Nothing like mice to motivate cleaning out!

[CathyA]

I had been going through children's clothes from the attic (20 years old) to give to the Caring Center. then I remembered a couple boxes in our computer room's closet. I pulled them out and started going through them. I got to the second box which was all cute little baby clothes...........and...... a pile of dry dog food!!! WHAT??? :0! It didn't compute at all at first! My first thought was raccoon or squirrel poop. haha (which was impossible).

Then I saw a couple of the clothes chewed on. Mice! But how? We've had no sign of them in the upstairs part of the house, and even though the closet was full of stuff, it seemed very clean. Well, after pulling everything out of the closet, I remembered that we had a "trap" door in the wall to access the bathroom plumbing, which had fallen off! Mystery solved. So I fixed that and I hope they aren't living somewhere else in our living space. So now, instead of just dealing with baby clothes, I need to deal with everything else in that closet...........other boxes of stuff, games, children's books, sleeping bags, etc., etc.
Oh well..........something like this is usually what it takes to get me moving! I guess you could call it the silver lining of having mice. :~)

[herbgeek]

When we bought this house (in 1997), the husband and wife were not in agreement with moving vs staying put. They had started to finish off the basement, but abandoned that and sold instead. They left the rest of the wood studs under the stairs to the basement along with the rugs they'd bought to finish it off. That under the stairs basement area became a storage area for my shoplights when not using them for seed starting, along with other rarely used items.

But due to the cats doing a lot of running around, and me finding evidence of mouse poop nearby, this was the year I finally cleaned all that out. In place of the detritus under the stairs, is the kitty crack den. I have a comfortable rug, some cat toys and a pile of catnip (crack). No mice are gonna take up residence there ever again.

[leslieann]

I love the kitty crack den! What an idea!

Mice are pretty resourceful little critters. I lived on one place where the mice had taken grass seed, presumably bit by little bit, from a bag on the garage floor to a space above the fibreglass insulation in the ceiling. We found out when the insulation batt fell down from the weight. What a lot of effort that must have taken...like carrying dog food up to the attic.

My appreciation does not, however, extend to wanting the critters in the house. There is that odor that comes with mice and the insidious damage, not to mention finding little poops everywhere. I am grateful (GRATEFUL) that they haven't found a way into this house. I think we are pretty tight now, having finished the renovations but I also don't really think anyone is immune. Yep, that would send me off on a cleaning binge.

[CathyA]

LOL........I like that "kitty crack den" too!

We have caught at least 20 mice this year (in the basement and crawl space). Its finally slowed down. I had DH place alot of scented dryer sheets in the crawl space and that's helped alot. They really don't like the smell.
You're right leslie........no house is immune. I'm just glad I decided to check the closet, or it could have been much worse. We have a dog and used to have a cat............but neither seemed interested in mice, unfortunately.

[frugalone]

Oh, the little critters can get in anywhere. We had them in our kitchen in the summer (can't figure that out, since I should think they'd be more interested in winter living indoors). We had to trap them, as we can't leave poison on the floor. We have other pets, including a rabbit that runs around on the floor. I had a very bad experience years ago with poison, actually. I put it behind an armoire, and somehow the dog got it and ate it. We ended up with an emergency situation; the dog lived, but I'll never leave poison around the house again.

Mice have gotten into all sorts of things around here. They ate birdseed off our porch once (the whole bag), tore into a bag of "green" litter in our basement, climbed up our shelving to see what was edible up there (I could not believe I found poops 7 feet off the floor). I am not afraid of rodents (we have a pet rat) but I don't want them running around the house pooping everywhere.

[Tweety]

Oh yes, mice! Once one made a beautiful nest on top of my car battery, I wondered what the little fellow thought when his home disappeared for a while every day. Another made a comfortable nest in my motorcycle helmet that was hanging in the garage for the winter. Which reminds me.......

[CathyA]

yes, we've found them everywhere outside too. In summer, DH has to remove their nests from the riding mower every time he wants to use it, and has to make sure their nests aren't in the gas grill. I had a nest in the rotary thingy you pull on to start my tiller. It was a pretty awful site when I pulled on it. Oh....there's there the nests in the boots in the shed.
I have a golf cart and they made a nest inside the front part and chewed up all the wiring. They're everywhere outside. That's why I don't mind the stray cat I see around here, and the hawks.