Mouse Hunt
I had this great post written in my head for today. It was going to be interesting and informative and amusing…. but I don’t have time to write it now, because that image above is how my living and dining rooms (ie my whole house) looks right now…
You see when we got home from a weekend away (me at Blogopolis, my big kids at their Grandparent’s, and my husband on night shift)we were greeted with a smell. Not just any smell… a smell that made us all reel back in disgust as we opened the lounge room door. A smell that immediately had the big kids all blaming each other and then finally agreeing it must have come from Dad. A smell that just won’t go away.
A dead mouse smell.
Somewhere in our lounge or dining room is a dead mouse.
So last night I started looking for the source of the odour, and I’ve been looking every since. I have turned our living room up side down. I have cleaned under and behind things that haven’t been cleaned under or behind for years. I’ve found a plethora of stray socks, one lost shoe that is now several sizes too small, enough hair elastics to make a hundred pony tails and some petrified toast, but no mouse.
It’s not behind or under the piano, I know because I hauled the damn thing out from the wall to take a look. It’s not under the couches, or in any of the toy boxes. It’s not behind the dresser or in the wood box and it’s not under the change table. We even turned our couch upside down and took to it with a knife to see if the culprit may have been inside, but no. I’m running out of places to look, but the smell is still there.
And how do I know that the smell is in fact a dead mouse?
Well, apart from the fact that we are copping the tail end of Southern Australia’s colossal mouse plague and the fact that there are mice everywhere… and I mean, everywhere. Apart from that, on Friday afternoon, as I was rushing around trying to get everything and everyone ready to go, I picked up a pair of shoes I don’t wear too often and slid my feet into them. My left foot went in just fine, but my right foot… My right foot got half way in when it encountered something squishy yet furry, and something very very smelly.
Yep.
A little brown mouse had gorged itself on bait and then crawled into the toe of my shoe to haemorrhage and die.
Needless to say I wont be wearing those shoes again, ever. And that smell is burned into my nose for future reference, I just didn’t realise the future would be so close at hand.
So if I don’t blog again in the next few days, don’t worry, I am just lost under piles and piles of stuff, still hunting for that damn dead mouse!
I completely feel your pain. We’ve also had trouble with mice recently (still having trouble, is what I should say). Can’t stand the little buggers. No matter how many traps or bait, they keep turning up. I keep the house spotless and they still find their way into things. Damn this cruddy house with holes everywhere.
ew! that so took teh cake and my breath away – i was thinking ‘under the floor under the floor under the floor’ and then ew.
The other place they like to die in our house under the kitchen cabinets behind the skirting stuff – we have to pull it off and scoop them out with a shovel. oh ew.
I am with you sister!
Ewwww.
*mental note to self never to put on a pair of shoes again without first checking for small furry corpses*
You know once when Moo was staying at a friends house next to a field she stood on a dead mouse.
And we have a song about it.
We all know mice go POP when you step on em, POP when you step on em, POP when you step on em…
Heh heh heh, now try getting that out of your head.
x
ROFL :D
Do they really go pop? I thought they might go crunch?
…depends on how far gone they are…. eeewww….
after being all swollen after eating bait yes they do. And ooze between the toes apparently.
Moo and I were actually singing this on the weekend!
Oh jesus – feeling your pain on this one. Any chance it is in the roof or under the floor boards, or in the walls. I once had a rat die in the walls, it was an unpleasant week or so until the smell went.
…and now imagine frying bacon for brunch – a real treat. Yummy bread in the toaster Really looking forward to it but there is a bit of a funny smell. Toasted mouse UGH!!! Toaster was chucked and no cooked breakfasts for a very long time I do sometimes miss my lovely old federation house but not during mice season so far they are outside here. We also had them move iinto the lining of the brand new stove THE SMELL!!!!!! is the worst Hope you’ve found the little sod Try the ceiling
Oh no! That’s a serious reality hit for you after a great weekend!
Oh god, what a nightmare, I still shake all my shoes before I put them on, old habits die hard, in South Africa, in Johannesburg where I grew up, we have these horrible bugs called Parktown Prawns, kind of a cross between a grasshopper and a cockroach. They are giant and hoppy and squirt black ink when they are mad, ugh, nasty things. I slipped my foot into my slipper one fateful night and encoutered one, I have never been the same since. So, I sympathise. Also, my dead animal smell turned out to be the milkjug for my coffee machine which had been put back on top instead of washed, vile….
we had this problem but it seemed to be in the wall or under the floor.. We had to wait for the smell to die down and it was really really bad! :(
Oh god.
Oh god,
Oh god.
I think I would vomit on my own feet.
You have just given me another reason why I am apprehensive about moving to the country – we are also in the middle of a mouse plague down there and I HATE THEM!! Good luck finding it.
p.s have you looked in the condenser behind the fridge? We had one climb up in there to get water and die!
Oh No!! I can smell it in my mind and it makes me sick! The image of you putting your toe in the shoe!! We too have had heaps of mice. My husband has a tall tale them being so prolific at his farm he grabbed one and threw it in the fire!! I hope you find the source of the smell. Probably in the wall?
Oh goodness! My house looks like that most days (without a mouse) – poor Momma! I stumbled across your site here and have enjoyed reading. I am a homeschool mom (or trying to be) to a 9 yr old, 6 yr old AND 2 1/2 yr old quadruplets.
I’m so glad you found that critter- those “really” scare me! :) Kami
Ewwww! The idea of getting one in your shoe!
Most of ours have been in kitchen cupboards but we had a lizard in the wall once :( I really hope it isn’t in the wall.
Channelling Micky – check inside the piano!
Friends of ours told me they had one die in the wall cavity, and the builder whom they contacted to knock the wall down told them how much it would cost – thousands – and then reassured them the smell goes in a couple of weeks because it dries out.
Not sure if that’s what you want to hear right now?
It could possibly be in the walls, we had the same problem not long back, I checked everywhere but didn’t find where the smell came from, and yesterday I spent wiping the pantry shelves over again from mouse poo, yet i have out everything into containers and jars.
Oohh noo… We have had a mouse that died under our kitchen cupboards next to the fridge. We also once found a mouse skeleton inside the cover of the power point in our kitchen. It must have been electrocuted – and we couldn’t find it for ages. We have a great cat now that is fantastic at getting mice so we don’t have as many as we have in the past. The joys of living on property!! Hope you find it soon :-)
I wish I had the excuse of a mousehunt…my place looks very similar and there has been no mouse hunt excuse.
Hope you find it soon.