Losing a battle vs. rodents

[BuffOrange]

So I've seen something sprinting across my kitchen on 3-4 occassions while watching tv in the adjacent room. No evidence of crap, or chewed up cereal boxes or anything. I get poison a month ago, and snap traps a week ago, with apparently no luck. A 2nd call to landlord yields a visit from exterminator. His puzzling visit goes something like this:

 

Exterminator: Kitchen?

Me: Yah.

Ext: [Nods]. Droppings?

Me: Haven't seen any. I point to where I've seen the vermin.

Ext: [checks behind oven, under sink]. Let me check the basement...no evidence. Here take these sticky traps. [Leaves].

 

WTF? He also at one point mentioned that my upstairs neighbor had called and this guy apparently paid a visit to her a few months ago (this is an old duplex) so to me there seems to clearly be an infestation somewhere.

 

Thoughts/questions:

1. At the risk of sounding like a PETA freak, I'm hesitant to use the unusually cruel glue traps; nor do I know how any more successful they'd be than poison/traps anyway.

2. Is my suspicion that this exterminator sucks correct and should I ask my landlord to contact a better one?

3. Thinking of getting a cat or 2 soon. How big of a danger does them catching a potentially poisonous rodent pose?

[KD in CA]

1. At the risk of sounding like a PETA freak, I'm hesitant to use the unusually cruel glue traps; nor do I know how any more successful they'd be than poison/traps anyway.

Maybe it's just me, but if the f---ers are running across my kitchen floor, I wouldn't have any qualms about the method used to stop them.

 

2. Is my suspicion that this exterminator sucks correct and should I ask my landlord to contact a better one?

Couldn't hurt to ask.

 

3. Thinking of getting a cat or 2 soon. How big of a danger does them catching a potentially poisonous rodent pose?

Danger for the rodent? Pretty high! I don't think it's much of a concern for the cat.

[Clippers of Nfl]

So I've seen something sprinting across my kitchen on 3-4 occassions while watching tv in the adjacent room. No evidence of crap, or chewed up cereal boxes or anything. I get poison a month ago, and snap traps a week ago, with apparently no luck. A 2nd call to landlord yields a visit from exterminator. His puzzling visit goes something like this:

 

Exterminator: Kitchen?

Me: Yah.

Ext: [Nods]. Droppings?

Me: Haven't seen any. I point to where I've seen the vermin.

Ext: [checks behind oven, under sink]. Let me check the basement...no evidence. Here take these sticky traps. [Leaves].

 

WTF? He also at one point mentioned that my upstairs neighbor had called and this guy apparently paid a visit to her a few months ago (this is an old duplex) so to me there seems to clearly be an infestation somewhere.

 

Thoughts/questions:

1. At the risk of sounding like a PETA freak, I'm hesitant to use the unusually cruel glue traps; nor do I know how any more successful they'd be than poison/traps anyway.

2. Is my suspicion that this exterminator sucks correct and should I ask my landlord to contact a better one?

3. Thinking of getting a cat or 2 soon. How big of a danger does them catching a potentially poisonous rodent pose?

glue traps are cruel but a poisonous immune system affecting your brain or being chewed by a feline is ok? how would you like to be chewed by a bigger feline like a lion and his pups?

j/k like phill simms says, "just get eem"

 

the picture of natalie portman is so cute. which movie is that from?

[Booster4324]

At my old house I got mice once. I had seen one a week before and was on the lookout for him. He ran across the kitchen floor once and with the aid of a towel and moving the refrigerator, I was able to catch him (I assume it was a him). So being the kind heart I was back then, I took my captured mouse, drove about two blocks away and set him loose. A day later I see the mouse again (I assume it was the same one). The next thing I know (about two weeks later), I hear multiple squeaks from the wall right by the headboard of my bed about a week later. The male mouse had found a mate and started his own family.

 

So I got the regular snap traps, coated them with cheese or peanut butter, and laid them all out. Not a single one of them worked. Oh they snapped alright, but never caught anything. So basically, I was feeding the growing family that had moved in with me. So I moved on to glue traps. Laid out like 24 of them in a 1200 square foot house. And nothing for like a week, when I was woke up around 8:00 AM on a Saturday morning by this pitiful squealing. I actually caught one of the adults. In my still inebriated state, I took him out to the trash, throwing the still squealing mouse in it. Four hours later, I realized I had better make sure of my kill. I go back out there and the trap is empty. There were holes in my trashcan, so he simply crawled out.

 

Frustrated that my war with my roommates was faring so poorly, I went for overwhelming firepower. I think I got up to 24 glue traps and 24 snap traps. If I had a cat at the time, it would have had 4 broken paws and a glue trap stuck on its head. Around another week goes by, I am awakened at 2:00 AM by this loud pop from a trap going off. I really think it was the male (yeah like I have a way of knowing). The next day I caught the other adult in a glue trap. I gleefully squished it with my foot. After that the babies came running out looking for food. All 3 (I assume more left or died in my walls terrified by the weapons of mass destruction I had accumulated) got caught in the traps.

 

Well, all but one. I hadn't seen any for a couple of days, so ordered pizza and left the mostly empty box on top of the stove (something I hadn't been doing - leaving food sources out). I walk into the kitchen and see the box move ever so slightly. I listen and hear just the hint of movement in the box. So I grabbed a trash bag, slammed the lid closed on the pizza box and wrapped it in the trash bag. I could tell there was another mouse inside, so proceeded to make the mouse re-enact the Star Wars trash compacter scene, only sans R2.

 

Good luck in your war my friend, show no quarter. They are crafty little !@#$ers.

