I'm all for discovering wild life in your neighborhood. I mean remember just a few posts back I was blogging about the wonders of backyard birding. And one could make the point that the observation of the great outdoors is even educational for the homeschooled child, but I have to draw the line with rodents. Doncha think?
Dad and Beth were visiting us last weekend and we were out enjoying our beautiful new backyard furniture..... see....
Nice huh? We were out relaxing with our breakfast and then coming down that top fence rail to the left - right at us is a bold little mousy fella. Beth and I were horrified and mesmerized. It was tough not to stay right out there and watch his next move. Plus that's a pretty narrow walk way between the mouse and the pool - what if he decided to jump right out at us or something?!
So the next day we put out bait and traps. The peanut butter baited trap was a bust because birds decided they should see what that great smelling peanut butter was all about - so they tripped it. Luckily no birds were hurt during the filming of these pictures... unfortunately (depending on your point of view) I can't say the same for Mr. Mousy.
So then on Tuesday we came out in the morning to find this little brown ball of fluff on the Polaris pool sweep float. I know, he's so cute. But, as I had to tell Haley (again and again) you really don't want one of these little cuties producing hundreds more little cuties under your playhouse. It became clear pretty quickly that if the Polaris remained in the pool that the mouse could last for quite some time. He would take exploratory swims around the pool... man they can swim. Nolan said it looked like a swimmin turd, which made us all laugh. Then it would get right back up on the float.
So finally, after enough rodent education, I sent Haley in to get her shower and I pulled the Polaris out of the pool. Sending the poor little guy on a very long swim for the end. We took off and did errands and discovered that mice can swim for up to three hours and about 10 minutes.
So far so good, no more mice at least that we've seen. Beth, it is safe to roam around the Smith backyard again - even bare footed.
Dad and Beth were visiting us last weekend and we were out enjoying our beautiful new backyard furniture..... see....
So the next day we put out bait and traps. The peanut butter baited trap was a bust because birds decided they should see what that great smelling peanut butter was all about - so they tripped it. Luckily no birds were hurt during the filming of these pictures... unfortunately (depending on your point of view) I can't say the same for Mr. Mousy.
So then on Tuesday we came out in the morning to find this little brown ball of fluff on the Polaris pool sweep float. I know, he's so cute. But, as I had to tell Haley (again and again) you really don't want one of these little cuties producing hundreds more little cuties under your playhouse. It became clear pretty quickly that if the Polaris remained in the pool that the mouse could last for quite some time. He would take exploratory swims around the pool... man they can swim. Nolan said it looked like a swimmin turd, which made us all laugh. Then it would get right back up on the float.
So finally, after enough rodent education, I sent Haley in to get her shower and I pulled the Polaris out of the pool. Sending the poor little guy on a very long swim for the end. We took off and did errands and discovered that mice can swim for up to three hours and about 10 minutes.
So far so good, no more mice at least that we've seen. Beth, it is safe to roam around the Smith backyard again - even bare footed.
Comments