I'm feeling guilty today. "Mr. Jingles" must die.

[Canter]

Early last week I went to put on my dishwasher and voila - no drainage. Thinking the out take pump had given up the ghost, I dutifully called “The Maytag Repairman.” Upon his arrival and the subsequent taking apart of those electrical componets we discovered the problem … mice had eaten their way through many of the hundreds of electrical wires that contribute in the effort to help keep my dishes sparkling clean. He also told me that once Mr. Jingles developes a taste for wiring, he won’t stop - he will keep coming back for an electrical “fix.”

Mr. Jingles and I have peacefully cohabited for the past 6 months since his arrival late last winter. Aside from the appearance of droppings under the sink and in the basement, I was content to live and let live. Until now.

Armed with an arsenal of extermination products, Mr. Canter and I literally “set the trap” for our unsuspecting guest. But having seen the half nibbled bag of Warfarin in the basement (safely out of pets and kids reach) I’m feeling terrible about taking a “Go ahead and make my day” approach to mousekeeping.

So I’ve been reminding myself about all the barn fires that I’ve heard about, where the fire marshall blamed rodent chewed wires for starting an electrical-caused blaze to make myself feel better.

To tell the truth, if I owned a barn, I would have be having nightmares about mice. Not about the guilt - but about the probability of an electrical fire.

[Starbucks]

Our cats have pretty much taken care of the mouse population … though I regret congratulating them for catching them, because now I find lizard tails and unedible mouse parts on the front portch.

[Merry]

Solution to problem: “Rent a Jack”.

Jack Russell terriers=1, Mr. Jingles=0

Not only will the mice be disposed of, but you can be entertained, as well. And just think of the redecorating possibilities!

“Charter Member of the Baby Greenie Support Group of North America”

[Clive_s_Mom]

When our JRT pup was truly just a pup (5lbs) we had a rat that would sneak over from the neighbor’s yard and try to get into our gas grill (I guess the scent of cooked steak was too much to keep away from).
Well, the pup did know his job was to kill the rat, but at 5lbs, I wasn’t convinced this would be a fair fight, so I sent Mr. Clive’s Mom out to buy rat traps that wouldn’t hurt the pup but would rid us of Mr. Rat. He came back with those sticky Glue Traps.
So, I dutifully waited until puppy is upstairs snoozing and carefully laid out the glue traps under the grill. I came out the next morning - and low and behold, no glue traps! Hmmmm. I searched around the yard and finally found one, stuck to the the base of a tiki torch. Now, here’s where I start laughing - this rat had gotten the equivalent of a Brazilian Wax. He managed to free himself from the glue trap, but at the expense of most of his body hair.
Needless to say, we don’t see that rat anymore.

• C

[msj]

Heidi, I can bring up a barn cat if you like, but he has to go home with me! And Louise has 2 darling kittens, well I guess cats now that she was worried about leaving for the first time. I’d even offer to bring my house kitty but am really looking forward to not being awakened at 5 AM.

LOL

msj

[dublin]

You just haven’t lived until personally witnessing a large poisoned rat in it’s death throes in your front yard…and then being scavenged by several crows.

EEEWWWWWWWWW!!!

I must admit as much as I dislike rats, I did feel pretty lousy watching it die.

Disposal of same was definitely a Mr. Dublin chore!!

“Of course, that’s just my opinion. I could be wrong.” - Dennis Miller

[msj]

Unfortunately as cute as field mice can be, (especially dangling from your barn cats mouth ( ), they do spread a lot of disease.

To all:
As for barn wiring, if you are considering having your barn rewired, most certainly consider having the wires run thru conduit piping. The mice and rats and, just as importantly, horses cannot chew thru it. It may run more $ in the long run, but the possibility of electrical fires will be eliminated and thus giving you a greater peace of mind and safer horses.

msj

[Magnolia]

We have some mice that did the same thing to our dishwasher. Somehow they evaded 3 cats and a dog - whatever.
Anyhow, we bought this “Tin Cat” thing that you bait with cheese - it traps Mr Mousey and then you can release him. PETA approved
Anyhow, long story short, mr. mouse got the cheese and somehow escaped the trap… more than once. So Mr Mousey still lives with my 3 cats and dog.

[Canter]

Early last week I went to put on my dishwasher and voila - no drainage. Thinking the out take pump had given up the ghost, I dutifully called “The Maytag Repairman.” Upon his arrival and the subsequent taking apart of those electrical componets we discovered the problem … mice had eaten their way through many of the hundreds of electrical wires that contribute in the effort to help keep my dishes sparkling clean. He also told me that once Mr. Jingles developes a taste for wiring, he won’t stop - he will keep coming back for an electrical “fix.”

Mr. Jingles and I have peacefully cohabited for the past 6 months since his arrival late last winter. Aside from the appearance of droppings under the sink and in the basement, I was content to live and let live. Until now.

Armed with an arsenal of extermination products, Mr. Canter and I literally “set the trap” for our unsuspecting guest. But having seen the half nibbled bag of Warfarin in the basement (safely out of pets and kids reach) I’m feeling terrible about taking a “Go ahead and make my day” approach to mousekeeping.

So I’ve been reminding myself about all the barn fires that I’ve heard about, where the fire marshall blamed rodent chewed wires for starting an electrical-caused blaze to make myself feel better.

To tell the truth, if I owned a barn, I would have be having nightmares about mice. Not about the guilt - but about the probability of an electrical fire.

