Help!! Mice!!!

[kaseyb (Supermom!)]

I had stored a big bag of Basmati rice from Sam's Club in the back of my kitchen pantry a while back. It's the kind in the neat burlap bag.

 

To my disappointment I discovered that a mouse had chewed through the burlap and plastic and eaten some of the rice. The hole is about an inch long and 1/2 inch wide. My guess is that the bag was open for as long as 2 months before I noticed this. This mouse was especially sneaky!

 

If this were your rice in your house with your mouse, what do you think Dr. Seuss would advise?

[Guest Guest]

a mouse in the house?

oh what a louse!

 

he ate your rice,

that's just not nice!

 

the rice I'd leave

a sticky trap indeed

 

to catch that mouse

that theiving louse!

 

In a jar that rice,

would be so nice.

 

Away from that louse

of a theiving mouse!

 

Use that rice I would

all of it if I could.

 

 

[kaseyb (Supermom!)]

ROFLOLOLOL!!!!! West, you're something else, girl!!! LOL!!

 

 

[redhenfarm]

There is a certain amount of contamination from the warehouses food comes from and it's just a fact of life.

I'd check around the hole and if it's all pretty clean I'd use it. You probably rinse the rice anyway before cooking? I get that kind of rice and just put the amount I'll be using in a colander and run cold water over it.

A friend recently told me she stopped the mice from coming in by stuffing steel wool tightly in the hole. We have a mouse/mice/rat and DH found the hole they gnawed behind the water heater so he stuffed it with the steel wool and I hope it solves the problem.

[Freetobeme]

I've raised them for snake food and to sell and had their wild kin invade the house, so here's my two cents worth.

 

1. Kill the mouse and his/her kin ASAP. They breed quickly and invite friends! To bait a mouse trap, smear the trigger with peanut butter. It works much better than cheese. They have to really work to get the peanut butter, but can steal the cheese without setting off the trap.

 

2. I can't tell you whether or not to keep the rice. However, if it were me, I would carefully remove the rice that the little critter didn't get to. The problem is, it's hard to tell exactly where the mouse was and wasn't. They not only leave 'turds' they pee as they go. If the rice you remove smells funky, don't use it.

 

3. Always, always store food in mouse and bug proof containers. We have an assortment of food grade plastic buckets, metal containers, and gallon jars that we use.

 

4. Mouse proof your house. They can fit through very small holes. If your kitchen pipes come through an outside wall, or if you have wood floors, check to see if there is space around the pipes. Seal it, but first stuff steel wool in the hole. That will keep your little friends from coming back and chewing out a new entry. They will also come in under doors that don't seal properly or if you leave a door open or have a screen door and leave the main door open. If you can fit your index finger into an opening, it's big enough for a mouse to get through.

 

5. Get a good mouser cat to catch the ones that sneak in.

[ricardo]

I'm not a poet! I'm a town crier! Toss the rice!

 

A $10 bag of rice is not worth thinking about mice nasties. Take Westies advice and keep the rice in jars. I keep my

rice in buckets or clear tote containers.

 

 

 

[Freetobeme]

If I had any doubt what so ever that the rice was not clean, I would toss it. If the mouse had just nibbled a small hole in the bag and I knew it was really recent, like just last night, I would try to save it. The burlap bag concerns me though. Could mouse pee have gone through the bag while the little devil was running around over it?

[Guest Guest]

the government allows a % of rats and mice to fall into the food processed into cans, sausage and anything else you eat.

 

I am not worried about that stuff. I mean common sense prevails. if the burlap smells like pee... it is in a plastic bag inside the burlap ... *shrug*

 

I would quickly store it in glass jars. Now remember canning jars used to store stuff, when empty becomes another jar to be used when canning! or distilled water storage.

 

Save the burlap bag. I use burlap for smoking bees when I want to handle them. I use burlap to cover rabbit cages in the heat then put a mister on so the bags stay wet and the air cools down. I use burlap bags for bags! I store hose fittings in them or small plumbing parts. They are great for lots of things. But remember the dye when wet will come off and will dye anything it gets next to.

 

oh wait was I 'posed to rhyme all this?

[Kygal]

i had basmati in a cool burlap sack, and mice as well, and here is what i did.

