesame seeds (something about them being slippery so the mice have to really work to get them out) and I'd almost be in tears waking up to the sound of one going off and then a little mouse squeaking to its slow death. I make Bjarni get up, no matter what hour, and 'handle' the situation. Thank goodness he's such a sport about it.
ReplyDeleteThose traps look nasty! Get 'em good, Roadkill Roasters! ;)
Whoa, not cool. I've seen a rat scurry through our garage & a few roaches in the house & that all freaked me out good. In fact, one of those roaches happened to be on our kitchen counter last week and I did NOT like going in there that night - if you're like me my imagination runs wild - including wondering what disease they carry with them (sorry, I'm not helping).
ReplyDeleteYour maternity pics are beautiful - you look seriously wonderful! I had a flashback of you/us in my mind from when we were 12 or 13 - now seeing you pregnant with number three and beautiful as ever. Love it :)
I've been thinking about you a ton - I need to call you!
Hope you've caught them dirty rats by now!!
so gross! ahhh! Well I'll want to hear the update. Seem plenty busy... loved the updates! :)
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