[larosa90]

At our barn we had an infestation of rats; there is a mouser that does a good job of decapitating the mice named Randy. The barn owners called out the exterminator that they had on retainer, a representative of the exterminator company came out, agreed that the farm had a real rat problem, left, and never came back.

While the barn owners were negotiating with the exterminators, Mr. Barn Owner started to pick off the rats with a BB gun when the horses were in their turnouts. This helped, but after killing 20 some rats, they convinced the exterminator to come out and do things more efficiently.

I haven’t seen a rat in a long while (yay!) and now my horse, Jordan, shares his stall with a very lovely toad who seems content to live in the rat’s hole and eat what falls his way.

[beameup]

we bought those electronic thingies that emit some kind of noise/pulse whatever and it cleared our barn of rats and mice pretty quickly. It really worked!unfortunately my neighbor began complaining of an increase in the rodent population in her barn.
On the other hand, our barn cat once killed a mouse and later that day i found a nest of motherless mousie babies in my tack room. I felt so bad that i HANDFED them until they were old enough to leave the nest. Mr. Beameup thought I was totally crazy (this was before the purchase of the electronic thing.

[Small_Change]

There’s all sorts of live traps you can buy to catch the mice in… BTW peanut butter works better than cheese for bait.

I’m a sucker. I still have 5 baby mice that came into the clinic as pinkies. I raised them and felt guilty about letting them go as they were humanized.

Our clinic is the wildlife rehab clinic for the county so we end up raising all sorts of wild creatures. Currently, we have nine (yeah, nine) baby skunks living in a spare box stall. This year we’ve raised 30 baby coons, which are all living in a renovated tobbacco kiln turned coon condo. I have no idea how many birds have been raised or rehabed. We have two gophers at the moment… This spring we raised our fourth fawn.

So yup, after spending so long trying to raise these little guys, there’s no way that I’m going to intentionally kill them. They could be one of my babies!

It is better to ride and fall than never to ride at all.

[Tin]

Your mouse must be related to our mouse, to think there is probably a long liniage of “dishwasher” mice out there.

We got our first mouse a few weeks ago, he showed up in our dishwasher and would hide in the front panel everytime someone would try to “steam” him to death. I dreaded opening the freshly used washer to find a mouse baked onto a dish but other than that it didn’t bug me much. Finally poor mousie met his match when my rodent fearing aunt saw him and slammed the washer door real quick catching him in the hinges. Poor guy.

We now have a groundhog stuck under our porch sigh

~Did you know that a goldfish has a memory span of 3 seconds?~

[JustJumpIt19]

There are mice where I board too, but the population is going down now that several new cats have been added. I thought I was the only one who had a toad living in their horse’s stall! The wash racks are also frequented by toads when it gets dark, don’t kill them! They eat the flies :0)

Courtney
I ride, therefore I am.

[_jazmataz]

I feel guilty killing anything other than a mosquito…which is why my home is full of spiders and flies, and giant slugs eat my outside plants. But it sounds like Mr Jingles has overstayed his welcome…and your safety is at risk. Mice only live a few years anyway, so tell yourself that this guy has had his day. And hope none of his relatives have your address! Or throw a cat in the mix and let nature take it’s course. That way it’s not you who kills the little rodent! (this coming from someone with 7 Guinea pigs, I can’t bear to give the babies away!)

[Starbucks]

Aww! Poor Mr. Jingles! We have those real rat traps … I feel sorry for the cute little mice when they get caught in those, there’s really nothing … left.

Our yard/barn area (run in) is laden with toads. In fact, once, I got scared half to death because I caught a toad and Bo came and bit it right out of my hand!! Eww! Luckily he spit it right out!

[rory]

An old horse of mine used to share his feed with a family of rats. They seemed to be his friends.

I once found a mouse caught in a glue trap, still alive. I spent an hour trying to get him out without ripping off his foot. I was successful and he was totally unappreciative.

One of my pound puppies caught a cute little field mouse the other day. I think it was pregnant (SO fat) - it was still alive and ran away after my dog dropped it (good dog) but I don’t know how long it survived.

I found a mouse in a box once, which scared the bejeezus out of me. It had moved across a few states with me. I let it out, and hoped it could find its relatives.

I can’t even kill bugs. Sad, I know.

[Natalie]

Poor mousie.

Couldn’t you get one of those “live” traps that don’t actually kill the mouse? Than Mr. Jingles could be set free to live the rest of his mousie life away chewing on other people’s wiring!

“Throw your heart over the fence and your horse will follow.”

[stegall]

well, I loved the little micies too until I went to shake out my good horse blanket and I managed to fling the local mousie hotel all over the place. In surveying the damage, they had eaten out the innards of my favorite (and of course most expensive) blanket, and punched holes throughout. That was when it became “make my day” for the mice.

As for toads, I have one little toady in living in the barn door. Unfortunately I bruised his ego the other night, when shutting down for the evening. My last chore is to sweep the aisle, and I inadvertantly mistook him for a piece of manure and swept him into the pile. I had to dust him off and put him back into his door. He was not amused.

As for the mice-think snake ssssss. the other option is a good JRT, which are very effective,
but seem to enjoy their work too much for me

[L_Scott]

Welcome to the club. After they ate all my bread and left droppings everywhere at the cottage, I went on a witch hunt.

All I can say was the one we did catch was huge and grotesquely overweight, looking more like a fat sausage that a mouse.