I killed Mickey Mouse

[Muse]

OK, I didn't know its name, but I went into my kitchen yesterday and saw a mouse swimming in the sink. I have one of those double sinks, and I'd left about 2" of water in one side and the small mouse was struggling, treading water trying to keep from drowning and it was trying in vain to climb the nearly vertical sink wall to escape.

I've never seen anything like this. I looked at it for a long moment and it saw me, and treading water it looked right into my eyes steadily. I wondered what I should do. Generally, people kill mice that invade their house, I have mouse traps. I could have removed it to the yard, cast it on my compost pile but thought to myself about the squirrel problem I've had. People say that a squirrel (another rodent) can find its way back to its haunting ground from 5 or more miles away. This mouse might just find its way back into the house if I put it outside.

I decided to catch it in a container and flush it down the toilet, and did just that.

I wonder how this mouse got up on my kitchen counter. I figured if one mouse was in the house there may be others and I set a trap along the baseboard in the kitchen.

 

[Dr. Zaus]

Mice are disgusting and Mickey is the coke-induced delusion of a narcissistic child molester.

 

[Captante]

Killing a mouse is fine ... but flushing it alive? D:

 

[Zorander]

You could have chucked the container at the neighbour's cat.

 

[Muse]

Mice are disgusting and Mickey is the coke-induced delusion of a narcissistic child molester.

Thanks. Now I don't feel so guilty.

 

[Muse]

Killing a mouse is fine ... but flushing it alive? D:

These very thoughts went through my mind as I gazed at the desperate little creature. But how would you have killed it?

 

[Muse]

You could have chucked the container at the neighbour's cat.

All the cats around here are scared to death of me, well, there's only one that visits my property lately. I think the cat would have just run away.

 

[her209]

Next thread: A mouse just popped out of my toilet.

 

[Rakehellion]

These very thoughts went through my mind as I gazed at the desperate little creature. But how would you have killed it?

Gently place the rascal in the nearest park or wildlife refuge and pat him on the bottom.

 

[Captante]

These very thoughts went through my mind as I gazed at the desperate little creature. But how would you have killed it?

I don't know .... would have preferred to do it quickly that's all.

Frankly I most likely would have wimped out and just put the little critter outside.

 

[dawp]

a couple of weeks ago I flushed one that got caught in a glass I had on my nightstand.

 

[highland145]

Another poor ATOTer without a garbage disposal.

 

[DigDog]

fun fact: flushing the mouse probably did not kill it.

fun fact: had you tried to save the poor defenseless creature, you would probably have wound up in hospital for a rabies shot.


all in all, i say you chose the best course of action.

 

[Scarpozzi]

I actually think some of those mice are really cute. I wouldn't keep them as pets, but for rodents, they are far cuter than rats. Having said that, they reproduce way faster than you'd ever imagine. If I remember, they are on a 3 week breeding cycle. If you have a female and a male, you can be overrun in no time without intervention. They just need a food supply and a warm/dry place to nest. This time of year, it's good advice to plug any outside openings to your house and try to keep them from getting inside.

You can use DCON or another rat poison if you have a bad problem. Otherwise, try trapping.....that way they won't be decomposing in the walls, attic, basement, etc when the poison does its job.

I've not seen any mice in my current house, but my parents had them come in a few times through our basement vents/screens. They would chew through the mesh and find their way to the kitchen through the holes in the floor/walls for plumbing. One year, some mice were getting into their garbage bin outside and had been living near it. (this is outside, so it went un-noticed for a month or so) I watched about 10 mice in a line walking around that thing one day and realized how quickly the problem had become a big problem. I closed all of their access to the food supply and put out DCON....it was totally gone by the end of the day....They ultimately went through 3 packs and I probably ended up killing 20+ mice with the stuff outside. What can I say?? We aren't cat people....

 

[highland145]

they reproduce way faster than you'd ever imagine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=r3RLmErp43k#t=27

 

[Jaskalas]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=r3RLmErp43k#t=27

NUKE IT FROM ORBIT!!!