[ajzepp]

At my old house I got mice once. I had seen one a week before and was on the lookout for him. He ran across the kitchen floor once and with the aid of a towel and moving the refrigerator, I was able to catch him (I assume it was a him). So being the kind heart I was back then, I took my captured mouse, drove about two blocks away and set him loose. A day later I see the mouse again (I assume it was the same one). The next thing I know (about two weeks later), I hear multiple squeaks from the wall right by the headboard of my bed about a week later. The male mouse had found a mate and started his own family.

 

So I got the regular snap traps, coated them with cheese or peanut butter, and laid them all out. Not a single one of them worked. Oh they snapped alright, but never caught anything. So basically, I was feeding the growing family that had moved in with me. So I moved on to glue traps. Laid out like 24 of them in a 1200 square foot house. And nothing for like a week, when I was woke up around 8:00 AM on a Saturday morning by this pitiful squealing. I actually caught one of the adults. In my still inebriated state, I took him out to the trash, throwing the still squealing mouse in it. Four hours later, I realized I had better make sure of my kill. I go back out there and the trap is empty. There were holes in my trashcan, so he simply crawled out.

 

Frustrated that my war with my roommates was faring so poorly, I went for overwhelming firepower. I think I got up to 24 glue traps and 24 snap traps. If I had a cat at the time, it would have had 4 broken paws and a glue trap stuck on its head. Around another week goes by, I am awakened at 2:00 AM by this loud pop from a trap going off. I really think it was the male (yeah like I have a way of knowing). The next day I caught the other adult in a glue trap. I gleefully squished it with my foot. After that the babies came running out looking for food. All 3 (I assume more left or died in my walls terrified by the weapons of mass destruction I had accumulated) got caught in the traps.

 

Well, all but one. I hadn't seen any for a couple of days, so ordered pizza and left the mostly empty box on top of the stove (something I hadn't been doing - leaving food sources out). I walk into the kitchen and see the box move ever so slightly. I listen and hear just the hint of movement in the box. So I grabbed a trash bag, slammed the lid closed on the pizza box and wrapped it in the trash bag. I could tell there was another mouse inside, so proceeded to make the mouse re-enact the Star Wars trash compacter scene, only sans R2.

 

Good luck in your war my friend, show no quarter. They are crafty little !@#$ers.

 

[Booster4324]

 

I thought it a funny story. I made jokes about Super Mouse for years.

[ajzepp]

I thought it a funny story. I made jokes about Super Mouse for years.

 

For your own sake, I hope you never get crabs!

[Booster4324]

For your own sake, I hope you never get crabs!

 

[BuffOrange]

glue traps are cruel but a poisonous immune system affecting your brain or being chewed by a feline is ok? how would you like to be chewed by a bigger feline like a lion and his pups?

j/k like phill simms says, "just get eem"

 

the picture of natalie portman is so cute. which movie is that from?

 

I'm thinking the lion would probably kill me pretty quick with a bite to the back of my neck. So yah, I think days of starvation/suffocating/torture would be worse.

Garden State I think.

 

At my old house I got mice once. I had seen one a week before and was on the lookout for him. He ran across the kitchen floor once and with the aid of a towel and moving the refrigerator, I was able to catch him (I assume it was a him). So being the kind heart I was back then, I took my captured mouse, drove about two blocks away and set him loose. A day later I see the mouse again (I assume it was the same one). The next thing I know (about two weeks later), I hear multiple squeaks from the wall right by the headboard of my bed about a week later. The male mouse had found a mate and started his own family.

 

So I got the regular snap traps, coated them with cheese or peanut butter, and laid them all out. Not a single one of them worked. Oh they snapped alright, but never caught anything. So basically, I was feeding the growing family that had moved in with me. So I moved on to glue traps. Laid out like 24 of them in a 1200 square foot house. And nothing for like a week, when I was woke up around 8:00 AM on a Saturday morning by this pitiful squealing. I actually caught one of the adults. In my still inebriated state, I took him out to the trash, throwing the still squealing mouse in it. Four hours later, I realized I had better make sure of my kill. I go back out there and the trap is empty. There were holes in my trashcan, so he simply crawled out.

 

Frustrated that my war with my roommates was faring so poorly, I went for overwhelming firepower. I think I got up to 24 glue traps and 24 snap traps. If I had a cat at the time, it would have had 4 broken paws and a glue trap stuck on its head. Around another week goes by, I am awakened at 2:00 AM by this loud pop from a trap going off. I really think it was the male (yeah like I have a way of knowing). The next day I caught the other adult in a glue trap. I gleefully squished it with my foot. After that the babies came running out looking for food. All 3 (I assume more left or died in my walls terrified by the weapons of mass destruction I had accumulated) got caught in the traps.

 

Well, all but one. I hadn't seen any for a couple of days, so ordered pizza and left the mostly empty box on top of the stove (something I hadn't been doing - leaving food sources out). I walk into the kitchen and see the box move ever so slightly. I listen and hear just the hint of movement in the box. So I grabbed a trash bag, slammed the lid closed on the pizza box and wrapped it in the trash bag. I could tell there was another mouse inside, so proceeded to make the mouse re-enact the Star Wars trash compacter scene, only sans R2.

 

Good luck in your war my friend, show no quarter. They are crafty little !@#$ers.

 

Haha. Well I don't have a lot of experience with these things but I know there's never just 1, and I've read they can find their way "home" from a mile away (almost like a cat).

Guess I'll suck it up and go with the glue though if they work best...

Aren't exterminators supposed to like, do something though?