Inconvenient Annoyances

Renting 

Borrow mine (cat, not terrier). Your landlord would never notice. (Of course, I can't guarantee his effectiveness, he's used to getting square meals these days.)

Ah, well since you wrote you might be burning the house down, I thought you might own  

When we kept chickens (yes, we did), when I first got them that first winter they attracted rats.  TOTAL INFESTATION.  I guess the thing was the rats use the path of less resistence when looking for food and in the winter, it's stealing it from chickens.  Anyway.... I was visiting my sis in VA and while I was there I bought this "humane" trap thingy which actually electrocuted them -- the Rat Zapper.  It was great!

I don't have chickens anymore because I got a terrier - a Patterdale mix and on the third day of having her, when she was still tiny and only 6 weeks old, she killed all three of them    NOTHING survives being in our back garden with Poppy.  She's 6 months old now and she's managed to kill several black birds, a wood pigeon, a vole, many spiders (that were bigger than you might think) and if she's killed any mice or rats, I haven't found the evidence yet  

She's a lot more useful than my 10 month old German Shepherd who just barks like a lunatic and eats her own turds    And THAT is a minor, if not inconvenient, annoyance.

Mine is blooming stinking disgusting mice of evil. We moved house because of our last in-ability to get rid of mice and I just saw a freaking mouse run out from our fireplace.

Seriously, I will burn the house down if I have to, I am not living with mice.
I'm currently creating a humane mouse trap from a bucket, peanut butter, a coathanger and a can. It better catch the bugger.

We had the SAME problem.  I read online about using 100% pure peppermint oil (not extract and such) and put it on some cottonballs.  Place the cottonballs around your flat and the mice apparently don't like the smell (too strong for their little noses, I think).  So far so good.  I found the oil at a health store and only put a couple of drops of it on the cottonballs.  I put them under the heaters and under the cupboards...basically anywhere they usually go.

I'm currently creating a humane mouse trap from a bucket, peanut butter, a coathanger and a can. It better catch the bugger.

Why bother with humane!?

Under normal circumstances, I'm all about sparing life.  I don't even like to squish bugs unless they're actually biting me.  Rats/mice are a major exception to this!  I have a serious phobia.  Of course, since I'm going to be living on a croft, that's going to be a problem. 

My boyfriend puts lots of poison out, which seems to have helped.  We're also getting a dog, and may try to get a couple of outdoor cats.  (They can't get at the poison.)  But I still won't walk around in between the bales unless I'm armed with something.  I'm not crazy about going near the bins, either.

I like the idea of the zapper.

You can add people and allow them to only view your limited profile or put them on different lists to limit what they can see.  they are then your friend (no hurt feelings), but can only see what you want them to see (you have control.) 

I will most likely do this--thanks!

My already crap internet has apparently been made worse by the weather last night.  Only 2.5 more months of BT...it can't come soon enough!

Borrow mine (cat, not terrier). Your landlord would never notice. (Of course, I can't guarantee his effectiveness, he's used to getting square meals these days.)

You could borrow my cat. He kills full sized rabbits most every night if we let him out, so a few mice would be like a light snack.  

ETA: My IA: Woke up this morning with mastitis. Again. With red streaks on my chest this time. Not good, and it's painful. And I'm really upset about it because I thought it had cleared up, I haven't had any problems for the last year. Plus the doctors said it was due to smoking and I quit smoking over a month ago (and my theory was the Pill, but I quit that nearly a year ago, so that theory is out, too.)  Going in for an emergency appointment this morning, but probably they will give antibiotics and make a hospital appt, then by the time I go in for the hospital appt, the problem will have cleared, so they won't see anything during the ultrasound, just like the last two times. Ugh. 

Why bother with humane!?

Under normal circumstances, I'm all about sparing life.  I don't even like to squish bugs unless they're actually biting me.  Rats/mice are a major exception to this!  I have a serious phobia.  Of course, since I'm going to be living on a croft, that's going to be a problem. 

