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I need help with a mouse
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greenfire




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Sep 19 2008, 8:57 am
clarissa - I've set em free too ... they come back for more peanut butter & oreos ... Scratching Head

now I have quite the opposite problem ... since dd got her kitties - we have no mice ... except when the kitties escape in the night (cause someone leaves the door open) and they bring one inside just to show me how much they care ... well I was wondering what kitty was so excited for in the wee hours of the am - squeek squeek *meow* *meow*


Last edited by greenfire on Fri, Sep 19 2008, 9:08 am; edited 1 time in total
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Clarissa




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Sep 19 2008, 8:58 am
greenfire wrote:
clarissa - I've set em free to ... they come back for more peanut butter & oreos ... Scratching Head
Mine don't come back. I set them free outside buildings where I suspect the snacks are much better.
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bubby




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Sep 19 2008, 9:06 am
Thanks for all your sage advice! I called my neighbor who is ostensibly in charge Rolling Eyes , yelled like a madwoman that DH is away & I keep seeing the little critters & I'm getting a cat for the basement & to my surprise, he agreed.

MEANWHILE...DH went nuts, as did DS. Tough. But DH returned for Shabbos only Crying & put out glue traps in the exact places I'd seen Mickey. And guess what?? He caught it!! So now we'll hold off on Tiddles & see if we get more.

For all of you who are riveted by this incredibly fascinating topic, stay tuned for Mickey's next adventure in Bubby's Boarding House! LOL
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bubbyonline




 
 
    
 

Post Sat, Sep 20 2008, 2:10 pm
Excuse me for being so lengthy, but I wrote this several years ago, and it's just soooo appropo here....

Of Mice and Men

Several years ago, our neighborhood was attacked by a plague of mice. They were everywhere. We saw them in the cupboards, under the buildings, scurrying from place to place. Every morning I would discover that the mice had made a sandbox on my kitchen floor. The first person to discover that we had a problem was my teenage daughter. One Friday morning she opened a kitchen drawer and discovered an ‘enormous cockroach with a tail’. I was standing next to the stove when she jumped into my arms.. We were lucky that some chulent remained!!

Some people thought the problem was due to the fact that the gas company had dug up all the pipes in the neighborhood. Others thought it was from the fact that somehow the cat population seemed to have diminished to almost nil. I do not know. I just know that the mice were everywhere.

For some reason they did not seem to appreciate the baits that I so patiently prepared for them.. We tried everything. Bread, fresh and stale, white cheese, cottage cheese, and even hard cheese, ( a luxury item that we try not to buy)! I even tried sardines smeared with jelly. The mice seemed to enjoy the items in the cupboard, rather than the servings set out for them, those ungrateful devils. I even tried setting the baits with gloved hands, so they would not be bothered by that horrible human smell (which for some reason did not seem to bother them when they ate our fresh bread or leftover cake). It seemed that the mice had gotten the upper hand.

Finally in desperation I called the Jerusalem Municipality’s veterinarian service. Surely this was in their domain. After being sent from one office to another, I found myself speaking to the man in charge of the rodent population of Jerusalem. I pleaded my case most eloquently, in the most desperate terms possible. He was sympathetic, but had no real solution to the problem.

When we had first moved to our neighborhood, close to 20 years ago, there were absolutely no cats to be seen. ‘What a pleasure’, I thought to myself, as I threw the trash in the building’s container without worry of a cat underfoot. Then one day a huge truck pulled up behind our building and the cat, or rather cats, were let out of the bag. I was quite indignant, and ran to the driver of the truck demanding to know what in the world he was doing. He quietly extolled the virtues of the stray cat, without which the rodent and snake population of our neighborhood would be out of hand. It certainly made sense, and I, for one, would much rather have stray cats than mice, or, Heaven save us, SNAKES!

Now, in my innocence, I asked the man in the veterinarian department of the Jerusalem municipality if it would be possible to replenish the cat population of our neighborhood. Silence, and then an explosion of laughter. Once again silence and more laughter from the other members of his office. “Geveret’, he chortled, ’THAT is a solution from the time of the Byzantines’. However he was nice enough to suggest a bait that the mice could certainly not resist. Bread fried in oil and garlic. And so every night I made supper for my husband, supper for my children, and supper for the mice. For some reason everyone preferred the mice food, except the mice.

At this point, I had decided to make peace with the situation. Guests were forewarned, and some brave ones even remained. I attempted to put on a brave front and only rarely found myself standing on a kitchen chair, clutching my heart. Upon meeting friends in the local mekolet, the situation was discussed, and some women even ‘kvelled’ about their adorable little pets.


