It’s been dark for three hours tonight and so far nothing. I can’t do Project Runway tonight and it really doesn’t matter since I can’t get final looks until tomorrowish. I spent a lot of time tonight talking to my sister. But the mouses, mice, rats, seem to be gone. So I just need one of you to get the super cute mouse out of the fucking house. I don’t really want a husband but I’d like to bother them from time to time. I may drunk dial my neighbor to bother hers but I feel like they probably think I am weird, awful etc. I feel really good about handling it on my own. BUT, there is still a dead mouse in my kitchen.
I need someone to do this for. me. UGH. I searcehed my site for MOUSE and this came up. Apparently, he is an Disney investor or something. I am not sure how this happened on my site.
Still no rat action. I got this. Maybe tomorrow, I could even that get the dead mouse out.
So I need you to tell me what is going on in your hood. I’m sad and alone, I don’t mean that in a feel sorry for me way. Just stating facts. I could use a lot of help if any want to help dig me out of this hole I am in…
We had a neighbor for the first few years we lived at our house. Older guy, friendly but kept to himself for the most part. He was retired military and his house was a combination of cigar smoke and fishing trophies. Well he died of issues related to abdominal surgery. It was very sad, I liked him.
When they started clearing out the house his kids must have called an exterminator because all of a sudden, when I went out on my deck in the evening I would hear (skitter skitter skitter) from under MY deck. It was rats, leaving his house and trying to get into mine! We never saw one but there was evidence. let’s just say that. Well we took care of that but we live in the country and mice and rats happen. We finally are paying exterminators monthly to bait traps outside the house that no other animals can get into. Well worth it, have not seen a mouse since.
I’m
Sorry you’re feeling so lonely and depressed. I understand those feelings all too well too. I struggle with same thing. I have those sticky pads in basement to catch mice and last winter a snake got stuck on there 😫 like you, I’m single too and had to figure out what to do with it. I hate snakes! I finally mustered up courage and double gloved up and used one of those long grabber things to put it in heavy duty trash bag (doubled up) and got it in trash outside. I couldn’t deal knowing it was alive down there, even though it was stuck. I get the heebie jeebies just thinking about it. Hang in there! We are having first round of freezing temps. Lows in 20’s and 30’s. So cold!
The good thing, Lo is we are never alone HERE. And there are people who love us HERE. Sure it is still hard to be all alone in the real world, but we have each other.
YES! And I thank you greatly for creating this safe place for us! I really appreciate it and you. Even if I don’t comment, I read every post and a lot of the comments and it makes me feel “normal”. I broke the rules commenting at first and I didn’t mean to, then read the rules and get it and appreciate it. This is a fun, safe, REAL community I look forward to daily. So, thank you again for creating it. You’ve made a difference in my life and I’m thankful for this. It took me a while to regain confidence to comment again, but I get it and it’s ok and I love it!
I do love this happy, screwed up, wacky, depressed, alone, quirky, joking, laughing, crying family. It keeps me going when I don’t want to do anything but stay under my blanket and sleep. I finally (knock on wood) got out of my insomnia run, just to do the opposite… sleep all day. Sometimes for 2 or 3 days in a row. But I always glance at the headlines here and see what’s happening in crazy tv town. I had a rat problem last year, couldn’t find the little F’er and it made a nest out of one of my favorite books. I was sitting outside, after the exterminator left and here it went, flying out my door back into the bushes. I’ve been putting off gathering my extra meds from when I was in the hospital, so I have extra feel good stuff in those pop thru thingies instead of bottles. It’s a brisk 36 degrees this morning. Having a coffee and some cigarettes, then I’ll eat breakfast and pass out, even though I just woke up. Thank you TT for giving us this place. Thank you for sharing your life, it makes me feel better knowing there are other crazy people and it’s not just me lol 🤣🤣
Have a blessed Sunday everyone.❤️❤️
If I weren’t 4 hours drive from you TT… I would come get those dead rodents!! 🐭
We lived in farm country in Illinois when I was a kid. There were field mice all over the place so we had a few cats. They were great at catching mice. Unfortunately, on occasion, they brought the mice to us as gifts. We’d open the door to let the cat in — the cat would have a live mouse in its’ mouth — the cat would drop the mouse on the floor — the mouse would start to run away — the cat would pick the mouse up again — we’d open the door and the cat would run out. Compared to that, my Vegas neighborhood is pretty quiet tonight.