My boyfriend puts lots of poison out, which seems to have helped.  We're also getting a dog, and may try to get a couple of outdoor cats.  (They can't get at the poison.)  But I still won't walk around in between the bales unless I'm armed with something.  I'm not crazy about going near the bins, either.

I like the idea of the zapper.

Be careful with poison if you do end up getting a dog and cats. Even if they can't get to the poison directly, they can be poisoned by eating the mice who have previously eaten the poison.

Also, Cheesebiscuit, if you humanely catch your mice, what are you going to do with them? If you put them out in the garden, they're just going to come back inside. When my friend was little they had mice that kept coming back. To prove that it was the same mouse her dad put a little blue paint on the back of one, released it about a mile from the house, and sure enough, the blue mouse came back!

I have another friend who used sticky traps and a bucket of water, which I named, 'the bucket of death'. 

Be careful with poison if you do end up getting a dog and cats. Even if they can't get to the poison directly, they can be poisoned by eating the mice who have previously eaten the poison.

We had mice in our current place when we moved in and our fat cat killed one and we were really worried the cat ingesting poison via the mouse!  Luckily, the mice cleared out after the first mousie took a cat-sponsored dirt nap.

I still get a little freaked when I notice the cats staring at one place a little too intently.

Wow J, sorry about the job and the infection  

I'm full of tons and tons of IAs today
1.)  Back into the office after being on holiday

2.)  My company killed my project that I've been working on for the last 8 months, killing myself for, doing all kinds of everything for, including working loads of hours on my above mentioned holiday, and its stopped dead in its tracks just days before the deadline

3.) Left 85-95ºF temps and sunny weather to come back to freezing 50ºF temps and buckets of rain (though it suits my mood)

4.) Came back to a very mouldy house again - (My fault apparently accordinging to the letting agent   )  my house is super clean right now- since I've spent tons and tons of time in the last few weeks getting it ready to move out-  by I'm back to mould on the windowsills and walls which I have to thoroughly clean again before I move out.  Its vile and I could feel my lungs burning as I tried to sleep

5.) J didn't have to come back into work today and was is blissfully lounging today away while I had to come back into the office.  

6.)  I tried several times last week to get in touch with the guy who delivers my veg box to tell him I am away on holiday.  So I come home and there's my veg box,sitting on my steps with half dead veggies and of course since he delivered I have to pay for it. Sigh.
 
7.) I need to come up with cash for the first month's rent by tomorrow so I can start to move into the new place.  Not entirely sure how I will pull this off, still eat and put petrol into my car for the next week....

All IAs, nothing major, but still puts me in a dour mood    

My legs/feet keep randomly aching. Like this morning I woke up and my feet hurt. I'd been lying in bed for the last 8 hours, so there's no reason they should be in pain.

My knees, at least, I can blame on the wet weather, which they're not fond of.

Woke up at 4:30 for no good reason.

Be careful with poison if you do end up getting a dog and cats. Even if they can't get to the poison directly, they can be poisoned by eating the mice who have previously eaten the poison.

Also, Cheesebiscuit, if you humanely catch your mice, what are you going to do with them? If you put them out in the garden, they're just going to come back inside. When my friend was little they had mice that kept coming back. To prove that it was the same mouse her dad put a little blue paint on the back of one, released it about a mile from the house, and sure enough, the blue mouse came back!

I have another friend who used sticky traps and a bucket of water, which I named, 'the bucket of death'. 

Hmm, well there's a big park so I was planning on releasing them, but I probably should just kill them :/ I hate the thought of them drowning in a peanut butter smeared bucket though.

:'(

Everyone is welcome to bring their various mice hunting pets over, but they will probably just get petted and fed treats by me as I'm a sucker for anything furry (except mice)

If you're going to go the non-humane route and feel bad about a bucket of water, the old-fashioned snap traps are probably best.  Poison for mice in the house runs the risk of them dying in the walls and stinking up the place.  With the traps, you know you'll be able to get to them when they've finally met their maker.

I hope you get it sorted soon!

And another one...still can't get a straight answer from the eye hospital as far as what I need to do/when to prepare for/recover from this eye surgery (which is happening in 3 weeks, so I'd kind of like to know!).