MICE D:

phira

Warning: Mice. There are mice. This is a rant about mice.

So, I grew up in the boonies and every other winter or so, we'd get mice and we'd hire an exterminator. So I'm used to occasionally finding a mouse in a drawer or something, and then they're gone for a year. When I moved to gross Boston apartments with slum lords, I got REALLY used to mice, but they made me so so so miserable. My partner and I moved to this apartment over a year ago, and while we definitely have a typical Boston landlord, he actually follows most of the rules. No pest problems at all--yay.

Until September 1st this year when suddenly there was a mouse in the kitchen. My partner has OCD and the mouse really upset him; he seriously wore sneakers all around the apartment until traps got set up.

Maintenance was really obnoxious about setting up traps. They contacted our landlord and said that the reason we had mice was because we have a bird, and the bird's food was everywhere. The thing is, birds do not attract mice if there are no mice in the building. If there are mice in the apartment, they often go for bird seed. But it's not like there are no mice and then they crawl into the building because BIRD.

So of course we contacted our landlord and maintenance and explained that no, birdo isn't attracting mice from nowhere. But they only set up traps (sticky traps! UGH) below our bird's cage and near some of his food. No traps in the kitchen. Where the mouse was. This was a month ago, and we didn't see any more mice, although the traps didn't catch any.

Friday night, I got home to a very upset fiance because there had been another mouse in the kitchen. We decided to clean the whole apartment on Sunday to make sure there was nothing for the mouse to want.

Tonight, I walked to the kitchen to rinse a bowl and put it in the dishwasher. Before I could even turn the light on, I saw a mouse run INTO THE STOVE. INTO THE STOVE, LADIES. I screamed, of course, turned the light on, and then took the burners out. No mouse--but plenty of mouse poop. GREAT. I told my partner, and then went to rinse out the bowl.

THE MOUSE RAN OVER MY TOES.

The landlord has been emailed. But a mouse ran over my toes. I am not happy.

(Disclaimer: I used to work with mice in the lab and hate killing them. I also hate hate hate sticky traps because they are inhumane and also our bird can get stuck in them. Also, MICE I HATE MICE.)

Aschive

Ew! I don't like killing mice either! I hope you find a solution that works for everyone. Good luck!

CLoGreenEyes

Agggghhh, that is so nasty! I don't like killing them either, but that's an issue. I can't believe they flipped out over your bird; I highly doubt his food was "everywhere." Hope you get rid of the pests soon!

KeptInStitches

Argh! I'd demand they treat the neighboring apartments, too - they're probably coming from your neighbor(s). Good luck!

mcmcmd

@phira-- I used to live in Boston and I HATE mice. We had a few in our apartment and they creeped me out every time. We got one of those high-frequency noise emitters and it worked great! I don't know if it would bother your bird (it didn't bother our cat but maybe birds are different?) Just a suggestion.

Hummingbird125

Ugh, so sorry you have to deal with this, Phira! I had mice in my last apartment in NYC. I probably saw one about 6-7 times (though my roommate saw one more often than that in her bedroom). The exterminator came and set up sticky traps and lots of poison. The sticky traps are the WORST. The only thing that took care of the mice once and for all was getting a cat. The cat never caught one (at least as far as I know), but we never saw a mouse again. 

buddysmom80

I used to live in an old farmhouse that was converted into a three-family house. There was still a working hay field on the property and we would get field mice in the winter. It sucked because I took all the precautions to prevent them from showing up, but they still did since my neighbor would feed the neighborhood squirrels and birds and leave the birdseed bag unopened in her kitchen which was directly across the wall from mine.

My cat caught about 4 while we were there, but he never knew what to do with them after catching them, he only had one confirmed kill, so I would have to grab the mice by the tail with surgical gloves on and throw it back outside. I felt bad, but my cat apparently didn't like to kill mice, only catch them.

I asked my landlords what they could do and they told me there was really nothing they could do since they were field mice and not "city mice". I ended up having to put moth balls everywhere to keep them out, it helped but my house stunk so bad in the winter.

minskat30

I HATE mice.  Ugh!  Worse than mice are cockroaches in my opinion (those huge, huge ones they grow down in Texas).  I had to kill one the first day I arrived in Austin (it was in all my cardboard boxes I was moving stuff in).  Don't think I've ever screamed louder in my life.

CrazyCatLady3

I have never had mice problems, but I've always had a cat.  Supposedly the mice can smell that cats live in an apartment, and stay away.  Probably doesn't work as well if you live in a big house.  Once when I came back from a vacation in the Bahamas though, a small gecko crawled out of my luggage (it had apparently hitched a ride to the States).  My cat found it, and didn't just kill it, but ate it whole.  :P  Yeah, it was pretty gross, but then I had nothing to dispose of.

CrazyCatLady3

Hummingbird125 said:

Ugh, so sorry you have to deal with this, Phira! I had mice in my last apartment in NYC. I probably saw one about 6-7 times (though my roommate saw one more often than that in her bedroom). The exterminator came and set up sticky traps and lots of poison. The sticky traps are the WORST. The only thing that took care of the mice once and for all was getting a cat. The cat never caught one (at least as far as I know), but we never saw a mouse again. 

I posted before seeing this.  Yup, gotta get a cat.  (Obviously I am not biased or anything.) :P

leia1979

My old cat actually brought a mouse in the house once. Fortunately, she also eventually caught it again. She had a habit of bringing small creatures in, unharmed, to play with...mostly crickets.

My mom had a rat (a big rat!) jump out of the washing machine at her. She's very cautious about opening the washing machine now.

phira

Yeah, I'm not a cat person, but if we didn't have a bird, I think I'd get a cat just to fix this problem!

I got several emails this morning, some of them from a very panicked fiance, regarding extermination. Because this was our second mouse complaint, they decided to do a full apartment extermination; the preparation list they gave us had information for both mice OR roach extermination. My partner misread the list and thought we had to find somewhere for our bird to stay.

After some irritated emails and frantic phone calls, we've mostly resolved the situation. Tonight, we're going to do another vacuum in the kitchen and wherever our bird's food has spilled, and we're going to move SOME of the furniture away from the walls in a few rooms. The exterminators will come tomorrow, check and see if there are any mouse-friendly holes in the living room and office, and then mouse-proof and bait-trap the kitchen. The exterminator I spoke with was very friendly and understanding, and he won't be using any poison or traps that would hurt our bird.

Now I have to figure out how to clean mouse poop out of an electric stove.

Shiroyasha

Oh wow that's gross.  I've never had a rodent problem, but then again I've always had at least one cat.  I don't think I could handle finding wild mice inside my home.  

I hope the exterminators can get rid of all of them and that your problem never comes back!  

Riss2893

Just reading the title of this thread gave me chills. I HATE MICE. I lived in the country growing up so we'd get them in our house occasionally, but I never actually had to deal with one. Now I'm paranoid, haha. Ewewew. 

I hope your apartment management gets it taken care of soon!