Roberto
Guest
Not usually bothered by the little mice here till they are looking for a nesting site in the fall, but recently I , and others , have had fall like activity. These mice are real tiny . The size of a finger. The feces looks like the droppings left by cucarachas so it is hard to spot. They are so light they can walk across a glue trap and not get stuck. And interestingly enough this years batch do not like peanut butter !! They are fruit and veggie lovers.
I picked up an avocado to slice for salad and lo and behold there was a hole in it, through the skin right down to the seed ! A nice, perfectly round hole about the size of my thumb. Peering into the hole you could see the seed was a clean as could be. Hmmmm. Was it there when I bought it and I just did not notice it??? Impossible !! There in the frout storage basket were fragments of the hard skin ! Checking the countertop carefully behind and under a little electric oven little black dots appeared. Having lots of experience with the little darlings I thought "Hmm , the mice are early this year".
Having never had success with the standard spring loaded traps, I have used glue traps with some success. These critters are so small and dainty that in the past they have cleaned the peanut butter off the trigger of the spring loaded traps without setting off the trap !! I don't like to use poisoned bait in the house cause they die and in their agony hide in impossible to find locations and stink for a couple of weeks. No fun there. I had two left over boxes of glue traps from last fall, 2 traps per box. For those of you not familiar with glue traps , they are shallow plastic trays filled with the stickiest gelatinous stuff imaginable. I put a daub of peanut butter on the surface of the glue of a couple of traps and put them on the counter top near the basket that had avocados, a pear and some bananas. Though I'll have the buggar by morning.
Next day, nothing ! there were some faint little marks on the surface of the glue, but no mouse. The traps were old so I thought maybe the glue had hardened, permitting passage by one of the little darlins . There was something there on the surface of one trap. With a closer look I recognized a tiny gecko !!! Pobracito. So now I know I have geckos living with me along with mices !
Later in the day I noticed the pear was ripening nicely, picked it up and lo and behold another hole !! Not a nice neat one this time, larger and irregular in shape sort of like the outline of the English Island. Dang mice. Next day still no mouse on a trap. Next day picked up a banana to slice for morning cereal and low and behold ANOTHER HOLE !!
Enough !! Off to Numeros, got fresh traps and caught one of the little buggars. A friend living across town reported having a banana eating mouse visitor too. This had the making of a horror film. Maybe this atypical mouse activity is caused by global warming ??? I bet I will not have any mice in my new condo at Encantame though.
I picked up an avocado to slice for salad and lo and behold there was a hole in it, through the skin right down to the seed ! A nice, perfectly round hole about the size of my thumb. Peering into the hole you could see the seed was a clean as could be. Hmmmm. Was it there when I bought it and I just did not notice it??? Impossible !! There in the frout storage basket were fragments of the hard skin ! Checking the countertop carefully behind and under a little electric oven little black dots appeared. Having lots of experience with the little darlings I thought "Hmm , the mice are early this year".
Having never had success with the standard spring loaded traps, I have used glue traps with some success. These critters are so small and dainty that in the past they have cleaned the peanut butter off the trigger of the spring loaded traps without setting off the trap !! I don't like to use poisoned bait in the house cause they die and in their agony hide in impossible to find locations and stink for a couple of weeks. No fun there. I had two left over boxes of glue traps from last fall, 2 traps per box. For those of you not familiar with glue traps , they are shallow plastic trays filled with the stickiest gelatinous stuff imaginable. I put a daub of peanut butter on the surface of the glue of a couple of traps and put them on the counter top near the basket that had avocados, a pear and some bananas. Though I'll have the buggar by morning.
Next day, nothing ! there were some faint little marks on the surface of the glue, but no mouse. The traps were old so I thought maybe the glue had hardened, permitting passage by one of the little darlins . There was something there on the surface of one trap. With a closer look I recognized a tiny gecko !!! Pobracito. So now I know I have geckos living with me along with mices !
Later in the day I noticed the pear was ripening nicely, picked it up and lo and behold another hole !! Not a nice neat one this time, larger and irregular in shape sort of like the outline of the English Island. Dang mice. Next day still no mouse on a trap. Next day picked up a banana to slice for morning cereal and low and behold ANOTHER HOLE !!
Enough !! Off to Numeros, got fresh traps and caught one of the little buggars. A friend living across town reported having a banana eating mouse visitor too. This had the making of a horror film. Maybe this atypical mouse activity is caused by global warming ??? I bet I will not have any mice in my new condo at Encantame though.
