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larryiniowa

Critter in My House. What is it?

larryiniowa
12 years ago

Hello-

Last night "something" moved a few cherry tomatoes that were on the counter in the kitchen. There was a nibble out of one of them. There are some cream color droppings about as well. The droppings are about twice the size of a typical house mouse dropping.

Any idea what kind of critter/varmit this may be? I'm going to set a couple rat traps, but it would be helpful to know what I might expect.

Comments (11)

  • robm_2007
    12 years ago

    Can you please consider using one of the humane traps?

    I was able to catch and safely release a cute visiting small animal. He actually came inside when I was bringing my bird feeder inside for the night. It took a couple of nights but he finally was lured into the humane trap and immediately released in the neighboring field to go on with his journey.

    You can buy the humane traps at Home Depot or on Amazon.

  • larryiniowa
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    RobM-

    Thanks for the suggestion. Sure would be better if I knew what I was hunting

  • lumper20
    12 years ago

    I tried those so called high dollar ""HUMANE TRAPS." Glad one worked for someone. I have a cat,too. Now, I bought three of those traps. They did nothing. I paid under $5 for 4 kill mouse traps. I killed two to three three nights in a row, then one every few days. Where there is one mouse-my experience is there are six plus.

  • brickeyee
    12 years ago

    Mice and rodents are pretty far from endangered.

  • larryiniowa
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    Update:

    The critter was a large house/field mouse.

    A snap trap dispatched the critter in a swift (humane, by my standards) manner.

    AND, I know how this episode ended.

  • aidan_m
    12 years ago

    I use a humane mouse trap too. That is so I can feed free-range organic live field mice to my pet Kingsnake. They are Soooooooo much more nutritous than those little pasty white pet store mice. I ensure the field mice have not ingested poison someone else may be using by keeping them in a cage and feeding them for a few days. Never had one die on me, but just in case.

    If a mouse comes inside, I'll bring in the little trap and catch that one, too. But I have to admit that catching the mice outside the house cuts way back the number of mice inside the house.

  • brickeyee
    12 years ago

    "Love to eat them mousies,
    Mousies what I love to eat.
    Bite they little heads off...
    Nibble on they tiny feet."
    -B. Kliban

  • carolssis
    12 years ago

    Ah! one of my favorite poems! You might consider it helpful to find out where he got in. It's almost guaranteed there will be others. Mine came in where the pipes from kitchen sink came through the wall, it had been enlarged, not by much, but they can squeeze very well. Good luck.

  • larryiniowa
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    We've lived in this old house for eleven years. I pretty well know every corner, crack and crannie. And I have no idea how an occasional mouse finds its way in.

    And it's very seldom we ever trap a second one (Fortunately)

  • petesmom
    12 years ago

    I find dead surprises quite a bit. 4 cats. I dont know know if they are being caught in the house or being caught outside and being brought in through the kitty door.

    That being said, Ive never seen mouse droppings, nibbled food or anything.

    No need for traps, gets cats. Circle of life and all that.

  • brickeyee
    12 years ago

    With an 81 year old house we get a new mouse crop every autumn when the weather turns cold.

    It takes about 2 weeks to clear them out with traps, usually one or two a night.