One afternoon while talking to a high school friend on the telephone, a mouse suddenly ran between my legs and disappeared under the stove. I screamed! ‘Uhhh, there’s only one thing which could cause a woman to scream like that in the middle of a phone conversation. You must have seen a mouse! And I have the perfect remedy’ my friend wisely advised. I rolled my eyes, thinking of what new delicacies I would be preparing for my little guests, but continued to listen. ‘Donate money to the community tzedokah fund! It’s a proven segula . And it really works!’ At this point, I was willing to try anything, even something as drastic as giving tzedokah. I quickly delivered a sum of money to the head of our local community fund. (Just so you don’t get terribly impressed with my efficiency, please realize that he happens to be my next door neighbor). And much to my amazement, THAT was the end of our mouse problem!

And the moral of our story is: Tzedoka does not only save one from death, but also from mice!
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bubby




 
 
    
 

Post Sat, Sep 20 2008, 8:04 pm
Well, I'll certainly try the Tzdeaka-with-mice-in-mind method. But an update...DH & DS are busy warbling Sholom Aleichem when DS looks at the trap by the couch, under a little table that houses DH's precious rock plant (don't go there!) & yelled here's one!! Now DH watered his precious plant Fri AM and always checks the trap. So that was fresh. DS decides to check BEHIND the couch. 2 VERY dead Mickeys on a glue trap.

So they look at me & I said, VERY firmly, NO WAITING TILL AFTER SHABBOS or no Seuda. I'm not living with any dead vermin, human or otherwise.

So they put on rubber disposable gloves, grabbed a shopping bag, & dropped the traps in & down the garbage disposal shute.

I woke up DH early to check the whole house before I went in the kitchen. He was not happy, but I figured he has to go to Mikvah & Shul anyway, but he said 8:30 was too early. But being a nice guy he went big game hunting. B"H nothing. But SIL is more of a coward than I am, so he won't get rid of them for me, DS goes back to NJ tonight & DH is away on business again all week. I am not sure which is worse: dead mice on traps, alive mice on traps, or mice running on my counters again. shock
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Fox




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Sep 21 2008, 3:00 am
Is it just me, or does it seem like the rodent problem has increased everywhere? I've been married for almost 25 years, and lived in a variety of apartments, and never had significant problems with mice. Now, granted, I live in an older house (1930s), but it seems like everyone is reporting more problems . . .
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bubby




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Sep 21 2008, 9:11 am
There's so much construction going on round here, so I guess the little critters have to move too! I just wish they'd find a new address. Sad
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Fox




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Dec 17 2008, 2:54 pm
ganizzy wrote:
ive got the best solution.

we lived in an apt next to a junk collector who reeked. we were absolutely infested, seeing mice all the time. we bought a rat zapper. basically its a small box that has an opening at one end. you put the food in, nuts or s/t with a smell and then turn on the switch. when the mouse comes to get the food it trips the sensor and it get zapped - its killed in one second. you can see if a mouse was caught if the red light on top of the box is blinking. then u close ur eyes, pick up the box and empty it in the garbage and with ur eyes still closed you cover the garbage and presto you never saw the mouse. then you just put some more food in, flip the switch and ur good to go again. you just have to make sure every few days or every few zaps that the batteries didnt die. the rat zappers cost about $30 but theyre worh it. we were spending over $30 a month in traps.

anyways the frst night we got it, we set it and then every time one of us got up to our newborn, we would empty the box and rest it. in 48 hrs. we caught 17 - no exaggeratiion!!! after that, it was only here or there bh.

when we moved we took our 2 boxes to ca, but meanwhile theyre just sitting in the closet. maybe I should list it on craigslist or s/t


This is a fairly old thread, but the topic is apparently eternal!

I tried the Rat Zapper extolled by Ganizzy, and it's really great! I purchased my "Classic Rat Zapper" online (www.ratzapper.com). In my case, it took a few weeks before my ultra-smart mouse was desperate enough to try for the peanut butter I'd used as bait, but sure enough, last night he sniffed his last meal!

It's probably TMI, but my mouse was apparently a confirmed bachelor visiting from our elderly neighbors, and he'd become quite large and obese. We saw him occasionally, and his appearance was quite distinctive!

It was turning into a bit of a family problem, though, because my entire extended family knew that I was at war with a single mouse . . . and I was losing. My father was beginning to put a stumbling block before my observance of kibud av: I'd call him in Florida every day, and he'd immediately ask for mouse updates, chuckling all the while. Just yesterday I accused him of siding with the mouse! He replied that I shouldn't assume the mouse is Jewish, and perhaps I should wait until after the mouse's holiday season to pursue him.

So thank you, Ganizzy, for your excellent suggestion! Though the Rat Zapper folks don't mention it, I found the "close-your-eyes-as-you-empty-the-trap" advice to be the most important part of the process!
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amother


 

Post Wed, Dec 17 2008, 3:14 pm
can you please post the # of the stolin guy who took care of your closing up your holes.

Thank you!
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amother


 

Post Mon, Dec 29 2008, 10:21 am
amother wrote:
can you please post the # of the stolin guy who took care of your closing up your holes.

Thank you!
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Tehilla




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Dec 29 2008, 10:26 am
sorry! it's Mr. Shaffer (spelling?). 718-633-1431
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