Ashes to ashes and dust to dust as it applies to mice
Today we got a call from a realtor who wanted to show our house. As we scurried around hurriedly tidying up the house, I noticed a smell, a not-so-fresh smell coming from somewhere in the kitchen. I sniffed and I snuffed around all the usual suspects, assuming that our full trashcan was the culpret. Changing the trashbag didn't help. I continued the olfactory tour of my kitchen, trying to smell and then eliminate each possible source. I finally tracked (like a bloodhound) the smell and found it was originating from somewhere in the utility closet. Febreeze was no match for this smell and I am wondering if a not-so-fortunate mouse has breathed his last somewhere behind or under the washing machine. 
Thinking about this potentially decaying-rodent made me recall the last (and only) time I saw a mouse in my house. It was about a year after I had moved in and I was laying on the couch watching TV late one night when I saw something come from the shadows and scurry toward me. I squeeled at the sight of a little black mouse peeking at me from under the coffee table that was just feet away from where I lay. He made his presence known briefly and then scurried back down the hall. I almost wore shoes to bed that night. The next day I set out to purchase some sort of mouse-removal product. I looked at the mousetraps and the De-Con mouse poison and opted for the traps. I can remembered the smell of mice dying and returning to ashes/dust in hidden places in our house when I was a kid and I didn't want to deal with that in my own house if it could be avoided. When I got home, I put a blob of peanut butter onto the trigger-paddle of a couple of traps and set them in places I thought might be home to my unwanted guest. The next morning I checked the traps to find they had been licked clean, as though the peanut butter had never even been there. That night I put more peanut butter, but I spread it around in such a way that the mouse would have to lick all parts of the trigger-paddle if he wanted a treat. Again, the trap was licked clean the next morning. This mouse was some sort of magician! I couldn't have gotten those traps cleaner if I had used soap! I decided to step my efforts up a notch and mixed rat poison into some peanut butter which I then spread on the trigger-paddle. If his hungry greed didn't get him one way, it would get him the other. Either way, my house would be rodent-free. That night I heard the sounds of scurrying coming from the furnace closet in the hall and then heard the tell-tale "SNAP!" of the trap. Success! There were sounds of a struggle followed by silence.
I gave it a good few minutes before I grabbed a trashbag and gloves to dispose of the dearly departed....only to find an empty trap and a small trail of blood. This was NOT going the way it was supposed to go. I was faced with the problem of the decaying mouse turning to ashes and dust (and rotten smell) in my house, and what's worse, I didn't know how badly injured this mouse was. I mean, what if he just had a flesh-wound and was plotting his revenge?! I grabbed my trusty flashlight to take a closer look inside the furnace closet and spotted him there in the corner by the door, just sitting there looking stunned and injured, but not dead. What to do? I did the only thing I could think of that wouldn't involve touching a stunned and injured living mouse....I grabbed the roach spray and gave it a good dousing. Now, you might be thinking to yoruself "Self, what would I have done in this situation?" Well, let me offer you a piece of advice: do NOT spray roach spray on a stunned mouse because it has the exact opposite effect you'd be hoping for.
The mouse sprung to life and scurried out of the closet almost across my feet and into the bathroom. He sat in the middle of the bathroom floor, missing part of his tail. I quickly threw the trashcan upside down over the mouse, capturing it. Success! Except, now what? I couldn't just live with an upside down trashcan and trapped/stunned/injured mouse in the middle of my bathroom floor. So, I grabbed some aluminum foil and slid it between the floor and the trashcan and wrapped the foil up around the edges of the trashcan, trapping the mouse and effectively protecting him from freezer burn. I then threw the entire thing into the dumpster and added "new bathroom trashcan" to my grocery list. I thought the whole thing had served as a cautionary tale to all the other mice because there had been no others in the three years since that incident....until today's unfortunate and odorous encounter.
Thinking about this potentially decaying-rodent made me recall the last (and only) time I saw a mouse in my house. It was about a year after I had moved in and I was laying on the couch watching TV late one night when I saw something come from the shadows and scurry toward me. I squeeled at the sight of a little black mouse peeking at me from under the coffee table that was just feet away from where I lay. He made his presence known briefly and then scurried back down the hall. I almost wore shoes to bed that night. The next day I set out to purchase some sort of mouse-removal product. I looked at the mousetraps and the De-Con mouse poison and opted for the traps. I can remembered the smell of mice dying and returning to ashes/dust in hidden places in our house when I was a kid and I didn't want to deal with that in my own house if it could be avoided. When I got home, I put a blob of peanut butter onto the trigger-paddle of a couple of traps and set them in places I thought might be home to my unwanted guest. The next morning I checked the traps to find they had been licked clean, as though the peanut butter had never even been there. That night I put more peanut butter, but I spread it around in such a way that the mouse would have to lick all parts of the trigger-paddle if he wanted a treat. Again, the trap was licked clean the next morning. This mouse was some sort of magician! I couldn't have gotten those traps cleaner if I had used soap! I decided to step my efforts up a notch and mixed rat poison into some peanut butter which I then spread on the trigger-paddle. If his hungry greed didn't get him one way, it would get him the other. Either way, my house would be rodent-free. That night I heard the sounds of scurrying coming from the furnace closet in the hall and then heard the tell-tale "SNAP!" of the trap. Success! There were sounds of a struggle followed by silence.
I gave it a good few minutes before I grabbed a trashbag and gloves to dispose of the dearly departed....only to find an empty trap and a small trail of blood. This was NOT going the way it was supposed to go. I was faced with the problem of the decaying mouse turning to ashes and dust (and rotten smell) in my house, and what's worse, I didn't know how badly injured this mouse was. I mean, what if he just had a flesh-wound and was plotting his revenge?! I grabbed my trusty flashlight to take a closer look inside the furnace closet and spotted him there in the corner by the door, just sitting there looking stunned and injured, but not dead. What to do? I did the only thing I could think of that wouldn't involve touching a stunned and injured living mouse....I grabbed the roach spray and gave it a good dousing. Now, you might be thinking to yoruself "Self, what would I have done in this situation?" Well, let me offer you a piece of advice: do NOT spray roach spray on a stunned mouse because it has the exact opposite effect you'd be hoping for.
The mouse sprung to life and scurried out of the closet almost across my feet and into the bathroom. He sat in the middle of the bathroom floor, missing part of his tail. I quickly threw the trashcan upside down over the mouse, capturing it. Success! Except, now what? I couldn't just live with an upside down trashcan and trapped/stunned/injured mouse in the middle of my bathroom floor. So, I grabbed some aluminum foil and slid it between the floor and the trashcan and wrapped the foil up around the edges of the trashcan, trapping the mouse and effectively protecting him from freezer burn. I then threw the entire thing into the dumpster and added "new bathroom trashcan" to my grocery list. I thought the whole thing had served as a cautionary tale to all the other mice because there had been no others in the three years since that incident....until today's unfortunate and odorous encounter.
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