I recently discovered some mouse droppings on the shelves in our garage. "Oh great," I thought. "I guess we'll need to clean that up." Upon further investigation, we discovered a lot of "evidence" of the little critters living among our things, including tiny footprints in the dust. The most frustrating part is that we have a cat... he spends his nights in the garage... apparently sharing his space (and food!) with the mice. How is that even possible?? Way to use those hunting instincts, Linus!
So the cleaning began - a 10-to-1 bleach-water solution has been sprayed on everything, and the "evidence" has been removed. We are putting all our precious belongings in plastic bins to minimize any future cleaning sessions. (It's not so bad, really... I LOVE organizing things and putting them in bins. I've wanted to do this for a long time - now we have a good excuse)
I don't like killing things, and I genuinely feel bad about trapping these little guys. After all, they're just doing what they do... they don't know any different. BUT, we need to get them out of the garage. We caught this big guy on the first night. (If you're offended by this picture, blame Brad. He insisted on using it)
We've since caught three more, and Brad has sealed up all paths in and out of the garage and crawl space. Hopefully we can be mouse-free very soon.
-Liz :)
Oh, I know this frustration!!!
ReplyDeleteWe have this one cabinet that they keep getting in from time to time. I have sealed everything I know how to seal, and they still find a way. The last outbreak was about 2 months ago, so I'm hopeful...but they always seem to cheat my hope!!
Gregg - Something we read online said they can squeeze through an opening the size of a nickel. That's pretty small! I hope you and I are successful :)
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