Thursday, January 01, 2009

Party Animals


The trouble started when I ordered a big bag of Wildlife Snack Jax
to feed backyard birds and squirrels. I stored in a cupboard close to the back door.
This is a bad place to store rodent food.
Weeks ago I noticed some had spilled out. I opened the cupboard to find:
  1. Spilled Wildlife Snack Jax
  2. A hole chewed in the bag.
Someone was eating in!
I cleaned up, put the rest of the food in a sturdier bag, and forgot about it.
Then I returned from a holiday trip: More cracked corn on the kitchen floor. Then I opened the cupboard.
It was trashed! They'd thrown a mouse frat party. Cracked corn, peanut shells and assorted nuts covered everything. They thanked me for the free food by relieving themselves on my wine bottles, one champagne bottle (a former collectors item) and a bottle of amaretto. Wisely, they'd fled the scene of the crime.
As I swept, scrubbed and disinfected, notions of sticky tape and mousetraps suddenly seemed like a good idea. So did dynamite and nuclear weapons. This was war!
Of course, I wimped out and used a different strategy: No more wildlife food until I find a mouse proof container. It seems to be working.
If they come back I'll use a havahart trap.
Or maybe I'll line the cupboard with sawdust and install a hamster wheel.

7 comments:

walterworld said...

What a time those mice are having!

Frat party indeed...They probably stumbled away right before you (the cops) showed up...

Happy New Year!!!

Anonymous said...

Sounds like the time I stored those Christmas ornaments carved out of small tree limbs in a box with a Christmas stocking in the attic without sealing it shut. Let's just say it turned out to be good nesting material....

Namowal (Jennifer Bourne) said...

Thanks, Walterworld.
Happy New Year to you too!

Stray,
Did you disturb some long winter's mice naps? I bet they weren't the only ones disturbed!

Linda Davick said...

That wasn't very nice of them to relieve themselves on your champagne bottle. That should teach you never to hang on to a bottle of champagne.

Sally said...

You can get small metal trash cans at feed stores. Learned this the hard way.

Namowal (Jennifer Bourne) said...

Linda,
You're correct about hanging onto the champagne bottle.
Sally,
Thanks for the feedstore trashcan tip. I don't know why it didn't occur to me sooner that
[mouse treats}+[stored in plastic bag next to rear door with no weather strip] = trouble.

Anonymous said...

I only found shreds of the former ornaments, so evidently they had dragged things away and moved.