Furry Little Critters

I have been having an extremely hard time living in my home these days. I say this because the mice have been as bad this year as they were 9 years ago (our first fall) in this house.

We live in a 100 year old home, half of which is originally an old log cabin. Our basement is an old stone foundation and I believe at one point was a dirt floor that someone filled with concrete (very poorly I might ad).

When we bought this house it was a bank repo that was in total disarray and had been sitting empty for a very long time. Needless to say that with no residence in side the mice took up occupancy. We bought the house in June, gutted 90% of our home and moved in to a very unfinished home in September. Basically we replaced the downstairs bathroom, left the kitchen in tack with a few modifications (new counter tops, redone wood floors) and we had a dining room that we used as our living quarters. The remainder of our home was closed off and under construction.

Not long after our move in I keep seeing a mouse. Note to self when you see a mouse often it does not mean you have one single mouse. Oh no, as a matter of fact in two days we caught 10 mice.

They have never bothered me and we get one or two every fall. I can remember when Luke was little and being potty trained we were in the bathroom and out one walks from behind the laundry and out in to the kitchen behind the fridge. I did not react but to look at Luke and say, we have a mouse.

This year something is different with me. Evey time I come across one it scares the life right out of me. I don't get it, I don't get why this year I am so bothered by them.

One was spotted in the living room, only to go into the kitchen and have one run across the counter and stove (big scream that time). I told Eric the one in the living room was playing the look out while the other one enjoyed the pizza we had on the counter.

My next encounter was even worse. Home alone, I go to take the trash out. We keep our trash cans in a cabinet because of our dogs. I go to pull the bag out and it rips the draw string part right off the bag. It was to heavy because Thomas's pumpkin was in the can (thank you dogs for eating half of it). So I get a second bag and pull off the top layer of trash and remove the heavy pumpkin. Now I can pull this bag out as well. I pull it out and sit it on the floor to try and figure out how to tie it up before taking it out. Well before I get it tied it starts moving frantically in the bottom. Remember, me home alone? Anyway in my shear panic I grab it and fling it out onto the front porch where it spills everywhere. I was not about to go pick it up either and now I have let that stupid mouse free to come back into my home.

Anyway, since those two I have seen several more but we have not had any success at trapping them. We have had a lot of warm/cold weather mix so they are probably coming and going.

The part for me is Eric doesn't seem to care and I can't sleep at night because all I can think about is one of these things climbing across me in my bed or worse yet, one of my children.

I don't understand why I am having such a hard time this year. I do believe this year they are bad because for 9 years in this house our field behind us has always been a grass field grown for straw and is always very tall grass in the winter months (great home for mice). This year the farmer planted corn instead and the mice really started coming in after he plowed that corn field down in early October.

Needless to say, I am ready to pack my children up and move into a new home. So do you have anything that just freaks you out? How would you handle sharing your home with these furry little critters?