To be getting emotionally attached to the mouse in our house

[professorsnape]

We've had a mouse in the house for last week or so.

We tired leaving cheese on the trap but he ate it.
We left chocolate buttons but he helped himself to those to and went back into his hole.

Every night me and DD, age 4, think of what food to leave out on the trap to catch him. Every morning when he get up, said food has been eaten.

He is becoming a house pet at this stage!

DH are getting pest control to come into and TBH am feeling a bit sorry for him.

AIBU/Do I need to get a life?

My nan's cat just used to open one eye in the vicinity of a mouse and ignore it completely. lazy good for nothing cat!

Yes Molly, I have googled several times - you must have a different google to me. Do you think the council/Rentokill are lying then?

You may also start to see the build up of urine trails. A regular myth is that mice are incontinent ? They are not! Mice constantly urinate as they move to mark out territory and food trails. This urine builds up over time to for a yellow trail which smells

Oh look, so technically they are not - but they do it on purpose. That's ok then

" A regular myth is that mice are incontinent ? They are not! Mice constantly urinate as they move to mark out territory and food trails. This urine builds up over time to for a yellow trail which smells."

Does it really make ANY fucking difference whether or not they are ACTUALLY incontinent if they "constantly urinate as they move"?? NO IT DOESN'T!

ha ha, xpost valium! you beat me to it.

X posted with thumb

And again!

They piss and shit everywhere whether they cant help it or do it on purpose is not really the point! they are not exactly toilet trained are they?!

.........and it stinks

YANBU to feel like that, but the mouse has to go. You've given it fair chance, but the reality is it's weeing and pooing all over the place, and it's a health risk. I had exactly the same in the summer, tried the humane traps, no luck. Had to kill it in the end. Felt guilty that day but there was no other way of getting it out. I'd even managed to get it out the front door one day but the next night it was back. I think your DH is doing the right thing. I got mine myself in the end using the sticky traps.

Bear in mind they will chew their legs off to get away from the sticky traps - snappy traps are more effective with peanut butter as bait.

Erm, do Rentokill charge you to get rid of the mice?

I'm not saying you want them in your house. I'm objecting to some of the language used in this thread about a living creature. People try to justify it by using words guaranteed to get an emotional reaction, like 'vermin', or perpetuating horror stories they've heard.

My friend's neighbour shot and killed magpies because he said they were vermin. Why didn't he just leave them alone? I just really, really hate the attitude that it is ok and even praiseworthy to bash a living creature on the head with a shovel.

Oh but look!

and look again

Sorry if I'm not helping...

But they are vermin - that's the correct term for them.

Molly, would your love stretch to cockroaches?

molly - I started a whole thread about the use of the word vermin. By and large I was told I was anthropomorphic and sentimental. Not to mention hypocritical. MN is a harsh and unforgiving lot towards anything non human that gets in the way.

OrmIrian

Aww look at this one

Well that clearly pleases you.

Taken from Wikipedia: Vermin:Disease-carrying rodents and insects are the usual case, but the term is also applied to larger animals?especially small predators ? on the basis that they exist out of balance with a human-defined (desired) environment. The term is also used as an extremely pejorative characterization of a particular class or group of people as inferior and subhuman.

I don't like cockroaches but I still couldn't bring myself to kill one. Maybe I should be a Buddhist, but is my attitude so unusual?!

Thank you OrmIrian. I'll have a look at your thread when I've calmed down

I dont want to kill anything.

But if you have an infestation [be it mice or cockroaches] sometimes that is the only way to deal with it.

molly - i am not keen on killing anything, i think mice are very sweet, but i will not have an infestation of them in my house, and humane traps just do not, in my experience, address the issue.

see, i knew this thread would make me feel defensive.

Jeeezz - if you lived out here you'd have to bring yourself to kill a cockroach, Molly - the feckers get into everything! once you've had cockroaches the size of small mice running around your kitchen, you soon get into the swing of bombing the bastards. Or you'll get very sick.

You're not really helping your "case" with your wiki quote - rats and mice do carry and promote disease. And are therefore vermin.

Oh I accept they have to be killed. I just think there is too much relish over the prospect at times.

And as for carrying diseases...ever heard of homo sapiens ?

So do dogs and cats but we choose to keep them in our house.

And no I don't kill anything, I catch them and take them outside.

We used to have a beautiful little mouse when we lived in old Victorian villa with huge cellars. It was small and dark and had large ears. I was very fond of it, so YANBU.

We also had pet spiders - I swear you could hear their feet on the wooden floors as they wandered around at night.