Mariners’ game. It wasn’t the Mariners’ best weekend. The next day they were the losing team of a Chisox ‘perfect game.’ Bummer!
We ate far, far too much junk food.
And while we were gone, local temperatures had soared to 81, and we’d cut the pond pump and UV off for fear of having the pump run dry. This didn’t work well. The fish are fine, but it was algae soup when we got back. I don’t know how many times I’ve washed and changed that filter, but at first it was every 5-7 minutes: you could literally watch the water level in the pump well drop as it clogged. It’s better now—you can see the fish, though dimly. And I’m still hosing out filters.
We also needed to recover the ferret cage we use for the kittehs in hotel rooms: mice had nested in it, chewed up the cushions, and the mouse leavings with the mousie-urine-dampness would take your head off. I spent an hour up to my elbows in straight Clorox getting that cage cleaned up, and the salvagaeable traveling case laundered but I think it is now mouse-free and sweet-smelling. Ugh!
On the plus side, the kittehs made the trip really well: we had to break the news that they’re (being a little less disciplined than our elder kittehs) traveling in harness, with a leash ready to clip on at need. And while they were not at first thrilled with this, they traveled well with it—it oddly enough seemed to click in their heads that these harnesses (the Comfort Harness, with a soft Y yoke and broad, not narrow bands) were somehow protective for the trip. They were without them while we were in Seattle—and when it was time to come home, I just quietly slipped the harnesses back on and they took them without any fuss at all: it was time to take a car trip and expectations were rewarded when they ended up back in their own house again. So the first overnight trip is a success.
You know about hantavirus….right?? Or do you know whether your mice were Peromyscus or Mus?? Both come into houses/garages and do the things you describe.
She was using Chlorox, should help as best as anything could, against anything except the smell. (Chlorox fumes tend to get to me more than I realize at the time, too. Too long since regular swimming, I guess.)
Mice is mouses, they is, does what mices dooze. But mmmaaaaannn, do they have to be so…mousey…about it? Yee-uck!
Sigh, I hear you, though. I am still not sure if the gangsta-hoodie squirrels are actually getting into my attic, despite trying to find out. Several spots in the attic, I’m too big a hew-mon to get to, but would be just right for rodents, raccoons, or perhaps possums. (I think it’s only squirrels, but the local squirrels are divided between the nice, neighborly, polite squirrel-folk, to the aforementioned gangsta-hoodie squirrels, the kind who’d make Alvin, Simon, Theodore, Chip, and Dale (chipmunks all) quake in their little anthropomorphic sneakers! You got a problem wit’ dat, you *bleep-bleep-bleep*. And if you’ve never heard bruiser squirrels cuss, lemme tell ya, it’ll surprise you.
What *is* the going rate to rent out an attic to the more domestic sort of squirrels?
For the more pushy little guys, loud noise (in unaccustomed genres) and crazy-hew-mon goings-on are likely to get stepped up.
Bring it, squirrel-boyz!
As long as she was using a mask, she’s probably OK. But just dumping Chlorox on the stuff….not safe.
Squirrels in the attic are a significant source of fires in older houses–they tend to strip insulation from non-conduited wires. It’s not smart to take a “live and let live” attitude to squirrels in attics.
Yeah, you always want to wear a mask when you are sweeping and otherwise stirring up dust any place that you suspect are infested with mice. The mice shed the virus in their urine. They have a nasty habit of leaving a trail of urine behind them both to mark territory and so they can find their way back to their nest quickly. How you get hantavirus is by inhaling the urine coated dust. The Navajo shamen wisely counsel that if you see a mouse crawling across any of your clothing or possessions, you need to burn that item immediately and move house — and this centuries before we knew that the mouse, particularly the deer mice, are vectors for several species of hantavirus, among other things. See:
http://www.crimeandtraumascenecleanup.com/rodent-cleanup.htm
Good summary, WOL. Hantavirus is always on the top of my mind since we’ve had local fatalities (often caught visiting eastern WA) and I’ve live-trapped Peromyscus around and IN my house. They are hard to avoid if you are at all close to the ‘wilderness’. At least the fatality rate for hantavirus is lower than for real nasties like ebola and rabies etc (weak grin).
