Home-loving mouse
By Fleur
@Fleura (29129)
United Kingdom
May 4, 2017 6:06am CST
A couple of weeks ago I woke up in the night and heard a scuffling sound above my head. Upon investigating in the morning, I found a tell-tale collection of mouse droppings in the loft. Mice nibbling the wiring in the rafters is something we really don’t need, so I went out and bought a couple of mouse-traps, the kind that catch the mouse alive (called a Trip-Trap), rather than kill it. I baited them with peanut butter and set them near the wall.
Last week on Wednesday morning I found I had caught a mouse. I took it out and released it about 5 minutes’ walk away – down the road past several other houses, up a short lane, across the playing field and another meadow and into the woods.
Two days later I had caught a mouse again. This time I heard the trap rattling at night, before I had gone to bed, so I took it out and let it go, nearer this time, but still in the woods beyond at least 8 other houses. My partner asked if it could be the same mouse, but I poo-poohed the idea, it seemed silly when the mouse had so many other places it could go.
We were away for the weekend so I had to remove the traps (no point catching a live mouse then leaving it to die of dehydration) but I re-set them when we got back. On Tuesday morning I had caught one. It didn’t have many distinguishing features but I noted that it was male. The girls wanted to release it, so in a bit of a hurry on the way to school, we let it go in the little lane leading to the playing field, only a couple of minutes’ walk away.
Yesterday there was a mouse in the trap again – again male. In spite of my doubts I was starting to get suspicious by now, so I carefully painted the nape of its neck (where it would not be able to reach to groom) with a dab of bright yellow nail varnish. Then I let it go on the far side of the playing field.
This morning there was a mouse in the trap again – and guess what? It was male and it had a distinctive bright yellow smear on the fur on the back of its neck. My partner was right – at least about this one. I wonder if I have just caught the same mouse five times?
This time I had to go out so I took Mr Mouse with me and released him in fields about 5 miles away. We’ll see what happens next…
All rights reserved. © Text and image copyright Fleur 2017.
19 people like this
19 responses
@MarshaMusselman (38652)
• Midland, Michigan
6 May 17
I wondered whether it was the same mouse before you did, but it doesn't seem possible that a mouse could find your home so quickly. Although we don't know if they come and go and maybe it's left many times before and returned to it's nest and therefore when you released it already it had practice? I wouldn't think just one mouse would be about either, but maybe you'd have heard it before if it had friends living there with it.
We've had mice before, but when we lived in rentals. When I was in my twenties was the first time I ever heard a critter in the ceiling above my bed, but then I was living in sort of a boarding house where they rented the bedrooms and everyone shared the bathroom, kitchen and living areas. I was too young to know to alert the homeowner at the time. I hope someone else had the forethought to do so.
Twenty-five years ago when our kids were little we came back from vacation and a mouse scurried across the floor in the dining room that same night. We figured it got in via the opening where the dryer vent should have been in the basement. That was the only one we ever had that we know of and we got rid of it.
1 person likes this
@MarshaMusselman (38652)
• Midland, Michigan
6 May 17
@Fleura And if it didn't come and go before then how would it be able to find it's way back so easily?
Actually, when you talked about finding one in the kitchen, it reminded me of another one we had in our own home, one we owned before. We think that one came up from under the house. Our house only had a crawl space below the one story, and it may have come up and gotten in around the pipes under the kitchen sink. We actually found it in the drawer below the stove.
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@Fleura (29129)
• United Kingdom
18 May 17
@MarshaMusselman I know ours can't have come in that way; houses here are built of brick or stone or concrete blocks on solid concrete foundations!
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@Fleura (29129)
• United Kingdom
6 May 17
I have had a mouse in places I've lived before, and each time it was just one mouse. Once in our student house we caught one in the kitchen. I took that one out into the country and it didn't come back, as far as I know. Another friend had a mouse in her house and when people were sitting quietly in the living room it used to come out and run about. In our last house we once had one in the living room; it was actually making a nest on the sofa and since I didn't ever have time to sit down I didn't notice! There hasn't been anything in the traps the last two nights so I think maybe it is just the one mouse again. I wonder if it does come and go a lot? You would think it would have to because otherwise we don't know where it would get food or water.
