I had a severe mouse problem in my room in our apartment. I went for months with no one believing me there were mice in my room. They didn’t understand when I told them I could hear their pitter patter on my floor. They didn’t understand when I said I actually saw them in my plant or running under the closet door. When the landlord came, they said they were positive I didn’t have even one mouse since there was no evidence of a mouse visible. When the pest control man came, they laid glue traps and the metal box traps, but said since neither caught any mice, I was mistaken about my mouse problem. Instead, the glue traps caught my Bichon Frise who is oh! so nosey, and terrified him for a long time. I had to actually cut his fur to get it off of him, and still had glue I had to cut out on his paws and nose.
So months go on with the mice coming in whenever I turned off my Kindle for the night. I used to keep my 5 inch DVD player on sitting on the floor with the light of the screen facing the closet doors. It didn’t take long for the mice to figure out this could be just a welcoming sign for them, and they probably assumed I put this up so they could see their way in better. I know there would be one or two mice come in at first, as I would just hear a couple, but then the held the closet door open at the overlapping part since these are sliding doors. I am sure they charged an admission and probably only the good looking mice got to move up in the line first! Since hearing them in the first place takes a bit of super hearing most people don’t have, there were also times I swear they were having some sort of conversation in mouse talk.
There was a hole in my bedsprings at the head of my bed. I would hear them go into that hold, one right after another. I am so sure they had a disco ball and a rockin’ sound system all set up. Any bait I was told to use for them was eaten, but I think they thought it was caviar or something as I never found a dead mouse, but the bait was always eaten. Perhaps any mouse who ate of the bait just thought they had a really bad hang over from the drinking and partying.
I would hear them go across my floor, under my dresser, beside the bed, and inside the dresser. My dresser is nicely made so each drawer has like its own little compartment for the drawer, so a mouse could be behind the drawer and I would never know it. Things would be moved around on the top of my dresser and one time while being extra quiet and just watching, I saw a mouse come up, stand on my baby Teddy Bear, and then climb into my plant. After that, I moved the plant to the living room, and look at Teddy’s clothes. His clothes had been peed on many times, so I gently washed Teddy since he is so fragile (almost as old as me, and that is friggin’ old), then washed his clothes and placed him on my head board.
I had two friends tell me to get a certain kind of bait, Bar None, which was supposed to look like a Kit Kat Bar. I was to get this and place it everywhere I thought they were. By the time we bought this specific bait, I guess the manufacturer had changed it a lot; it looked more like corn cobs, nothing like a Kit Kat Bar. I still set them out everywhere and made sure my animals couldn’t get to them. I waited over a week before letting the cats in my room at night for fear they might just get curious and try and catch a mouse which had eaten this bait. I know it is in their contract, but they seem to have lost their copy of the contract and are telling me that all they have to do is keep themselves clean, but I have to feed and house them. I missed that part. I am thinking I need to renegotiate the pet contracts soon!
One night, Binky, my Maine Coon cat, decided to teach Wicca, my Ragamuffin cat, how to catch a mouse. It was very interesting to watch and it was obvious what she was doing. After that teaching session, Binky left the mouse problem to Wicca; I think Binky is the Alpha cat sometimes. I would click my tongue three times after I turned off the Kindle and started hearing the mice, and Wicca would come running into the room. At first this worked: she chased them, and I moved things as much as I could in the room so she would have a chance at getting them before they reached a safe place. After a while she would just come and lay next to the closet doors and that seemed to deter the mice. Then it sounded like they were still coming in and when I would look over the bed, Wicca was there just sitting. I am figuring she started taking a cut of the door charge and was letting them in. I think she actually caught one and then got sick off it. It was about the only time I have ever known her to garf, and it sort of looked not like a hair ball. So I am guessing she tried one, didn’t go down right, and just decided to look like one of those big ass door men at human clubs which scare off trouble makers. A lot of help she was! I asked Binky to re-train her, but Binky said she did her part and that was it. I am not even going to bring Wizard into this; he thinks his sole purpose in life is to be cute to humans.
So, with no cats to do any real damage, and the bait not working, I was at a total loss in more than one way. I was losing a lot of sleep, was always anxious at night, and was mad at the cats all the time wondering why I even went through so much trouble to make sure they had the right food, treats, and toys. Needlesstosay, I was getting real pissed off.
