Meanwhile... Pt. 1

[MDG]

There are a couple of drive-ins near me (20-50 miles), but I can't bring myself to go to them for typical multi-plex fare. When I went to drive-ins in my heyday (while living in Syracuse/Rochester and St. Petersberg), the attraction of the drive-in was the horror triple feature--usually a current release, a movie that was in constant release, and a cheapie eurosleaze pickup (e.g., Phantasm, Don't Look in the Basement and Torso)

[mrc1214]

There are a couple of drive-ins near me (20-50 miles), but I can't bring myself to go to them for typical multi-plex fare. When I went to drive-ins in my heyday (while living in Syracuse/Rochester and St. Petersberg), the attraction of the drive-in was the horror triple feature--usually a current release, a movie that was in constant release, and a cheapie eurosleaze pickup (e.g., Phantasm, Don't Look in the Basement and Torso)

I would love to see a horror triple feature. Im slowly getting into the B-movie horror movies. I think a drive in could do pretty good IM sure alot of people miss them.

Then on Sunday, Jackson made his little league pitching debut. I've written about it elsewhere, but Jackson was born with hypotonia which basically translates to low muscle tone. We discovered it when he was very late to start walking and it mostly manifests itself with fine motor skills (manipulating forks and knifes when he was younger, handwriting now that he's older, etc.) He's been receiving physical and occupational therapy since preschool and he's been making great improvements ever since. Most people would never know he's been dealing with any of this except for the fact that he's pretty small for his age. At any rate, sports was bound to be a struggle for him but he loves baseball so he's been playing in a league since he was 5. He took the mound yesterday in front of both sets of grandparents and he did great - an inning and two-thirds, no runs, two strikeouts, one nice play on a ground ball and eight extremely happy family members.

Thats great!!! I wish him all the best.

[dan bailey]

Then on Sunday, Jackson made his little league pitching debut. I've written about it elsewhere, but Jackson was born with hypotonia which basically translates to low muscle tone. We discovered it when he was very late to start walking and it mostly manifests itself with fine motor skills (manipulating forks and knifes when he was younger, handwriting now that he's older, etc.) He's been receiving physical and occupational therapy since preschool and he's been making great improvements ever since. Most people would never know he's been dealing with any of this except for the fact that he's pretty small for his age. At any rate, sports was bound to be a struggle for him but he loves baseball so he's been playing in a league since he was 5. He took the mound yesterday in front of both sets of grandparents and he did great - an inning and two-thirds, no runs, two strikeouts, one nice play on a ground ball and eight extremely happy family members.

Great, Kan-Man -- let Jackson know he's got at least one big fan in Alabama.

Interesting to hear of little league being played in October, though. Most places, as far as I know, youth baseball ends probably a few weeks before school starts.

[Kan-Man]

Interesting to hear of little league being played in October, though. Most places, as far as I know, youth baseball ends probably a few weeks before school starts.

I'm not sure when it started but our local league has it's official season in the spring but also runs seasons in the summer and fall. We skip the summer, but Jackson has been playing spring and fall since he was 5. If he had any interest in playing something else, fall would be the time to do it. Lacrosse, football and soccer are all pretty popular around here. He's starting to show some interest in football and fortunately the town offers a flag football league in addition to tackle because we'd never let him do tackle.

[mrc1214]

I'm not sure when it started but our local league has it's official season in the spring but also runs seasons in the summer and fall. We skip the summer, but Jackson has been playing spring and fall since he was 5. If he had any interest in playing something else, fall would be the time to do it. Lacrosse, football and soccer are all pretty popular around here. He's starting to show some interest in football and fortunately the town offers a flag football league in addition to tackle because we'd never let him do tackle.

We had them but it wasnt around for too long (Fall Ball we used to call it here). The same coaches ran it but Im not sure they played other towns it was more like pick up games. Summer baseball was crazy we had the All-Star traveling team and then the Legion team when you were 13 you could try out for. There was summers when I was at the baseball field every day too bad I took up football instead.

