I have to say that I have a huge fear of mice. I can handle mice that are 'caged' or dead, but I cannot handle mice that are in MY HOUSE or in any house that I may be in!!!!
This fear came when I was a child-- probably around the age of 7 or 8. (Give or take a year). We moved into a home that was near a creek. With the creek came mice-- BIG mice-- to a little kid--- HUGE mice and lots of them!
I vividly remember my mom and her husband putting 'rat' traps in our garage-- One day I peeked in and saw that the rat traps actually worked--tons of dead MICE/RATS. I remember my mom and her friend commenting that one day when they were in the garage a mouse ran up one of their pants leg. True? Not sure- maybe they were messing w my little head. I learned that mice can run and squeeze perfectly under a closed door, I saw a dead mouse in my dog's outside water bowl and was punished because I refused to dump the bowl w the dead mouse in the alley, I remember seeing 'rat droppings', and I have a scared memory of hearing mice under my bed-- maybe it was my active imagination, but I swear I heard little mouse finger nails scratching on boxes that may have been under my bed!
Last night- I was in bed watching television with my husband. We were actually RELAXING for once! The only light was the light from the television. ALL OF A SUDDDEN I saw something all too familiar-- a quick 'something' shooting from the hallway under our closed bedroom door. 'Oh my God- I think I saw a mouse-- Oh my God--- Oh my God' I could not stop saying those words-- I was in a panic.
My brave husband jumped up out of bed- grabbed some pants- turned the light on and was ready to take on the mouse. I was brave enough to turn the lamp on that is next to my bed. I pointed to the 'bed pillows' that are in the corner of our room. These are the pillows you are suppose to buy that make your bed look nice when it is made-- we never make our bed so they are piled on the floor! He tossed one pillow one by one and when he got to the 3rd pillow--- SCEAT SCAT--- it was on the run- back underneath our door.
My husband opened the bedroom door and it was gone. He ordered me to tell the boys to go to Walmart and buy some 'sticky traps'-- Surprisingly w/o complaint they did it.
When they got back-- I told them that I felt like the little rodent would be in the closet directly across from our bedroom door. This is a closet- as most of my closets are-- that is filled with STUFF- lots and lots of stuff.
As I sat on my bed w a towel underneath my bedroom door- the Fauci men- prepared a trap. They blocked the hallway off and had a bucket/bowl in hand. My husband opened the closet and began to empty the contents. All of a sudden I hear my husband say 'It's in here- dang it went inside a box!' Boy, was I happy to hear that they tracked it down.
I'm not sure what was said next-- but I heard chaos! Then I heard Ricky say 'I got it!'-- He trapped it w the famous pink barf bowl! Yipee- Praise God! They somehow scooped it up and threw it back outside. I was hoping they would have put it in our neighbor's mailbox! JUST JOKING (sorta).
I think that was a little mouse that may have gotten away from its mom and somehow snuck in our house. We planted some trees lately-- not sure if it came w the trees or maybe it snuck in while we did some handy work on our house. Not sure- we still have some sticky traps down and luckily they are still empty. I am confident that we don't have any--- I'm actually really hoping- anyway.
Placebo - Life's What You Make It
8 years ago
6 comments:
We didn't have rats as kids, we had mice (and mouse traps, not rat traps which could probably break your finger!). In newly developed area, mice that used to make their homes outside get displaced due to construction. So if you have any of that going on in your area . . . also, they might seek shelter in homes when the weather changes drastically. So far we've only seen a couple of field (not house) mice outdoors (knock on wood). Our dog caught one and left it for dead. She nabbed it with her teeth at the far end of the yard when it came through some bushes. Stick boards are gross, because they try to pull away and sometimes the result is rather graphic as they take a while to due.
I meant "die" sorry for the typo.
Girl- when you are little- you see them at RATS!!!!--Especially when one is dead in the dog bowl and mom spanks you for not dumping it but taking your big sister on her offer to dump it for you! Whew-- the terror it caused me.
We had roof rats at our last house and thankfully they stayed in the attic or the detached garage. They are pretty common in those old Austin neighborhoods (even the really nice ones)! So that's how I know the difference. Argh. Nasty. I think a rat's tail is about as long as a mouse.
i think i would have died!-- oh gosh BUT then the rats would have eaten me!
The problem with those little pests is that there is never only one. The question is always: how many can get into your house.With the onset of cold weather, they're looking for a nice warm place to spend the winter. And multiply. Probably a good idea to keep those sticky traps for awhile. That should be all you'll need. Being married to the Orkin man for over 25 years has taught me a few things
Don't feel bad about being afraid of them. I'm so very afraid of spiders that I used to think I would have to move if they infiltrated our house. All fears are learned from our own experiences, usually in childhood. I have a cruel older sister who taught me to fear spiders. What a B ! It's perfectly normal,though. As long as the fear doesn't become debilitating, there's no reason to be concerned. I used to scream and run when I came across a spider. I spent 2 hours sitting outside our house waiting for Joe to get home because I needed him to kill the spider on the front door. I COULD NOT get that close to it so I couldn't enter. Then one day I decided to change my response. I got mad instead of afraid. It worked. They still scare me but I can deal with them myself. I usually curse and whack them with something. That's progress. I guess?
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