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@arthurchappell (45002)
• Preston, England
18 May 17
@Fleura he obviously likes your place a lot though hopefully he will find a new home
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@arthurchappell (45002)
• Preston, England
18 May 17
@Fleura the distance you took him obviously finally worked
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@BelleStarr (61047)
• United States
5 May 17
It seems as if your mouse thinks your home is his home lol I wonder if he has a GPS to get back.
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@BelleStarr (61047)
• United States
11 May 17
@Fleura you're just too good to him!! Or her lol
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@Fleura (29129)
• United Kingdom
11 May 17
@BelleStarr It was definitely a him - and he's not come back yet!
@AbbyGreenhill (45496)
• United States
4 May 17
@Fleura My husband has reused traps....I don't think a mouse is smart enough to understand blood....Mickey Mouse maybe but not your garden variety mice.
1 person likes this
@Fleura (29129)
• United Kingdom
5 May 17
@AbbyGreenhill Maybe not, but you have to admit this mouse is pretty intelligent to keep coming back from wherever I leave him. He certainly has a better sense of direction than some people I know!
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@Fleura (29129)
• United Kingdom
4 May 17
It's not just that I'm nice, I think the Trip-Traps are more re-usable, because the 'splat' variety get blood on them and after the first time I suspect other mice know to be wary so they aren't as effective and you have to keep buying new ones.
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@allknowing (130066)
• India
5 May 17
@Fleura You would have to keep him in a cage as mice are destructive but cute all the same.
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@PatZAnthony (14752)
• Charlotte, North Carolina
18 May 17
Someone told us that the rodents we captured and let go away from our home would just come back to the same territory @Fleur so maybe it is true!
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@nanette64 (20364)
• Fairfield, Texas
4 May 17
I guess if he comes back this time @Fleura , he would be considered a house pet?
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@nanette64 (20364)
• Fairfield, Texas
4 May 17
@Fleura It is pretty impressive that he's been able to come back from some of the distances you mentioned. Especially considering a mouse is a pretty tiny animal. Yes they can run like the dickens, but still.
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@Poppylicious (11133)
•
5 May 17
If he always comes back because he has family in your loft, I hope that Mrs Mouse doesn't nibble too many wires in revenge. He'll be back! I hope.
1 person likes this
but the back of the neck was a better idea. His little legs should be getting tired by now.
@Essjayd (1568)
•
4 May 17
Hahaha he obviously likes your house take it as a compliment! Seriously though ou have to release them at least a mile away or they'll just come straight back!
Apart from sealing up any holes where they are getting in try spraying a mix of water with peppermint, lavender or eucalyptus essential oil around the areas you have found mice. Sprinkling some strong chilli powider in the area deters them as well.
1 person likes this
@Essjayd (1568)
•
4 May 17
@Fleura it does work but you have to keep doing it regularly. I know a lot of people do it for a few days then wonder why they still get mice a few weeks later.
We get mice every year due to the fact we live in an old building there's too many place they can enter. Since we started using the essential oils regularly I've hardly seen one in years.We switch the scents about so they don't become desensitised to one scent!
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@arthurchappell (45002)
• Preston, England
18 May 17
@Fleura he obviously likes your place a lot though hopefully he will find a new home
1 person likes this
@ilocosboy (45157)
• Philippines
4 May 17
Maybe that mouse wants to be adopted by you. Do you want some rat to be your pet?
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@responsiveme (22926)
• India
4 May 17
Mr Mouse gets caught and comes back every time.He is letting his luck run out.
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@spaceseed (2843)
• India
4 May 17
other option is if Mr. Mouse is caught again, there are many chinese dishes to turn him into food ...............Lol
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