 

[mmntech]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=r3RLmErp43k#t=27

They basically reproduce until they max out their food supply. Heard they had a big problem in Australia a few years back. They get into the grail silos and just gorge. I didn't have the sound on so I'm assuming that's where the video is from.

Check your house for any holes they can squeeze into. They can get through a hole the size of a quarter. Fill it in with something they can't chew through. Steel wool and spray foam works well.

Never use poison. They'll either die in the walls (big problem) or some animal will eat them and get sick (huge problem).

Snap traps and live capture traps work the best. The live traps let you catch multiple mice. You can just dispose of them out in the wild. Just make sure you take it at least a mile away from your home so they don't come back. The snap traps are good at dealing with the occasional infestation. You can get easy set ones now that won't take your fingers off.

 

[highland145]

Yep, Australia.

They get into the grail silos and just gorge.

That would be the Holy Grail silos for them.

 

[mikeymikec]

Encourage owls to set up shop locally. I think they have a whale of a time near where I live (a lot of farming fields), some nights I hear the owl equivalent of "Ride of the Valkyries" going off, perhaps it's to flush out the little buggers.

 

[pete6032]

How would flushing it not have killed the mouse? It probably drown in sanitary waste?

 

[mmntech]

Yep, Australia.

That would be the Holy Grail silos for them.

Fingers working faster than my brain again. Time for another cuppa.

 

[highland145]

Fingers working faster than my brain again. Time for another cuppa.

I thought it was appropriate.

 

[Muse]

Next thread: A mouse just popped out of my toilet.

 

[Muse]

Gently place the rascal in the nearest park or wildlife refuge and pat him on the bottom.

Ah, I used to do that with the squirrels I trapped, drive them ~6 miles up into the hills and release them. I did around 3 of them that service. But a mouse? I think after chauffeuring a mouse on a 12 mile trip I would have felt like an idiot.

Now, if I'd had a bottle of chloroform, that would have been what I used to kill it. I would have put it under, and them smashed it with a brick out on the patio, then buried it.

Actually, if I'd been thinking fast enough I could have spilled off the water from the container it was trapped in, dropped it into a plastic bag and smashed the bag with a brick on the patio, then buried it. It would have been a grisly affair, but I would have spared it from drowning. Still, hardly a humane experience for the little rodent. Tossing it in the toilet and pressing the lever was the easy method, maybe a little too easy.

 

[Muse]

Check your house for any holes they can squeeze into. They can get through a hole the size of a quarter. Fill it in with something they can't chew through. Steel wool and spray foam works well.

I have an idea where this one got in. I have screen over an opening, but the intention then was to have a barrier to rats and larger creatures (I once came face to face with a cretinous quite large possum in the kitchen in the wee hours of the morning, a somewhat stunning experience!).

Never use poison. They'll either die in the walls (big problem) or some animal will eat them and get sick (huge problem).

I have never used poison to control rodents or other non-insect pest populations. I used to have a problem with rats in the attic, which I eventually brought under control by putting out standard rat traps up there. I must have caught some 3 dozen over a period of a few years before they gave up. Then I had the roof torn off and replaced, after which I got up there with a good sized wet/dry vacuum and sucked up every rat turd I could find, along with a huge amount of debris in the aftermath of the roofing job. I was very thorough! Rats never enter the attic anymore. I don't know if it's the access being cut off or just their intuition that it's not a safe place for rats nowadays. It was several years before the smell of rat urine didn't penetrate into my bedroom on warm days, but that's finally gone!

Snap traps and live capture traps work the best. The live traps let you catch multiple mice. You can just dispose of them out in the wild. Just make sure you take it at least a mile away from your home so they don't come back. The snap traps are good at dealing with the occasional infestation. You can get easy set ones now that won't take your fingers off.

I have a few mouse traps, basically the standard snap traps. I found a plastic trap that's a lot easier to set some years back ("easy set" as described in the quote) and that's the one I have along the baseboard right now, set with a bit of peanut butter. I like that trap. I don't like setting the old fashioned type mouse and rat traps. Your fingers can get smashed. Even if they don't, having a trap snap shut unintentionally is a shock!