Well, I was doing it all outdoors, but nasty stuff! If I develop more than usual aches and pains I’ll certainly call it to someone’s attention.
Meeses is why I don’t seriously object to having free-range neighborhood kittehs around. In good years when food is plentiful, we have a population explosion, and when times go bad, they all move in on the humans for free pickins. I do need to get the adolescent litter of cats that is in our back hedge to understand that the humans in this house are friendly. Makes it easier to approach them if necessary.
Mice have the population explosion, that is.
A good way to get rid of the urine odor without excessive chlorine smell is to soak the items in oxyclean. It will neutralize the odor and degrade the components, is generally color safe, and can help get rid of ALL species urine. Oxyclean makes things a little more breathable for those of us allergic to some loveable varmits…
By the way – thanks for writing such wonderful stories in interesting universes – it makes the days more enjoyable!
Thanks! And welcome in!
Lol, btw, all—I just chased a juvenile osprey out of the back yard. I saw the large-bird wing, ran out, grabbed up a long-handled dustpan as a noisemaker, and he sat in the hemlock and yelled at me, and I banged the pan against the fence. A few more protests and he left. The rascal. What does worry me, they’re a bit more agile than the bald eagle we frustrated last year, but one thing the murky water does is make targeting harder.
FiL has spent the past few years observing a bald eagle nest on his daily walks along a river in NJ. He’s watched several hatchlings grow up; this past week, he was doing his usual route when he became aware he was being watched. He slowly pivoted, and discovered one of the juveniles from this year’s nest was in an eyeball level snag about 20 feet from him, and observing the human interloper. After a few seconds of stare-off, the juvenile took off, in no great hurry.
We had an in-ground swimming pool out in the country 1/4 mile from the Rogue River and we tried to winterize it one year with a black visqueen cover to screen out the litter. We had some of those big saucer-shaped concrete hanging planters and Dad used them to weigh down the edges of the plastic. In Midwinter, a huge wind gust sucked the middle up a few feet in the air momentarily, dragging the edges and a couple of hundred pounds of dirt and concrete into the pool. That spring, the algae in the pool just exploded due to all of the nutrients in the potting soil; and one day we had a pair of Osprey circling above our little green “pond”, patiently waiting for dinner ala carte.
Oh, glug!
Well, I tossed the floating rings into the pond, and think they may have dissuaded the fellow, plus my banging sticks on the fence, and showing up every time he perched.
I also have the help of Brother Raven and his mate, who are nesting across the street and really don’t like Osprey either.
I have a report of an osprey at Manito Park, about 7 or so miles from here. Our osprey, if that’s what he is, and not a strayed-species I’m not familiar with, is a litte small for an osprey, maybe a juvvie from last year.
I’m not exaggerating his size, I’m sure of that: he’s big. I used to have a hawk, long ago and far away, one of the mid-sized guys, and the size is pretty easy to judge. This guy is larger than a typical hawk, lighter than an eagle, but wide wingspan.
In the valley, we ran mostly to red-tails, sharp-shins and opsreys, although we had a most impressive drop-in once, a ferruginous hawk (buteo regalis), average wing-span of 56″, soaring just over the tops of the scrub oaks and gorgeous in light-morph underside of rust-marked cream. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferruginous_Hawk
In raptors Big=Female. Males are called “tiercels” or “tercels” because they’re usually about a third smaller.
Here in the West mouse populations, and their concomitant diseases, tend to peak in and just after El Nino years, e.g. 1983. Mice are also susceptible to Salmonella typhimurium (No surprize there to a Latin speaker!) var Copenhagen. Humans don’t have the right sort of receptors (Good news there for the baking industry!) but other animals do. Not sure about kittehs. Worth checking?
FWIW, hanta virus is certainly in this area. Circa 1995 I took care of a woman who contracted it while cleaning out an old barn. She barely escaped with her life. NASTY.