This is when you channel your inner Sutton and say, “Let the mouse go.”
Is let the mouse go really a saying? I’ve never heard of it. I’m from the south and have cats that bring dead mice inside my door or even inside (yikes!) and omg do I let that mouse go!!!! 😂😂😂 I’ve never heard that saying though and if it was talked about during that episode I apologize for missing comments. It would’ve just made me do a dumb laugh, to hide my cluelessness 😂😂 so, long story short-this is only time I know of letting the mouse go! Get it out of the house fast!!!!
I always find it interesting how people handle rodents. Mine was an evolution over the years. When I was married, I would have nothing to do with anything rodent related. The two times we had mice in our house my ex would take care of everything, and I would be afraid for two days to walk around the house in the dark. Fast forward five years later, I live alone, and I find a rat in my kitchen. Oddly, my reaction was to find a broom and fix the issue myself, because the idea of having that in my house when I was sleeping would drive me nuts. I don’t know if the other rodents got the memo, but I haven’t had another one since. 😆
I’m sorry you have to deal with it. One Christmas morning, I was loading gifts in my car, getting ready to visit family. As I open a car door, I see a tail underneath a trash bag that I had set by the garage door.
I was running late and knew that I had to deal with it. I did not want to spend Christmas worrying about what crawled into my garage.
So I grabbed a broom and hit the tail and no movement. I then moved the trash bad and there was a dead city squirrel (much bigger than country squirrels).
I didn’t have a shovel. I found a brush and dustpan. Cursing the entire time, I nudged the carcass onto the dustpan being careful to not let any part of the overhanging body touch me. I threw it into a trash bag and then put the bag into another bag and then into the garbage can. What a way to start Christmas morning!
The only funny thing is I noticed is the dead squirrel had “x”’s for eyes. Just like you would see in those old wil e coyote cartoons when a character would be hit over the head.
It was not a fun experience. However, after facing that fear, I will say that it has helped with facing other fears. The litmus test is now, is this as bad as scooping up a dead squirrel on Christmas morning? If the answer is no, then the follow up, then get on with it.
OK, I dealt with something similar this morning. I feed the neighborhood cats on my front porch. They occasionally repay me with rodent presents, including a rabbit. Today there was a very large mouse/rat waiting for me, thankfully dead. I have one of those reach extender grabber thingies. I use it to pick up the dead thing and put it in a double plastic grocery bag and it goes right into the outside trash can. Look at it as little as possible during the extraction and don’t look into the trash can again until pickup day. I hope this will help.
You can put the end inside a plastic produce bag (or bread bag) before you pick it up, then turn the bag inside out on itself. (Like with dog poop bags.) Then put THAT bag inside a ziplock and toss. I DO wash my hands, but because you haven’t touched anything, you don’t really need to. And you don’t need to wash the grabber thing either.
I have WAAAAY too much experience with dog poop and dead rodents.
I had to think about that method for a moment but I can picture it now–BRILLIANT!
We live in the mountains and about 10 yrs back a pack rat got caught between the dutch door and screen door. It was huge and trying to scratch its way in. Our 4 pitties were going nuts so my husband ended up shooting it with a .22 pistol. I had no part in the clean up……nasty!
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You had me at Dutch door (aka Mister Ed door).
I’ve wanted one since before kindergarten (pre-Mister Ed).
I’ve never seen a rat in-person. My province supposedly eradicated them, though some cross the borders and are seen here and there. It’s even against the law to have rats as a pet here. I had a mouse in an apartment when I was 20. I am not a country gal, and never dealt with mice before. I wore sandals indoors for the entire time I lived there after I spotted it one morning. I called my parents (who lived 14 hours away) crying lol. They still laugh about that. I set traps but never got him. So gross. I’ll probably dream about rodents tonight now, ugh.
You must be in Alberta! My kid once busted out a fun fact about how that province had gotten rid of all the rats. Fascinating
Tamara – I clear up dead things (with 2 dogs and 4 cats, I’ve seen my share) with a broom, dust pan, and lots of screaming. The vocalization of fear really helps!
Lol! I live in Florida,transplanted from NJ, and I have a pathological fear of the huge roaches that seem to thrive down here. On the rare occasion one gets in the house, the screaming commences! It does seem to help during the killing and cleanup. Your post made me laugh so much!
Then you will pass out from the flying roaches.
On occasion a mouse will get into the house and my husband will bait it with the ever-dependable 3-year-old peanut butter. When the mouse ends up dead in the trap, my son removes it to the trash. Removal of dead animals is in his remit, including the baby tab it’s head left in the deck stairs last year. Eyes wide open, starring at anyone who approached the stairs. This is why you have children.
I use a pair of very old tongs (Circa 1960) which have a large open rectangle shape on the pick up end. I place a paper towel over the area, and that way you or the tongs don’t really touch the rodent, but still gets the trick done. Tongs get rinsed and dishwasher-ed immediately.
As for being single, I am married but my husband HATES (which I DO NOT blame him) this aspect of household duties. So after we get the kill deed done… we change off landing the mess into a used grocery bag then out to the big trash receptacle. But even then, the visceral aspect of this common household problem is still there.
BTW – this year almost everyone I know has mentioned this issue! And the mice are more and more impervious to traps and poison. We used to never (due to our pets) use poison, but the generational knowledge in mice must be really high. We found NOTHING else worked to get these buggers to the trap.
Good luck TT. I hope this little tip helps a bit. At times like these I try to remember to be grateful of common things like the goodness indoor plumbing. (Can you imagine life before it?!) 😱
If you live near a $1 store, you can put ziplock bags over each end of the tongs and never get rodent cooties on the tongs. If no $1 store, it gets expensive.
I feel your pain TT., I didn’t know that I had a severe crippling phobia of mice until some came to visit and didn’t want to leave…I won’t bore you with the details but I moved out and then moved back in with a cat…
My darling cat Mojo is no longer with us but he was sent from God and he ensured my house remained mouse free, as I obviously wouldn’t let him bring any in either…
I would come and remove it but live thousands of miles away in London…but I suggest you ask your neighbours husband…I’m sure he’d be glad to…and if he doesn’t have the balls then his wife will 😉😍❤
Ugh! Sorry Tamara if I was close I’d come get it. My husband is a retired truck driver and always seemed to be out of town when I needed him so I had to put on my big girl panties and take care of a few of these situations myself. I use a shovel. The worst one was when our 2 boxers killed a huge groundhog and left him by the back porch in August. My husband wasn’t going to be home for 4 days so waiting for him wasn’t an option. There was lots of squealing on my part, but I got the job done. LOL
I’ve used a shovel with a yardstick to push the body onto the shovel. I’ve got a big pine tree out back, and that’s where the bodies go, under the pine tree. The ‘creatures of the night’ take care of the rest.
I woke up super early because APPARENTLY FOR THE REST OF MY FUCKING LIFE I HAVE TO PEE EVERY TEN MINUTES. Usually I go right back to sleep. I am going eventually go back to sleep and get up and deal with the fossilized rat that is possibly just a small rat. I CAN DO THIS! But not now.
as long as it is all the way dead, you will be fine. make all of the noise you want but you will do it.
Go get it, TT!! You can do it!
We have an old milking shed that we converted into our chicken coop. Every year we winterize so that our layers don’t go dormant. One year we thought it would be a good idea to use rolled fluffy insulation between the open ceiling rafters. Come springtime, I went to remove and got flashdanced by dozens of mice – as if someone poured a bucket of them on top of my head. After the first cascade, I pulled down the remaining strips with a hard rake. It was crazy and gross and surreal, but after that experience I am desensitized and no longer afraid of mice. That was the first and last year their ceiling was insulated.
Great story. My Mama was not afraid of shit. She would hack snakes to death with a hoe. She never asked Daddy to take care of anything. I have that in me. I just need a minute to tap into it. My fearless mama will come out soon. She didn’t raise me to be afraid of ANYTHING.
Hi Tamara. Please hire an exterminator. There are so many things you can’t control but this isn’t one of them. Get an exterminator and get ‘em out so that you can sleep. You will feel soo much better. XO
I got this.
atta girl!
Go ask your neighbor to help you Tamara. That’s what neighbors do. I doubt they think you’re weird and who cares anyway. Everybody is a little weird.
If i was a normal human with a moderately clean house that might be an option. I have been in a very deep depression for a few years now. My house is a disgusting mess. I can’t let anyone in here.
It’s entirely my fault I am in this situation.I will deal with it.
I really want to come and declutter/clean your house. Sometimes it just gets away from you, and having anxiety/depression does not help. I am super good at it and would not judge you. Just say the word, you are only like 4 hours away and actually I will be in Atlanta area (Woodstock) for Thanksgiving, and headed back on Friday to an empty house. If you want me to I could come by and do it. I would sign a non disclosure. It would actually bring me joy. You have given me so much in a way that cannot be measured. So think about it. I have lived alone for 5 years and I usually like it, but it does get lonely, especially on Sundays. You have this-you can and will get that rat before it starts to smell, although it would be easier to find if it was stinking? That sounds gross, but true.
You are MY HERO!
👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
I am sorry. I feel the same way sometimes, like I’m not (fill in the blank) enough.
We care and are rooting for you.
Years ago, when I was a single mother to my 3 kids (ages 4, 5 & 6), I rented a house that had rats that chewed though the water hose on my washing machine. I was broke so those damn rats cost me $$ I didn’t have! I declared war and set out rat traps in the garage where the washer was located. The next morning I went out to check and there was one in the trap. My kids were fascinated and pulled up chairs to draw pictures of the dead rat in the trap. I could not bear to get the rat out of the trap so I got a shovel and threw out the rat and trap into the outside trash can. I caught one more and did the same thing. I understand your reluctance completely! And my kids and I still get a laugh when we talk about them drawing pictures of the rat in the trap, 30 years later.
I am so sorry that you are dealing with this and at a time where you can’t pick up & get out of there. I couldn’t even read this post until this morning because the rodent shit completely skeeves me out and I would not have slept a wink if I’d read it last night! My kid moved out of her house and broke a lease over the giant rats /mice up East. They literally just scurry across sidewalks as we would walk to a restaurant when I visited her in DC. I don’t know how people ever get used to that. Doesn’t matter how many encounters with them, I will never be okay or desensitized to fucking rodents. Or cockroaches.
I’m sending you lots of vibes for strength and also a great big hug. Congrats on the shower. I understand it all. Sometimes we can just take it day by day or hour by hour. This pandemic has exacerbated it all for everyone so don’t forget to give yourself some slack and try to find small things for self care. You have an army of us behind you, Tamara. You got this. And, this too shall pass. xo
Thanks IJC, I am losing my religion to quote REM. I have these great plans to go somewhere and live in other places and I am currently questioning my ability to do any of that. I’m in the hole and don’t recognise my current self. I am scared and lonely and afraid, THIS IS NOT ME. I need to try to recenter.
Nancy From the Smokies is going to be coming soon. She is going to fix me.
Maybe we need a Countdown post!
I am so excited about this news!
I am very proud of you for taking up Nancy on her kind offer.
Something to be thankful for this Thanksgiving!
I actually feel grateful to be needed. I remember my mom saying something like that- I am going to be 20 minutes away, and I truly do like to clean and organize. I know, it’s a sickness. Believe me, my house needs to be cleaned right now! I haven’t mopped the floor in 2 weeks. And Tamara has given us all so much; a lot of jobs are two person jobs, it’s just too much alone. I am no hero, but when things are organized and cleaned up, your mind can relax. I am happy to do it. And she ain’t paying me. That’s where I draw the line. This site is free-fair is fair.
That is wonderful news!! Thank you Nancy from the Smokies!!
Don’t say I am a know it all, I had to look this up … APPARENTLY suriphobia, musophobia, or murophobia — fear of mice, rodents, mice and rats — is widespread. Maybe it is a common “groundless” phobia, or maybe it is more than that — rodents spread disease. It makes sense.
You are SO MUCH BRAVER than you ever give yourself credit for. You have traveled BY YOURSELF to foreign countries. Many people cannot bring themselves to go to a movie theater less than a mile from home.
If you took a poll, I am betting that at least 90% of your regulars would follow your travel blog. And, for the people who only want to read about reality TV, I bet you would gain three times as many followers interested in the Travels (and Travails) With Tamara.
The worst is having a bird stuck in your house! Growing up it would happen because birds would make a nest in our chimney. You have to turn off all the lights, close all the curtains, open one door, and literally chase the thing out with a broom. Several years ago, I lived on a river in a huge forest and anytime I would open a window, a fucking bird would just fly right on in. This bird family kept making their nest on the roof so I guess that’s why.
Oh emm gee. That old movie The Birds. More rodents with wings. I can’t!
I also once found a snake in our dishwasher! I believe it crawled through some drain before I pushed the start button. I am freaked out thinking about 30 years later.
I have a question for the ladies of a certain age here. I have already gone through the crazy and all the related bs that accompanies it. My dr started fucking with my steroids (I have Addison’s), and I all of a sudden started having the hot flashes and night sweats again. It’s been YEARS since I got rid of them. Now my dr is trying to tell me that this shit can come back and torment me throughout my seventies and eighties?! Wt actual f? Is this normal or is this some bullshit that a male doctor needs to just go fuck himself with? I am not going to want to live for another 10-20 years with this bullshit. I forgot how awful it is! I’m hoping he’s mansplaining & I need to switch drs & it’s just the steroid crap that will sort itself out. I’m trying to just get an idea of a general consensus about the flashes & sweats… anyone?
I can only say what worked for my HORMONAL hot flashes and other peri menopausal symptoms. Flax seed oil. Two tablespoons 3x a day. I made salad dressing with 2:1 flax seed oil to apple cider vinegar and whatever herbs if you want variety.
Side benefit: It helped my depression. It was part of the Louise Gittleman Fat Flush Plan. Lost weight, lost depression. Then … a major life crisis felled me. I was alone for SEVEN YEARS. I couldn’t make food. Or eat food. Still dealing with the repercussions.
Thanks for replying. Nevermind. It stopped already lol. Thank God!
Rodent infestation … The Fiancée and I are Almost Professional.
During one of the droughts in the Bay Area, our entire neighborhood was besieged with field mice. People with cats had zero problems. Everyone else had the money to get an exterminator. We did not. Nor would I have even if we did. They use those fucking sticky traps and I have a thing about “every little creature” deserves mercy. Those sticky things are awful!
So … in trying to be humane, I got a bunch of those “sonic” things that supposedly drive mice from your home. They did not work. In the meantime … they became embedded in our home. We may as well have had one of those hobo railroad “kind woman” signs for mice.
By the time we got the Vicktor ELECTRONIC mouse killers, we had masses of mice. Because while I waited for the sonic devices to come in the mail and to work, the mice were busy having babies. The electronic killers are very merciful. The mouse is dead in SECONDS. Maybe one second. A red light goes on when a dead mouse is in the box. I gave them Trader Joe’s good peanut butter for their last supper. Still, I cried over every little mouse body. You open the device, drop the carcass in a little ziplock plastic bag, then put that in ANOTHER OPAQUE bag so you don’t have to see it.
We got 40 mice in the first 48 hours. I had nightmares all night, every night, when I managed to doze off. I checked those things all throughout the night. Every time I hit up, RED LIGHT SPECIAL, I cried. The Fiancée was better than I was because she grew up on a ranch. Lots of rodent pests to kill.
There are bigger, more powerful Vicktor electronic killers for rats. YOU MUST USE FRESH BATTERIES, NO $1 STORE BATTERIES!
Epilogue: After months of me emptying dead mice. I was wondering why The Fiancée didn’t have as many in her “lower level.” It was the level of the garden, where the mice all came from. (Her lower level with $1million VIEWS OF THE STRAIGHTS with boats going by all day that she blocked out.)
She will tell you this was true! There she was, while I was waging war upstairs, letting the mice PLAY WITH HER TOES! They are cute, but not that cute!
You can do it. I too had a mouse problem for years and was paralyzed every time I found evidence they were around. (poop) With time I got better. I would just wear gloves and throw the trap and all into a bag for the trash but it would take me hours to gear myself up to getting that close to it. I found gray plastic traps called “The Better Mousetrap.” (don’t know if they make bigger ones) They are the best! You set it and when it snaps closed the mouse head is covered by the trap (the end flips over and does the deed) so all I had to do was pick it up (wearing gloves) and pinch the trap back (to set it) over a bag and drop the mouse in. I never had to see the mouse! One year, and I am not proud to share this, I caught 17 mice on one trap without having to change or add peanut butter! During the summers I would find spots along the foundation to plug with spray foam, steel wool and whatever else to fill holes. (100 + yo house) After living here 40 years, last year was the first year without a mouse. This year so far only one and I found where it got in and plugged it. You can do it TT, just keep in mind we are all rooting for you!
It’s terrible to feel alone and scared, and sometimes all it takes is a dead mouse to send you right over. (if it is still there it might help to put a coffee can or yogurt container over it and just kind of slide it to the doorway. It’s still really icky though) It sounds like your community, virtual and otherwise, are ready to remind you that people have your back. Hard thing to remember, I know, when times are tough. So this is like the silliest thing I am about to share with you, TT, but are you aware that the Voltaggio brothers have a show on the Food Network? Maybe a little escape with Volt boys (even though they are not on bravo!) would be a lovely distraction. And if you need more convincing, Michael has gone blond! Take care of yourself. . .
True confession: Never told anyone until now, but when I worked at the paper in Monterey, I would often do press check. That is when the last person gives ONE MORE LOOK at the entire printed paper — not just online or proofs — to try to catch things. Perfect for an OCD freak, like me.
I would be the only person in the news room. One night, I heard a terrorized squealing. Followed by a scraping and banging sound. It was a little field mouse with its tail caught in a trap. I took the trap outside — we were in a woodsy area called Del Rey Oaks — and let it go. I swear the little critter thanked me before it ran off.
From then on, after everyone left, I would set off all the traps so they wouldn’t get the mice. I would remove the bait so they were not attracted to the disabled traps.
Because the traps were not working — Bwahahaha— the manager made a rule that all food had to be kept in the reefer or in plastic containers. No more “loose” snacks in drawers. As it should have been all along because we were in a woodsy area.
Now everyone can blackmail me. Oh, wait, there is no Monterey paper anymore! Ooops!
I am extremely lucky to have a lawn husband. I am a spinster schoolteacher – never married & in my 50s. They live across the street and his wife “rents” him to me for everything! Mow the lawn? Check. Trim those hedges? Yep. Loose drier vent? On it! Mouse or squirrel in the attic? No problem. I have to fight to pay him! I joke with his wife that when he goes (he is in his early 70s) that she is going to have to remarry so that I can have someone to help me! I can do it all – I just don’t want to anymore! Great neighbors are the best!
They hate the smell of mint. Peppermint oil and cotton balls. Use it in school and apt Plus, house smells clean.