[Kan-Man]

We had them but it wasnt around for too long (Fall Ball we used to call it here). The same coaches ran it but Im not sure they played other towns it was more like pick up games. Summer baseball was crazy we had the All-Star traveling team and then the Legion team when you were 13 you could try out for. There was summers when I was at the baseball field every day too bad I took up football instead.

We call it fall ball too. Travel baseball is a whole other animal. I don't think we'll wind up pursuing that, unless he wants to when he gets older. There's a wider age range in travel ball and I think it's more suitable for the more talented players (or, more likely, the more competitive parents).

[The Confessor]

Great...found out today that I've got mice!

I heard some funny scrabbling noises the other day but I couldn't ascertain where they were coming from. Then today, as I was sitting reading a book -- would you believe the H. P. Lovecraft story "The Rats In The Walls" (honestly, my life is so weird sometimes) -- out of the corner of my eye I saw something small dart along the skirting board between the TV and the bookcase. It moved so fast that at first I thought I'd imagined it, especially considering what I was reading. But I got up and walked over to investigate and low and behold, something small, dark and furry darted out from the bookcase and went behind my CD/LP shelves.

So, what is my best course of action to get rid of them? Bear in mind that I'm a vegetarian and I don't really want to lay down mouse traps...although I've heard that you can get humane traps too, which just trap the mouse, rather than kill it (although I've also heard that the mice sometimes die of distress in the trap anyway, thus making them less humane than a regular mouse trap).

Anybody here in the forum ever discovered mice in their house before? Any advice is welcome.

[zryson]

Great...found out today that I've got mice!

I heard some funny scrabbling noises the other day but I couldn't ascertain where they were coming from. Then today, as I was sitting reading a book -- would you believe the H. P. Lovecraft story "The Rats In The Walls" (honestly, my life is so weird sometimes) -- out of the corner of my eye I saw something small dart along the skirting board between the TV and the bookcase. It moved so fast that at first I thought I'd imagined it, especially considering what I was reading. But I got up and walked over to investigate and low and behold, something small, dark and furry darted out from the bookcase and went behind my CD/LP shelves.

So, what is my best course of action to get rid of them? Bear in mind that I'm a vegetarian and I don't really want to lay down mouse traps...although I've heard that you can get humane traps too, which just trap the mouse, rather than kill it (although I've also heard that the mice sometimes die of distress in the trap anyway, thus making them less humane than a regular mouse trap).

Anybody here in the forum ever discovered mice in their house before? Any advice is welcome.

a friend had mice. considering they can breed quite large i would recommend traps. or get a cat. if you are squeamish and dont want to do that, i recommend calling pest control and get them to fumigate your house and remove them.

[Aaron King]

Anybody here in the forum ever discovered mice in their house before? Any advice is welcome.

While I lived in Wisconsin a few months ago, I had mice in my house and my workplace at about the same time. It wasn't an infestation (three in the house, one at work), so we were able to use live traps and take them out to a nearby field. (Like dan, I'm something of a bleeding heart when it comes to animals.)

If you pursue the live trap route, be sure to take the mouse at least a mile from your house (preferably a mile from anyone's house) to release it, or it can easily find it's way back. I don't know how feasible this is in urban areas.

Live traps are a little more expensive than traditional mouse traps, but they're totally reusable.

[mrc1214]

Anybody here in the forum ever discovered mice in their house before? Any advice is welcome.]

This whole area has mice we used to have one that would come into the house one in a while. Then I adopted two cats (brothers) and havent seen one since. Not saying you should go out and get a cat but Im just sharing my problem with mice.

I would just call an exterminator if you get humane traps and let them out they will probably come back.

[mrc1214]

We call it fall ball too. Travel baseball is a whole other animal. I don't think we'll wind up pursuing that, unless he wants to when he gets older. There's a wider age range in travel ball and I think it's more suitable for the more talented players (or, more likely, the more competitive parents).