Mom finally purchased a Riddex unit. The first night I used it, the sound of mice leaving could have been compared to Moses leading the Jews out of Egypt; it was a mass exodus if I have ever heard one. Crazy! Then I realized just how many mice were holed up in my room. Scary! The next night it sounded like one mouse wanted to come in but when it got too close and heard the sound the unit makes, it went into throws of pain. It squealed horribly for what seemed like at least a half an hour or more. I was almost to the point of unplugging the unit so the mouse would be quiet, but then I had to remind myself of the reason I had the unit in the first place. I kept saying in my mind, “Go back the way you came! The noise will go away if you go back!” I don’t think it could hear me. Finally though after what seemed forever, the mouse faded away, either by aneurism, brain damage, or it finally went back the way it came.
Now I think the problem is almost solved. I think there is one clever mouse that puts cotton in his ears and comes in anyway. I don’t hear the multiple feet and all the mice climbing in my bedsprings. It also is a boon I was able to replace the old bed springs with a new one, so there are no holes for the mice to go into. I also cleaned under my bed really good while doing the exchange of bedsprings, so there is not a lot of fodder for them to mess in. I could tell while I was cleaning there was urine stains on the baseboard, and there were a few mouse droppings. But let us remember, when management pulled up my bed and looked, since mice didn’t just run harry carry and there wasn’t a mound of mouse droppings, they insisted I had no mouse problem.
What I have learned from this whole experience is one, my super hearing sucks! I have also learned why mice are used to often in mazes and other testing by researchers: they learn and adapt fast. They are also just like humans in that they figure out a way to capitalize on a situation and even get a potential enemy on their side. So, in essence, mice are like drug dealers! They find a place to hole up, charge to get in to the place, have drugs (bait) for the partiers, get a heavy on their side, and when thrown out of that place, keep testing to see if they can set up there again sometime. I think of my room as the Mouse Rave Palace. Now once one of them gets the initiative to chew the plastic off the new bedsprings, I am sure they will find a way around the Riddex unit as well. They adapt and are smart.
Now to what my friend’s father did for their cricket problem which relates to use of the Riddex unit.
They were having cricket problems which turned to roach problems. My friend’s dad went and bought a ton of these Riddex units and placed them all over her house and their small house. Then my friend started to realize her kid's hamsters were not very active. Although they weren't in the immediate area of one of the units, they are supposed to be good up to 2500 square feet. I figured the hamsters had severe migraines and they probably had brain damage. So my friend took all the units out of the main house. Now her kids probably have hamsters that are schizophrenic or have serious brain damage.
Then her father decided that he was going to put them in all the outlets in his place, the small house. I just couldn’t help the picture which came into my head. There are about 10 or more outlets, including the bathroom (‘cause he said he put one in there as well), and there is a Riddex unit plugged into each one.
So, there are these silent but deadly sounds rays zapping at 30 second intervals all over this little house. I see them as little red laser like lines only the mice can see. They want to get in, and are determined, as I have since found out in
my experience. The mice decide to break into this house simply because it is a challenge. I told you they are smart and adaptable! The chosen few, the best of the best, dress all in black Ninja style, take dental floss and night scopes from their stash of weaponry, and devise a way to get past the Riddex units. They climb to the roof of the house, find a way in through an attic passage, then with their night scopes on, one slowly climbs down the floss to better asses the units timing and spaces not covered. Then he climbs back up the floss, they make a plan of when and where to land, and suddenly every thirty seconds a new mouse lands between the lines and runs under them to disarm the Riddex units, totally unbeknownst to my friend’s Dad.
Then there is a new Mouse Rave happening in Henderson!
Once I told my friend this scenario, after she stopped laughing and coughing up the coffee she just drank, she asked me if I wanted more units at my house. I told her “Yes!” without pause, as I would love to stay awake and see this Ninja mouse stuff myself. Maybe I will get a video camera for x-mas and will be able to post it on YouTube. Not sure about that though; the mice seem to be pretty smart so they may find a way to erase the tape or cause a disruption while filming so there will never be any proof of the intelligence we are dealing with here.
