Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
Where are Kevin and Ruth now? Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

Where are Kevin and Ruth going next? Kuwait City, Kuwait on March 31st.

Friday, August 29, 2014

A hunter, I am not.

Ruth took the little blue car into town the other day to do our weekly grocery shopping. She went alone. Or at least she thought she did.

Turns out she had a passenger.

A mouse!

We have a lot of mice here at the park. A lot! We constantly have a couple of loaded mouse traps here in our house trailer, and have to "empty" one of them at least every couple of days. In fact, I just finished tossing another carcass out the back door. Snake food. We have lots of snakes here as well. Might have something to do with the abundant food supply!

Anyhow, I usually park the car at the back of our workshop when it's not being used. One day a couple of weeks ago, I opened to the rear hatch to find a bunch of insulation from an old stove that sits nearby. This is not good...I have seen the damage mice can cause to an automobile and the little blue car deserves a better fate than that!

So I cleaned it all up and we bought some mouse poison blocks. These blocks contain food that the mice love, but they also contain poison to kill off the little buggers. So we put one block on the floor near the corner of our cupboards where we have seen them come and go.

Ha! Ruth took these just a few minutes ago while I was typing this!

Is it safe to come out?

Mmmm. Yummy!

Apparently this stuff takes up to two weeks to do it's job, but a person in the store said that it will definitely control the mouse population.

Anyhow, I had put another couple of blocks up at the shop near the car. They pretty much disappeared overnight! So I put two more blocks up there. I also bought some "Bounce" dryer sheets and some moth balls and put them in and around the car.

So when Ruth returned from shopping the other day and told me about her passenger I was a little frustrated that they're still getting inside the car. 

And now, I had to find this little one and get it out.

I opened the hatch and saw it right away. It went down into where the spare tire is stored and so I took it all apart and sure enough there it was scrambling to get up the side and I tried to grab it with my glove but it managed to get up under some of the trim. Mice can get just about anywhere!

Hmm, so I thought, I'm gonna have to start taking things apart.

So I brought the car back up to the shop and folded up the rear seat so that I could access things better.

What did I find?

A whole family of mice!

But these were newborns. Six little baby mice. Now all of a sudden I start to feel bad for the stupid mice. Obviously I can't let this mommy raise her family here. They have got to go. This is not going to end well for mommy mouse and her little ones. I feel another tinge of sadness. Stupid mice.

Two of the little ones.

The babies were making noises that they wanted mommy, and mommy didn't want to come out of hiding because I was standing there and had exposed their nest. But she kept poking her nose out and heading towards the little ones but then she would see me and scurry back into hiding. You could tell she was trying to protect her family. In the time that it took for me to go get the camera, she had already moved three of them to a more secure spot.

Without getting into details, mommy did not survive this whole ordeal. Which meant the babies didn't either. But I honestly felt bad. Here I was on one hand with traps and poison, and on the other hand didn't want to kill the mommy and babies. But it had to be done.

A hunter, I am not.

I need to oil spray the car again before winter, so that will fix the problem there. Mice don't like oil, and to be extra sure I'm going to park it on a plastic sheet and spray oil around all of the tires. That ought to stop them from getting in the car over the winter.

On to happier things. If you missed it, we're giving away a couple of Amazon gift cards. One of them is for $100 USD. You can enter here... http://www.travelwithkevinandruth.com/2014/08/free-100-amazon-gift-card.html

No Amazon deal of the day here. However, feel free to go shopping and see if you can find your own deal!


And last but certainly not least...it's our granddaughter Sadie's first birthday today!

Happy Birthday Sadie!

25 comments:

  1. We once had a mouse living in the engine compartment of the motorhome. I tried several methods to get rid of it including leaning on the horn. It rode with us all the way to Edmonton where my brother simply sprayed his garden hose in the engine compartment and we watched the little hitchhiker run across the street into a neighbors yard. I hope it enjoys Edmonton winters!

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    1. Living in the engine compartment for the whole ride to Edmonton, I'm surprised he wasn't baked when you arrived!

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  2. I hate mice. I think they are gross and dirty. I would never have been as calm as Ruth.

    Sadie is a baby doll!

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    1. The mice themselves don't bother us. Although I have seen Ruth jump once or twice! The damage that they can do bothers us though.

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  3. The joys of country living! We used to get the occasional mouse when living in Toronto as we lived near the old Toronto zoo.

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    1. Remember, there is the city mouse, and the country mouse... :-)

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    2. I didn't live near the zoo when I lived in Toronto and I had mice too.

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  4. we have mice problems off and on. wont see any for a year or two and then they are back. Sorry I hate them in my house but afraid i'd be like Ruth with the babies,,,probably would have scopped them up and put them under a tree and then it would have been mother natures problem

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    1. Yep, I have no problem with mice but I don't want them in my house, motorhome or car! We once had one in our house before we started motorhoming and the cat couldn't reach it, it was so small and we felt so bad for it we decided to keep it for a pet, so we went out and bought food, exercise wheel and bedding for it. Then we read that they are social creatures and like company of other mice so we went out and bought a mouse! Call us crazy!!!!!

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  5. Yep, love hate relationship! Happy Birthday Sadie! She's such a cutie.

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    1. She sure is a cutie and we sure miss not being able to be there to celebrate her first birthday with her. :-(

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  6. We had mice once in our full time rig while in Colorado. I showed them no mercy. I looked at it as them or us.

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    1. Kevin looked at it the same way but he still felt bad!

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  7. Just sprinkle grits around. Guaranteed to kill mice, except if they are of the southern variety... ;c)

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    1. We're from Canada, we don't have grits here!

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  8. My old house backed onto a park. When I bought the house this was a real treat, but I soon realized that the mice love living in the park and finding ways into my garage (especially in winter). The blocks really helped and although I hated it, I did have some traps out and had to chuck the carcasses too. Not that I like mice, I just don't like to see animals die :(.

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    1. We would get mice in our old house but we were never inundated so we always left them. We have never had to use traps until now and we would have preferred not too but when there are so many and the damage that they can do to the wiring, it just wasn't an option anymore, they had to go.

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  9. Killing and violence is always a choice. Live and let live, you could have easily placed them some place else

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    1. Yes, you are right and that is normally the option that we would take but mice cause lots of damage to cars and to houses when there are so many. If we had placed them somewhere else they would have made their way back as the shop is the only building in that area to protect them from the outside elements and our "house" is a house trailer so again it is easy for them to cause a lot of damage to wiring which could be a safety hazard. If it would only have been the odd one than we probably wouldn't be worried. I think what we need are more snakes or cats!

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  10. We have installed Victor Mini Pest Chasers in our trailer and have literally watched mice get within a few feet of the trailer and then run in the opposite direction. The best part is they are pet friendly and you can buy them at any hardware store. They do require 120 volt power source to work.
    Be Safe and Enjoy!

    It's about time.

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    Replies
    1. We had thought of buying these ourselves but when Kevin looked at the reviews for this brand and other brands none of them had good reviews. So we decided against it.

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  11. Replies
    1. We agree but we also didn't want to be saying "poor little blue car"!

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  12. Happy birthday, Sadie! What a cutie pie!

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    1. Thank you Connie and Barry, she had a great birthday and yes, she is a real cutie pie!

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