Cooking Deterrent

Jul 15, 2009 at 5:51 PM
40 comments

We have a mouse. Actually, we have had this mouse for a long time. It lives behind the oven and comes out to play once we have left the kitchen.

I have seen it blatantly strut its stuff across the benchtops with bits of our food hanging from its mouth; in no hurry to get back to its nest. It has forced us to store food in our microwave!

First we tried those humane traps where you get to carry the still living mouse outside and let it go. Our mouse inherently knew that capture would result in a trip to the cruel outside world.

We tried traps - and yes, even smothered in peanut butter and placed up against the wall because everyone knows that mice run along walls not out in the middle of benches.

Our mouse scoffed at poison. Our carefully laid out green stuff had little mouse paw prints through it as well as f*** you messages made of droppings.

I tried to befriend an alley cat - but although it will now come to the bottom of the steps it will not be tempted further even by my tales of a positively yummy rodent waiting inside for it.

So, now I am trying these electronic deterrents. They emit a really high pitched noise which the mouse supposedly finds so unpleasant that it will not come near them. The noise is only meant to be heard by rodents and creatures like gerbils, ferrets etc - and perhaps a teenager.

Well, I am a very long way forward of being a teenager but I can hear these things. I have 4 plugged in around the oven so I am getting quadraphonic buzzing. It's a sort of white noise with a high pitched whine in it.

I don't know about the mouse, but it certainly keeps me away from the oven!!

Mouse repel

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Surely they don't drive you to run across the benches...

What a cheeky little pest!

I thought you were not supposed to here these things, and the problem is there is stuff we use around here that comes in a solid bar that you put down and leave it the mice eat it and take it back to there home where they die and just dry up no muss no fuss no smell but it will not hurt cats or dogs or most other small animals too bad you could not get it around there but not too many farm suppliers there! Good luck hope they work for you have heard good things about the electronic items but never heard that they make audible noise for humans!

OK, first, henceforth I"m declining all invites, because while r_ts are my singlemost absolute nightmare animal, mice and rodents, which includes squirrels, aren't far behind. Second, you don't mention the poison but try D-Con. I and all I know who have used it have met *total* and quick success. Third, after living in places with rodents, inc. present abode, I've wondered about those sound emitters but my research said basically "don't waste your money." I do hope it works for ya, let us know. In the meantime, enjoy all those restaurants where you'll be having your meals.

Have you tried the water bucket one, where you slide a toilet roll tube over a broom handle, and then sit on top of a bucket of water. The broom handle, that is, not you. Smear some peanut butter on the toilet roll tube. Mouse runs along broom handle to have some yummy peanut butter, then falls into water when tube rolls around broom handle. Nice, as it also catches his partner when she comes looking for him to give him a bollocking for staying out late.

Sounds like an excellent excuse to go out to dinner!

I remember when I was breastfeeding Zachary and spotting this shadow and movement out of the corner of my eye. Eventually it became clear it was a mouse. The humane trap with peanut butter and/or cheese was completely useless, but fortunately in our case, the poison worked a treat. although it wasn't that much fun when the mouse decided to die at my feet in the middle of the kitchen...

I don't think those things actually work.

[this is good]

lol! oh my goodness! well, keep us posted. i'm sure at some point you will get that mouse!

in the meantime, your story almost sounds like a cartoon!

Simple solution ... go find that guy you took a picture of, the one with the snake draped over his shoulders. Ask him to hitch up his britches and let the snake loose in your house for a few days ... and no more mouse!

At my workplace, they tried the poison that's supposed to dry them up with no smell ... and we got the pleasure of smelling rotting rats and mice - in the lunch-eating area, no less! So, they tried the sonic things you have ... and I swear they attract mice who dance to the "music!" Quite by accident a bunch of snakes slithered in ... and no more four legged pests!

Now ... how do you get rid of a snake infestation?

(Actually, they - the ones that live, anyway - are leaving because of the lack of food).

[this is good]

Oh, dear. Yes, I remember mice. Had them in an apartment once. Cute little things once you stopped to think about it. Not so cute in a mouse trap, or running across the floor under your legs.

[this is good]

Obviously you still have high pitched sensitivity, as do I (I can hear a high pitched whine from my TV that others can't hear). Re mice, a few years ago I was living in a block of units occupied by other students. Living in the one next to me were three chaps whose loungeroom floor was covered in food packets and scraps. When they and all the other tennants moved out, my unit suddenly became infested with mice that they had obviously been harbouring. The mice were so hungry and brazen that they would attack my shopping bags as I was unpacking them on the bench, and at night I had to sit with my feet raised off the (moving) floor! Needless to say I had to set traps and caught countless off them. I didn't like hearing the traps go off or having to do it though. In fact if the trap didn't kill them I used to take them across the road and let them go.