And in addition to nasty diseases, mice bring fleas and other nasty parasites! I’ve been cleaning my pantry for the last few days, with a migraine, which fortunately has mostly canned goods in it!
Thankfully, I haven’t seen any mice since I moved in. That’s actually something of a puzzle. Plenty of squirrels, though, running across my roof, and every now and then, I feel sure in my attic, though I’ve never quite caught them in the act. As long as they don’t take up permanent (or even temporary) residence.
However, insects…this climate means even the cleanest home has to fight to keep insect-free. Ugh. (I prefer natural methods. I don’t want my cats or myself getting sick.) But, hmm, will probably have to treat *inside* for ants again. Sigh.
They can be surprizingly loud running across the roof, especially when chasing each other. 😉 I’ve even had the pleasure of a Downy Woodpecker drumming on a plumbing vent pipe as a too early alarm clock!
I urge you to check the roofline and vents from the outside for points of entry. Squirrels can be surprizingly athletic, agile, and creative when they really want to get somewhere–like a bird feeder. I’ve had Starlings work at the screen wire backing the eave vents until they’ve been able to get it free–allowing not only themselves entrance to the attic, but also wasps and “yellow-jackets”. I had to staple screen across the outside.
If you have sweet-loving ants, a relatively quick and safe thing is to use ant bait. The best I have found is called Terro. If you see a conga line of ants, or a bunch around crumbs or dishes in the sink, put a few drops down on a bit of glossy paper or cardboard near the trail back to the nest. The ants find it, take it, and within a couple of days, no more ants. Terro comes in a drop dispenser, and prepackaged bait stations that the cats can’t get at, if that might be a problem.
A friend of mine who used to work for Terminix uses equal parts peanut butter, sugar, and powdered boric acid, mashed together and stuffed into short pieces of drinking straws. The advantage is that the straws can be taped up on walls and any other place where you frequently see ants.
aggghhh – had never heard of hantavirus! terrible mouse problem in my pottery shed as it’s a lightly built wood structure with insulation between the wood – and the mouse pee smell can be rather noticeable … recently I poisoned the little dears as nothing else was effective, and when I hoover I use a dyson which has good filters … since there is always the dust problem associated with clay – and then mop … I will be more careful in future ..
by the way have you seen this? http://www.space-travel.com/reports/Company_to_Create_Gas_Stations_in_Space_999.html
these guys must have been reading a certain science fiction author …..
Thanks, all, for the suggestions. I’ll head to Lowe’s or Home Depot again soon anyway, so progress can occur.
There must be some sort of bird of prey near here. I occasionally hear a call that sounds like a hawk or some other raptor, but haven’t seen one as yet. There are doves and some others in my neighborhood, all welcome. (The raptors are welcome, of course, as long as they don’t bother me and my cats.) Live and let live. I like the variety. … I miss being on the edge of the city or getting into the hill country regularly.
Today, after errands, I let the cats and I have a little time outside. Very happy kittehs about that. (Hey, he actually understood us, good human!) All was fine. — But at one point, popping inside and back out, I somehow startled a bird, who flew past under the covered patio, fluttering past me and causing me to duck. Hah, a nervous moment there, wondering if he/she had flown into my house! — I don’t know what kind of bird he/she was, but likely female, I think. It didn’t seem like a bluejay, aggressive so-and-so’s. Maybe a dove or pigeon. It went by so fast, all I saw was “wing feathers flying at me!” and ducked. The feathers were a medium-to-dark lavender-blue to blue-grey. I think the bird was fairly small, about the size I’ve suggested, maybe a dove or pigeon? I didn’t get a look at the bird otherwise; too bad. I’m sure it’s one of the locals. Hah, probably startled her as much as me. Glad the bird’s OK and no trouble for her (his?) chicks, since I’d guess there’s a nest nearby, and that or foraging is likely why the bird was there to begin with. funny, though, since my cats were out there too, and they are inexperienced hunters. Beautiful color on those feathers. Very glad the bird didn’t decide to get aggressive with me. Wouldn’t want any ill feelings or damage, the bird or me. 🙂