Will went into the garage on Wednesday night to get the dust sheets so that we can start decorating Jacob's bedroom, only to find rather a lot of mouse poo and some chewed dust sheets! We spent the next 4 hours in there cleaning it up and trying to assess the damage. We found the following...
* All the dust sheets chewed.
* Half a VERY large bag of pasta gone which we later discovered under a unit (see piccy to see just how much they'd nicked!
* The dry dog food mixer bag and Maisy's biscuits snaffled.
* Books that Freya has grown out of which were boxed ready for the charity shop chewed.
* Will's old photography magazines (some of which were 13 years old and I'd been telling him to get rid of, so serves him right!) damaged.
* Overalls and a coat nibbled and holey.
* Packets of chicken, curry and beef noodles eaten (they know how to live, these mice you know!)
* Picnic rug - bit likea polo mint but with a much bigger hole in the centre!
And the creme de la creme of chewing what they're not meant to have.....
** 4 out of 6 cushions for my patio chairs. Oh no! Not the cheap ones we have in there which were 2 for £10 but my rather posh ones which the kids don't sit on which cost us £30.00 each. £120 worth of bloody cushions ruined - the lil' b***ards!
I am so upset!
With regard to the books that aren't nibbled, I'm afraid they've had to go to the tip as well as mice do not have bladder control and wee constantly leaving a trail of smelly urine wherever they go (my garage stinks of pi**).
Anyways, to give you a laugh....
We were moving things to check for damage and hoovering up rather a lot of mouse poo (cute little tinkling noise as the little dry pellets go up the metal hoover tube!) We got to the back corner of the garage and hadn't found anything except damage, 3 empty bait trays and pellets. There in the corner sat my big pot for my Christmas tree. Lovely pot too, it comes out every year that I have a real tree! Will moved it and hoovered underneath, put it back carefully and hoovered the saucer that it sits on. I was about to say to him that I bet the little bugger was hiding inside when up pops a little brown head! Oh how it made us jump!!!!!
Will was shouting for a black bin liner to put the pot into so that he could get it and mousey out of the garage. I was so proud of the way my hubby rugby tackled that stationary object to the ground and encased it in black plastic that I nearly peed myself laughing! He picks up the bag and pot and runs out of the garage. Via obstacles in the way! It is p*ssing down with rain and he's in the street calling to me and asking what he should do with the bag/pot/mouse. There is no way that he is going to smash my pot, I can tell you! My instructions were to get a pair of shoes on and to grab a torch. (Which I did after a trip to the loo just in case I kept laughing!) We have a park across the road from home so we went the other side of that and positioned ourselves under a street lamp. The torch goes on as Will puts the screwed up bag on the floor and opens up the top. The mouse (scared out of it's little skin, no doubt) pops up the cutest little head to look at us and then goes back into hiding under the upturned pot. The torch goes flat! Will very bravely (I mean he is a grown man and the mouse is all of a few inches long) lifts the pot up and the mouse makes a dash for it, straight up the hill, over the footpath and back in the direction of our bloody house!!!!! No doubt calling on a few of his mates to join him in the house of plenty pasta!!!!!
Drama over, we were still laughing our heads off as we return to the house to finish the clean up operation. The back of the garage is cleaned up and put back into a tidy order. One last shelf to do...... the one that has left over paint tins and spare washing powder, bleach etc on. He was hoovering up the pellets off the shelf and moved a box and did another little bugger not scamper out and run up the wall behind the chair cushions. Frightened the bloody life out of the pair of us as we were really not expecting to see another one alive.
Armed with the hoover as his weapon he was (under my instruction) trying to chase it up the wall and find it to suck it up into the hoover! No joy!!! So we changed tactics. I stared at the wall while he picked up the garden hoe, and he stared at the wall while I took the end off the hoover. Either way that mouse was going to be toast! MWAHAHAHA!
We prodded and poked the stuff that we'd put back only to be very disappointed in not finding him.
The bait trays were refilled and we were determined we were going to win this battle.
I checked the bait trays yesterday morning only to find that Mr Elusive Little Mouse had returned from his hiding hole and had a nibble. Ha! He's gonna regret that meal for sure!
I work next door to a pest control company so paid them a visit yesterday morning when I went to work. I came out of there with a big bag of super duper, industrial strength, two meals and you're dead poison and some little boxes to keep it safe from the kids and the dog.
Last night was round 2 of the garage. We cleared the ENTIRE contents onto our driveway so that we could satisfy ourselves that Mr E Mouse had nowhere to hide and we would find him. The garage was spotless, not a pellet of poo in sight (but a VERY full hoover bag!) There were no places for mousey to hide. He was not there! Not under the tumble dryer, not under the freezer and not under the (beer) fridge! We had scared him off with our hoe and hoover! YAY!!!!! Humans win the battle over rodents was the headline.
3 hours after starting the job everything was back in place complete with 9, yes 9 bait boxes. These lil' beasties are not going to get the better of us this time, oh no sirreee! Anyway, they'd gone hadn't they....?
NOPE!!!!! Lo and behold the bait was nibbled this morning when I checked and quite a lot more extra had been taken when I checked again tonight. On my way home it was a trip to Wilkinsons for a big tin of Jeyes fluid (outdoor disinfectant for those that don't know). My theory is that if we scrub the driveway,(ok if Will scrubs it), and round the entrance to the garage door with it then the mice won't be able to follow their own urine scent and return to haunt me (and they did BTW on Wednesday night - I had some very bizarre and a little bit 'shiver down your spine' kind dreams about mice).
Wish me luck.......
Will keep you posted.
Oh and congratulations if you managed to get to the end of this post! LOL xx