LOL .... it's amazing how one tiny little thing can cause such unrest in the household! Just having to put food in the microwave to keep it safe is a hassle. If "someone" uses the microwave and forgets to put things back in the mouse is quick to come out and munch the goodies!

Yep, you are not supposed to hear them. That probably means they are most definitely not going to work! LOL. I think you told me about those blocks of poison before - I need to befriend a farmer then!

We used D-Con last time we had a family of mice and yes it did work (even though we then had the smell of dead mice for a few days! - just when the in-laws came to stay!! - LOL I was sprinkling vinegar and vanilla all around the kitchen). This mouse doesnt' seem to be even tempted to eat the stuff - even though there is nothing else for it to eat. Perhaps it is an offspring of the previous family and has developed some resistance (like a super-bug). More likely it is going next door for its meals!

LOL - I wish about the restaurants. I can't remember the last time we ate at a restaurant. We do try to have pizza (delivery) each Friday as a sort of special treat. Other than that our meals are home-made (we even both take our lunches to work). The manservant will be busy out on the BBQ for a while.

LOL - that sounds very inventive..... I was wondering if you meant I should sit on the broom handle. I was thinking that I would volunteer the manservant for that job!

Your method is probably more effective than my new devices.

LOL @ the mouse dying at your feet! We previously found poison to be effective on a family of mice who must have died a day or so before my in-laws came to stay - behind the stove which is virtually impossible to move! By the time they arrived there was a pretty "ripe" smell in the kitchen.

Spoilsport! :-) I'm fairly pessimistic about them myself. If they were that effective the trap would be out of business......

in the meantime, your story almost sounds like a cartoon!

LOL - "Malicious Mouse"! brought to you by Mj.

...let the snake loose in your house for a few days ... and no more mouse!
And no more Emjay living in the house either!

Quite by accident a bunch of snakes slithered in
LOL - do you work in a quonset hut?

Yeah - they do sort of have cute little faces - in photos!

LOL - that is a great story! But, I'm sure it wasn't much fun when you were battling mice for your groceries! I would be willing to let it go if it would just go into the "humane" trap but it knows that the outside world is not nearly as cushy as living in my kitchen.

You should just turn him into a pet, and set out a wee table for him every night lest he go hungry! LOL

They sell D-Con and other such stuff at major retailers, like Wal-Mart and Wal-Greens. They also have sticky traps, which are a sheet of super sticky goo. They are also very good a trapping spiders. Don't put the sticky traps out unless the manservant is about, 'cause if you do catch him, he will still be alive.

It's funny you should say that. My dad has a bird scarer on the roof of his garage which emits sonic waves that apparently scare the birds away. It's true, it definitely works, however I cop for it when I go round there - this irritating ping twang sound every 5 seconds is enough to put an end to my visits - I'm pretty sure it's a bird/son scarer.

Oh man, I've had this problem. It's a pain. We found that only one thing worked for us, to seal up all food in air tight containers and to use the "exclusion" technique, the most effective (and also most humane) way to go, to seal up all holes and places mice can get in.

I'm having deja vu, I feel like I've rambled on about this before to you. If that's so I apologize. But we did have serious problems and I was scared that our neighbor was poisoning the mice and if they survived to get into our house it would poison our devouring cats.

Anyway we also had flies - even in our fridge! It was disgusting! But we bought Pyrex and sealed up everything, even the cedar cat litter. We had to consider that they could possibly live off wood or shavings. Or birdseed. Anyway it worked, we've been mouse free for a few months (knock on wood)!

(Tell those naughty mice that we'll sick Ives and Watson on them if they don't leave, they hunt as a team)! :D

Oo..I hate those ultrasonic whatevers- I can't 'hear' them but they make me uneasy and light headed.

Rent a cat?

This made me laugh. Thank you for that. I have had mouse problems before. One was eating my olive oil soap. Little bugger. An old lady told me what to do. Cover it in cayenne pepper. It worked. I could not use the soap anymore, but it discouraged the mouse from visiting my sink again.

Emjay replied to Country By Design’s comment:
Jul 17, 2009
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LOL .... I have a friend who trapped two mice and put them in a cage! The common household ones are not as attractive as the ones you buy in the pet store (my son went through a mice stage! - he had to keep them outside in the shed though!).

LOL -bird/son scarer!! PeteGraham, I miss you when work takes you away from vox! :-)

Yeah - that is true about locking up the food. We have everything in glass jars - LOL now I'm imagining the mouse peering through that glass feeling really frustrated! In the microwave we put things we can't put in jars like bread. I hardly ever see flies here .... lots of mosquitoes though! I need an Ives and a Watson!