Travel baseball here was from 14-17 (so from freshman-junior or in my case I was a senior but didnt play) and I played when I was 14 and it was tough. I wouldnt recommend it to parents or kids it takes up a big amount of time. You have no life. Like I said a few summers we played baseball everyday and not much else but the occasional pool party.

We all hated it. It was exactly like the South Park episode where they try to throw the game so they can loose. We needed one more win to go on to play teams from Pennsylvania, out parents had to drag us to that game which we lost.

[The Confessor]

While I lived in Wisconsin a few months ago, I had mice in my house and my workplace at about the same time. It wasn't an infestation (three in the house, one at work), so we were able to use live traps and take them out to a nearby field. (Like dan, I'm something of a bleeding heart when it comes to animals.)

That makes three of us then!

I don't think that I have an infestation (yet) because I only heard scrabbling sounds for the first time two days ago and have only actually seen a mouse for the first time today. But from what I've read online this evening, time is of the essence....they breed like crazy. I need to nip it in the bud starting tomorrow.

If you pursue the live trap route, be sure to take the mouse at least a mile from your house (preferably a mile from anyone's house) to release it, or it can easily find it's way back. I don't know how feasible this is in urban areas.

Luckily, I'm fairly close to some rural areas where I live, so it won't be a problem to dispose of any captured mice. About 6 or 7 years ago, my parents house (where I was living at the time) had a fairly sizable infestation of glis glis and my Dad bought a big, cage-like humane trap to get rid of them. One autumn alone, we caught 30 of the buggers and every time the trap was sprung, either myself or my Dad would have to drive out into the local countryside and let the captured glis glis go. So I'm totally experienced with taking rodents/vermin out into the countryside in the middle of the night and releasing them.

I would just call an exterminator if you get humane traps and let them out they will probably come back.

I think an exterminator would be a bit much at this stage...as noted above, I don't think I have a large infestation at all. I think the mice have only recently taken up residence here...probably due to the temperature suddenly dropping in southern England this week. Having said that, I keep my house pretty clean and I don't leave food out over night or anything, so I'm surprised that they've decided to take up residence in my place at all, but there you go.

Fingers-crossed, setting a few humane traps over the coming days will do the trick.

[Kan-Man]

Anybody here in the forum ever discovered mice in their house before? Any advice is welcome.

We had them when we first bought our house. The droppings were the tell-tale sign. It was a big deal for us because my wife was pregnant at the time and she couldn't be anywhere near the droppings.

One reason to contact an exterminator is to help determine their point of entry. We had a dryer vent that needed to be moved and once we did, we were okay. Although I think they told us a mouse can get in a space as small as a dime (or a pence, for you, I suppose. A farthing? I'm such a Yank.)

[benday-dot]

I attempted. when confronted with a mice problem of my own, to go the live capture and release method as well as the electronic noise emitting deterrence technique, but had no luck. I don't have a cat.

These guys can be quite smart. In the end I had 100% success with the $1.49 traditional wooden mouse trap method. These things result in rapid execution, but execution it is.

I just use peanut butter for bait. Mice can be clever and are sometimes able to extract things like cheese without springing the trap. The sticky nature of peanut butter makes it harder to pull a Houdini. On a few occasions I have had to slightly modify the hair spring trigger by making it even more susceptible to release at even the slightest disturbance.

I hate being a killer, but in the end I found myself part of the utterly ancient death struggle between man and mice.

Once I managed to capture a mouse live. I took it some ways away to release, and within 20 seconds of the liberation a large crow swooped down and grasped the creature, perhaps stunned at its sudden freedom, and the bird was without mercy in its visitation of death upon its meal. It was like a damn omen.

I guess it wasn't meant to be.

[Aaron King]

1) Glis glis (edible dormice?) are so cute!

2) I understand the others' points of view regarding traditional trapping and exterminators, but I feel like they could be saved as last resorts in case the live traps don't work. We found the point of entry at my house (a dryer tube out to the garage) and fixed it by putting a stocking over it.

3)

It was like a damn omen.

This is crazy.