 

first of all, we ate the rice and never got sick. we did not know there was a colony of mice untill we were near the bottm and by that time i actually found mouse turd in my rice in the pot floating on the water. i didnt realize what it was untill after we had eaten the rice.(i did take the turd out by the way and i never found anymore in that pot) we are still alive. (EWWWWW!!!!!) i noticed 3 days later the mouse poo under the sink, and in the cupboard where i had my rice.

 

i got traps, and peanut butter did not work because they did eat the peanut butter off the traps without springing them. peanut butter works for the sticky boards put a dolop of it in the middle. what we did for the spring traps was oatmeal. but of course, themouse COULD just grab the oatmeal and run. heh heh

 

or so the moust thought....

 

i GLUED the oats to the trap, and that mouse never knew what hit him! lol

 

we lived in a condo at the time and the strata councel did not believe that any of us had mice even though i took photos of the ones i caught. they said "well we haven't seen any" and they are absent mindedly stroking thier CATS. lol well, we ended up moving becvause we needed a bigger place.

 

dont buy those electronic mouse keep away things they dont work.

[Kygal]

i should add that if you have an ultraviolet light you can see the mouse pee.

[Guest Guest]

Pixie wrote "i GLUED the oats to the trap, and that mouse never knew what hit him! lol "

 

I almost peed my pants reading this!!! I am still laughing!!!

 

this is a good one!

 

adding to my check list... glue!

 

oh too funny!!!!

[Guest Guest]

NOTE TO SELF...

 

Self?

 

Do not read this thread when eating...

[Homesteader]

We had an invasion about 2 weeks ago. I guess the little critters were looking for some where to spend winter. We set up glue traps in the ground level and put our best cat in the basement. We caught/ate about 7 mice in 2 days. Haven't seen one since. I'm glad we cleared them all out before the word spread throughout mousedom. I don't want a bunch of freeloaders around here.

[Freetobeme]

Put the peanut butter on the bottom side of the trigger and they will trip it.

[redhenfarm]

Quote:

put our best cat in the basement. We caught/ate about 7 mice in 2 days. Haven't seen one since.

Oh my! I'm thinking it had to be the cat that had the feast!

[Guest Guest]

vector really has improved their snap traps some by making the trigger out of a large plastic plate they have to step on to get to the bait now, so far 3 confirmed kills...lol

rat terrier 0! (heck the chickens killed at least 2 last year and the terrier only killed one little one...sigh) Now for that humongous rat I saw running past my shed door...

As Barney Fife says..."NIP IT IN THE BUD!!!"

[Guest Guest]

Momo wrote and I quote

"We caught/ate about 7 mice in 2 days. Haven't seen one since. I'm glad we cleared them all out"

 

and Momo, how did you prepare them? were they good? like did you eat bones and all? or did you dress them out? and do you tan little mouse hides? how many mouse hides it take to make something?

 

ROFL@Momo

[Freetobeme]

I saw a movie (can't remember the title) about a researcher who went to study wolves in the far north. He found that they ate a lot of mice, so when his supplies ran low he started eating mice to show that a big animal could survive on little animals. He cooked them and ate the whole thing bones and all. It was based on a true story.

[Kygal]

shrek boasts of his ability to make a wicked weed-rat stew.

[Homesteader]

For Westies inquiring mind!!!!

 

My cat prefers them raw. He won't eat the tail though. That's how I can confirm his kill figures. The ones that were caught on the glue traps are counted towards my kill. I did not eat mine because DH doesn't like it when I have mouse breath. (They are okay on the low carb diet though)

 

 

[ricardo]

When my cat's catch mice, they leave me a present. It's

either the hear or liver, I never can tell.

 

For places that the cat's can't get to I like the sticky

traps.

 

[redhenfarm]

My cat lived outside before she adopted us and I know she had to fetch as fetch can but I haven't seen her catch anything but an occasional bird (less now) and once found a dead rat in the yard and this summer some poor little squirrels. I used to have a cat that kept the entire neighborhood "cleaned up". She was always bringing home "treasures" to show us. How in the world do you know if a cat is going to be a good mouser?

[Freetobeme]

The best mousers I've had were females. However, my son had a yellow tiger striped cat that was male and was a great mouser. He would catch them and leave the heads and tails. If your cat isn't mousing you are probably feeding her too well.

[motherearth]

eeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Freetobeme]

Yeah, it was really interesting to walk through a dark hallway at night and step on or kick a mouse head! That was his favorite place to leave them, outside the bedroom doors.

 

Then there was the Scottish terrier who would catch rabbits and the Basset hound who would peel the skin off of them and leave them on the back patio.