It's always great to come back, especially to hilarity like this. You understand I'm not laughing at your misfortune, just the way you word it :)

I have this strange image of a mouse strutting across your worktop. "It's MY house, what of it? Wanna fight about it?"

LOL - the little red light reminds me of one of those laser target lights. I wonder if there is a market for rent a cat ... I probably should look up an exterminating company - although that would be rather overkill for one pesky little mouse. I keep hoping to "tame" the stray alley cat.

LOL - that is EXACTLY what this mouse is doing! It was especially galling to see it coming into the loungeroom the other night as though it was going to watch televison with me! Next I'm going to get the manservant to rig up some way of electrocuting it!

If it kicks back with a can of mouse-beer, then you need to start worrying. Keep an eye on your glass jars - you never know what that mouse has been watching. It'll raid your storage mission impossible style. I'd pay to see that. Then take it outside and kick it's arse for you.

Emjay replied to Geology Byotch’s comment:
Jul 17, 2009
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LOL ..... that's a great story. Someone at work suggested pure Peppermint oil as a deterrent too. You soak cotton wool balls with it and put them around the areas the mouse likes to hang out. When they dry out you just resoak them.

We live in a row house so the mouse is probably splitting its time between us and the neighbours on that side: darting between houses via the holes made for the gas pipes. As we don't leave any food about it must eat next door and then just come over here to chill out!

Country By Design replied to Emjay’s comment:
Jul 17, 2009
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My dad caught a field mouse (a more attractive variety) for me and built a cage for it. It was the first pet I was allowed to keep in the house. Then someone gave us a cat, and someone forgot to shut the door on the mouse's house, or the cat was very clever, anyway...

country_cinderella replied to Emjay’s comment:
Jul 18, 2009
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the peppermint actually does work very nicely. I live in a rural area and so often have field mice becoming house mice. The mice know where my cats can and can not go and they blatantly tease them (well at least it seems like they do). When they started running thru the silverware drawer and dirtying the utensils I decided to try putting dried mint leaves in the drawer around the sorting tray and sure enough the mice stayed out. I could always tell when the mint leaves had lost their potency, because I would start seeing evidence of the mouse again. I would replace the old leaves with newer ones and again no mouse. I think after a while the mouse just gave up on hanging out in the silverware drawer because I have not had to replace the mint in a very long time.

I never fully get rid of the mice here because of all the cracks and crevices that they go that the cats can not. I do use the mouse poison in areas that I am sure that the cats can not reach to help cut down on the numbers and the cats do a far share of catching the mice that are stupid enough to come out of hiding.

I do not leave any food out on the counters, but not because of the mice, it is because one of my cats is a rescue that must have been fed people food all its early life and he will steal people food in a heart beat. You would think he was starving, but I know he is not because there is plenty of cat food around but he only eats it when he can not steal enough from the trash. we purposely use trash cans with latching lids in the house so that he can not get in them as often, but he has figured out that when the can is light he can knock it over and remove the lid once it is fuller he can not do that.

Haha... I'm sorry for laughing... but maybe it's not working on the mousie cos it's past its teenage years... :P

Anyhow.. it's a house pest and has to be gotten rid of. Desperate problems calls for desperate solutions. Time to bring in the pest-busters, professional mouse killers...>) kekekeke

OMGosh!! I'm so sorry!!
How aggravating and annoying and icky!!!!

No ideas, though. I have chipmunks in the garage, and under the garage and making poopies on my car, and a raccoon that sits on the roof (why, I don't know) .and foxes and all manner of critters; Sweetie eviscerated a mouse/mole/vole a few years ago in my bedroom (it was too ripped apart to identify). I've got all kinds of horrible killing pellets out because the chipmunks are making the hillslde next to house erode.
It's awful...I wish I could help........((((((((((hugs))))))))))

About that electronic whoosit: Yow.
*plugs ears and runs*

Geology Byotch replied to Emjay’s comment:
Jul 21, 2009
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Peppermint oil! I bet it smells lovely. Wonder if peppermint oil works on moths? We have been plagued by them in this house. Mostly we swat them with flyswatters, and have sticky flystips (which are fun in the pantry to watch; they fill up in a week; but Little Bird haad a mishap with a flystrip, that cost him a bunch of feathers, so none in the living room any more) not wanting to use horrible moth balls. We have tried lavender and sage, to no avail.

Maybe THEY are the problem with your internet...snip!

I am pretty glad to know about this mouse repel, i am sure it would be helpful to get rid of mouse at kitchen.KVM Switches

Cooking Deterrent

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