[mink]

Sorry if its a lil off topic,( and long.. ) but I am curious to know a little about mice.


To start... a few months ago, I walked into my kitchen and when I got like 2ft. away from the sink I did a double-take because there was the smallest little mouse I ever saw.. reaching towards a water-filled cup in the sink. The mouse instantly jumped and ran across the counter and down between the stove and the wall. I never saw it again... until..

The other night my fiance and I walked into the kitchen and he froze and whispered to me.. "look! a mouse".. I missed it, but he saw it run in the same way I saw it go before.

I moved some jars and things around on the counters and saw the mouse had left many hidden "presents" where you could tell exactly where he/she went and how. Apparently the mouse likes the phone hook area.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Anyhow, we live with my mom in the house I grew up in. I have never ever seen a mouse in our house before, or even outside it!
They are doing a lot of construction behind our yard in a trailer park that borders the woods, so maybe the mouse has re-located into our unconquered home?

- How likely is it that there is more than one mouse? I know the saying about roaches.. where you see one...

- Do you think the mouse is living somewhere in our house or is outside and comes in to forage?

- So far the mouse is not being destructive, our boxed foods are on the opposite side of the kitchen in a laminate 2- door closet of sorts. The only signs are its "presents".

- Should I put out food for the mouse to discourage it roaming all over the kitchen and possibly discovering ways to our food or finding itself confronted by a German shepherd or two? Would it cause for more mice to show up if there is a supply of food?

- Do mice live in mischiefs, or by themselves?

- What kinds of harm can mice cause?

~ Basically, I do not wish harm to the mouse, and if its just claiming random crumbs and the occasional lost dog kibble, I don't see much harm in letting the mouse be. My father who does not live with us would likely call world war 3 on the poor thing if he ever heard of this. My mother grew up with mice in her parents house, and is a seasoned killer, but she does not seem to care either way about this mouse.
My rats are in my bedroom, far from the kitchen.. and we have 2 German shepherds who roam the house except for the kitchen since my dog has food allergies.
My fiance grew up with mice in his trailer.. their one cat is a mouser and they have the have-a-heart traps where its just a clear tunnel with a trap door. My fiance would take any captives far far away and let them loose.
My fiance's father once flung a poor captive into the woods by the tail, and my fiance got into a fist fight with him over it.. so I know how he feels.

With both my grandparent's house and my fiance's trailer.. anything and everything that has been done in those situations.. has not had any results. The occasional mouse or two always exist. My fiance suggested the noise-maker device that scares away pests, before he realized we have rats, duh.

I just don't know what to do. Gathering some info and opinions sounds like a good option right now =^_^=.

 

[ari3189]

I don't think it would be a very smart idea to leave food for the little guy. That will keep him coming back and if one day he shows up and there is no little snack waiting for him, I think he will be far more likely to find food elsewhere in your kitchen. I am pretty sure that mice, like rats, are social... So there is probably more than one. I would do a good search of the kitchen, especially where the little guy ran when he saw you. He could have got in the house somehow and now can't figure out how to get out. That happenned in my mom's house. But, since you say he ran behind the stove, there is probably a hole back there he got in through. I would say let him be. It's not worth the hassle of moving your entire stove/oven just to block the whole.

 

[madeittothemoon]

We've got mice in our house, too. We have no idea how many- we've heard them in the walls of one of my roommate's bedrooms, and under the stove... and I highly doubt they're the same mice every time, since she's upstairs and in the opposite side of the house of the kitchen. It's a pain, though... we don't want to call our landlord and tell them, because we're afraid of them doing anything that could hurt our rats (she has three, I have four). I agree with Ari, though... leaving food out would probably make it more likely to keep coming back. The only thing that I would recommend is to cover the hole that the mouse comes in from, if you know where that is.

 

[mink]

I haven't the slightest idea.. I don't know of any holes in our house lol. Maybe it is squeezing through a crack under a door or something. Its soooo tiny and I know how much a rat or hamster can squeeze through things, I can only imagine the lil' thing!

Looks something like these: