About Me

My photo
Hi! I'm Eunice and I live in Bolton, Lancashire, with my two dogs Sophie and Sugar and an assortment of cats - well it used to be Sophie and Sugar, now it's Sophie and Poppie. I first began camping back in 1997 when my then partner took me to Anglesey for my birthday weekend. We slept in the back of the car - a hatchback - using the cushions off the settee at home as a mattress, and cooked and brewed up on a single burner camping stove. The site was good, the views were great, the weather fantastic and I was completely hooked. Following that weekend we got a two-man tent and some proper accessories and returned to Anglesey two weeks later, then over time we progressed to a three-man tent followed by an old trailer tent, then a new trailer tent, a campervan and finally a caravan. When my partner decided that the grass was greener on the other side of the street - literally - in April 2009 and I suddenly found myself alone after fifteen years, I decided there was no way I was going to give up camping and caravanning if I could cope on my own. This blog is the story of my travels, trials and tribulations since becoming a solo camper - I hope you like it

Wednesday December 10th 2014 - Evicting an unwanted house guest

A couple of weeks ago, while sitting here at my pc one evening, I heard a faint rustling sound from deep in the corner behind the computer unit. It was so faint that I wasn't really sure if it was real or if I'd imagined it, but even though all three dogs were downstairs I had the vague feeling that I wasn't alone in the room. However, I didn't hear the noise again so I put it out of my mind, but a few evenings later as I entered the room there was a distinct scuffling sound and the very real impression that something had darted across the floor and disappeared into the corner; it seemed that somehow I may have gained an uninvited house guest - a mouse.

Just before going to bed that night I left half a dozen small squares of bread and marmalade on a plate on the floor. I didn't know if mice like bread and marmalade but I figured that if there was a mouse in residence it might be grateful for a late night snack, and if the bread disappeared at least it would prove that I was neither imagining things nor losing my marbles - and sure enough, when I checked the following morning all but one of the pieces had disappeared. 

Now as much as I like mice, and having one in residence didn't particularly bother me, it wasn't an ideal situation - where there's one there could be twenty one so the mouse had to go, and the sooner the better. But I also had to find out where it had got in, and as it seemed to be frequenting the corner behind the computer unit that was the obvious place to start; not an easy task though in view of everything which had to be moved so it would have to wait until the weekend when I had plenty of time. So Sunday morning saw me moving all the books and various boxes of computer accessories, paper, envelopes, laminating sheets, files and plastic pockets from the shelves in the unit, disconnecting and moving two computers, two printers, two monitors and a scanner, and finally moving the unit well away from the wall. It took quite a while but eventually I could see where my little visitor was coming and going; right in the corner was a gap between the floorboards and skirting board - not a particularly big gap, but certainly enough for a mouse to get through.

So after a walk down to the local DIY store I returned with a can of expanding foam which I sprayed into the gap to fill it and seal it, then once the foam had hardened I cut off the excess and made a start on putting back the pc unit and all its contents. I wasn't sure if the mouse might still have been hiding somewhere else in the room though; if it was I would need to get a humane trap, but before going to the expense of buying one if I didn't need to I decided to leave some more bread and marmalade down just to be sure. I did that twice and on neither occasion was it touched, so I think the mouse must have evicted itself before I sealed up the hole. There's certainly been no more strange noises or any other evidence of it still being around so I think I can consider that my efforts on Sunday, although time-consuming, have definitely been a success and my uninvited guest has gone for good.

   
Posted by

2 comments:

  1. Christine11 December 2014 at 12:55

    Oh how I wish it was that easy at my house! I'm glad it worked out for both of you, seeing as how you live across the ocean and there is not one single chance that your mouse could find its way to my house. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Tigermouse11 December 2014 at 20:23

    If I could have been certain that it was just one mouse on its own I'd have had no problem with it staying here, but seeing as they are such prolific breeders I couldn't risk being overrun with them so it had to go. And I can honestly say that in the thirty five years I've lived here, even with a field at the end of the street, that's the first mouse I've ever had in the house.

    ReplyDelete

I really appreciate good comments - who doesn't? - but due to a recent tide of spam from anonymous readers all comments will now be moderated, and only those with a direct bearing on this blog will be published. I'm sure my regular blog readers/commenters will understand the need for this - and to anyone whose comment isn't published, you know why.

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)