Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Mouse In The House

The other day while cleaning out our big closet beside the master bathroom, I found a Halloween costume with a lot of holes in it.  I looked further and I saw mouse poo!  We had a mouse in the house, and not a cute one like Mickey Mouse!



I was a little scared to keep looking, not wanting to meet the mouse face to face.  I waited on my husband to get home from work, so he could help me.  We had the closet almost all the way cleaned out when I saw the mouse run to the other side of the closet.  I screamed and he ran back the other way.  My husband kept pulling things out and handed me a box.  I looked in the box and the mouse looked right back at me.  I screamed again and threw the box back at my husband.  The mouse ran out of the box while I screamed some more.  He started to run out of the closet when my husband trapped him with the box.  We didn't find any more mice after that.




Our next problem was to find out where the mouse came in the house.  There were no holes in either of the closets.  We have a big garden tub in our bathroom and I had been feeling cool air coming out around the edges.  When we pulled a panel off, we saw this huge hole pictured above!  We bought our home a little over 2 years ago, and I guess this hole has been there ever since then!  I can't believe they didn't cover that up!  That really explains why our room is the coldest one in the house.



We knew we needed to cover that hole if we wanted to be rid of any more mice.  My husband found some hardware cloth and nailed it down over the hole.  Then he covered it with that expanding foam to seal any cracks.  It doesn't look pretty, but it should keep the mice out.  I feel lots better about sleeping in there now!

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't blame you for screaming! Glad your husband was able to patch the hole.

Shannon said...

I LOVE that expanding foam. Our house was built in the 1030's so we have used that allot. It really works!
On the homeschooling front, I have always wondered why people would homeschool a child through elementary and middle school and them throw them into public high school. Does your local homeschool group offer high school classes? Ours have group classes for Algebra 1 and 2, Geometry, Biology and Chemistry, and English. They are all taught my mothers who were, or currently are, high school teachers in the public school system. This helps out many moms in your situation who may be hesitant to continue on. Something to look into.

Shannon said...

That should say 1930's lol.

Beansieleigh said...

Glad you caught the little intruder, and I can only imagine all the screaming! I would have been too! (0; I remember an old boyfriend throwing a garden (garter? sp??) snake at me, while he was mowing the lawn.. Thinking it was a stick, I tried to CATCH it! Well, thank God I missed, because when I looked down, it was SLITHERING AWAY!!!.. So, what happened next? (0; You guessed it!.. A LOT of SCREAMING! ~tina

Eggs In My Pocket said...

Bless your heart! Glad you found it! blessings,Kathleen

Anonymous said...

glad you found the critter...we get mice occasionally, but the cats take care of them.

Dorothy said...

Oh goodness I'm so glad you got the culprit..and eliminated the entry point. Cute post..

Dorothy from grammology
grammology.com

Cheryl said...

Oh my, a mouse is better than a snake! Glad you found the hole and I bet the bathroom will be cozy now.

When we moved 2 years ago, I made the contractors promise that every hole was filled (looked behind him daily). Always worry about snakes getting in the house.

Tipper said...

Yikes! We've lived here almost 14 years-and just before Christmas we had our first mouse. I screamed until it was gone : )I'm glad you found the hole and got it fixed too.

Farming On Faith said...

I am so sorry to hear about your chicken~
I hope the others will be alright!

Micki said...

I hate mice, but glad that you finally found the little culprit.
Micki

Together We Save said...

Oh I hate mice.... I came to work one morning and there was a mouse here. It was a baby, so small, but I still screamed and stood in my chair till my boss got to work.

Tricia said...

Yikes, glad you found the mouse!

And thanks for the sweet comment on my post.

Tricia said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

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QuiltedSimple said...

i've gone through 5 glue traps in the last 3 weeks - but I have to leave them for todd to dispose of. one day we had 2 mice on 1 trap - ugh
kris

nannykim said...

This story is a hoot! I love how we women are often so scared of mice! Ha--I do the same thing! It is hard to believe you had such a big hole!! My hubby has been spending weeks filling in assorted cracks and openings that the Orkin man told us about!! We were astounded that he found 84!!! Some on the outside and some on the inside. So my hubby has been using that same foam you showed and also caulking. I have found the ultrasonic thingies that deter mice really work. I haven't (knock on wood) had problems since we started using these 5 years or so ago. (INspite of all the cracks!!)

Twisted Fencepost said...

Oh yeah, it's that time of year when they start looking for a warm place to live. I've been chasing them, too. Got four so far. I think that's all of them. When you live out in the country, there is no where else for them to go.