Vermin

We bought our current house mainly because it sits on a wooded lot with acres and acres of Greenspace behind it. These deep woods hold clues to the history of this area with burial mounds and Paw Paw groves as reminders of its ancient past. The woodland is also rich in wildlife and I have seen my share of deer, fox, coyote, groundhogs, wood cocks, turkeys, herons, pileated woodpeckers and sweetly singing Carolina wrens. It is at times peaceful, colorful, tranquil and always interesting. But sometimes it wants to move in with us – particularly when fall days start to turn to winter ones.

Now I love a cute little deer mouse with it’s giant eyes and smallish stature. Cute?

Deer Mouse

Very, when you are sitting in your Adirondack Chair gazing into the leaves. Not cute when you are sipping water in your kitchen at 11:00 at night and you see a quick movement out of the corner of your eye.

It doesn’t happen every year but, frequently enough that we have a sort of routine in place, ma and pa deer mouse decide to overwinter with us. In our kitchen. I spend the next few days stripping out the pantry and sealing everything in plastic or glass. Then I set the traps. Glue boards have always been the most effective for me – but they have a downside we can’t get past – 1) the best scenario: poor creature has a coronary once it is caught (happened just today as a matter of fact) and is dead on the board within minutes of being captured 2) you set the trap and forget to check it until months later when you find only a bit of deflated mouse left 3) you see a patch of fur but no mouse (danger – very big, strong mouse afoot!) and/or 4) you wake in the morning to a soft squeak coming from the pantry floor and realize you must dispatch the stuck and frightened thing before you have your coffee.

These mice were rather bold. They started on the bird seed I had stored in my laundry room and moved quickly on to sampling the Scharffen Berger chocolate bars I had set aside for holiday baking. Come to think of it – the last time mice invaded our pantry they chewed a hole through my daughter’s Halloween candy bag, nibbling on Hershey Bars. They didn’t go for the nuts or the trail mix, the Kashi Bars or the dried cranberries. They went for the chocolate. My kind of mouse.

Anyway – as of the close of the day we are down 3 mice (our Deer Mouse pair from the first floor plus a single common house mouse in the basement). The cat I had imported for the day to hunt – not worth his kibble. Glue traps – scored two. Spin trap – one. Oh, and Paul had to dispatch the glued-but-still-alive mouse before breakfast. Well, after all, I had to clean out the pantry – it was the least he could do.