Mouse Update

I hate that this is even a post or warrants talking about. I made mention a few posts back that Nico saw another mouse the day after we got the "all clear" from Jimmy, our Orkin guy. He is a sweet, sweet kid and I mean kid. He looks like he is Nico's age but anyway, we got the all clear and I was feeling pretty good. Nico saw the mouse but Jimmy said that there was a chance that when we sealed up the house, a mouse might have gotten trapped in (yuck). Two days later, I was at my computer when Gia was napping (right around the corner from the pantry) and the stupid half screen TV was off. I heard a rustling (like a bag of chips) in the pantry. I was always told that they are more afraid of us than we are of them so I started saying loudly, "I am still here! Go away!" I heard rustling again, freaked and grabbed a broom to shut the pantry door. I spent the rest of the day upstairs. Leo came home late that night so we didn't talk about what I heard. The next morning, Gia woke up before it was light out and instead of giving in and giving her the bottle, I brought her downstairs. As I was walking down, I heard rustling again. I again, yelled, "We're here! Go away!" I hurried back up the stairs and woke Leo up (it was about 6:00am) and told him what I heard. He mumbled for me to call Jimmy. I, in a not very nice voice, said, "Jimmy doesn't live here, @*#. You do! Now get up and check and see what is in there." He didn't and if you are thinking that if I said that nicer, he would have, he wouldn't. By the time he did go down and take care of it, I told him to throw every bag of chips away (they were in a big bin at the bottom of the pantry). He begrudgingly did and said, "Yeah, you better call Jimmy. There are droppings in there." What the hell??? We took down our deck, we got a dumpster and purged our house, there is nothing but bins in the basement and we have Orkin coming out A LOT. Why can't we get rid of this problem? And these have to be the stupidest mice around because there are a lot nicer houses with bigger pantries, basements and nooks to hide in Winfield...why in the world are they coming here??? I called and requested another guy come out because I thought Jimmy might be missing something.

I bought a bin for the chips that closed but Nico being as math challenged as he is, gave me the wrong measurements so the door wouldn't close. When I took the bin out before I went to bed, the floor was clean. Tommy went in there in the morning and when I freaked and told him not to go in there, I saw an energy bar opened and crumbs everywhere on the floor where it was clean the night before. I got Leo up again and had him sweep in there and take a look. He pulled out a shelf we have in there for granola bars and "sweet" treats for lunches and sure enough, there were crumbs everywhere with a few mouse droppings. There was a fat @** mouse with a lot of energy running around my house and I was completely skeeved out by it. I went to my sister's for the day because Orkin couldn't come until the next day.

Friday came and I called to make sure that they were coming even with the threat of a blizzard and that they were sending another guy. The woman said, "Jimmy said he'll be there by 1:00." What?! I explained again why I wanted someone else feeling bad about not wanting Jimmy. The next thing I know a guy comes on the line and said, "This is Wiley. I can be there on Monday." First of all, why didn't I have Wiley in the first place? Wiley sounds like the name of a guy that is good at catching mice. Wiley also sounded like he might have been missing some teeth but still like he knew what he was doing. Second of all, MONDAY?! I told him no way and that I needed him there now. He said, "Okay, Miss AnnMarie. I'll be there between 10 and 12." He showed up, and as far as I know had all of his teeth, with what looked like a box full of serious mouse catching tools. He sealed up some gap behind my stove and I saw him putting down traps that were different than Jimmy's.

"Wait, what are those?" I asked.
"Glue boards," he said as if I should have known by the big letters that said GLUE BOARD.
"But wait...am I going to see them on there because the ones that Jimmy puts down are boxes and I can go into a room without seeing them?" I said freaking out by the minute.
"Well, the mice aren't taking the bait so these are better. The critters run across and get stuck." OMG! He put one under the stove and behind the refrigerator.

To help you better understand my fear of mice and how it makes me crazy, I will share with you what I did in my insanity. We have this ugly, scary looking lizard that Nico got for his third birthday. It's big for a rubber animal...a little over two feet maybe (I'm also math challenged) and I'm not sure how it lasted through the move from Bartlett or the purging of the house but it did so I thought, in my most insane moment, that if I put it outside the pantry door, if a mouse came out, it would see it, get scared and go back in. Not that I want them in there but I don't want to EVER see them and they don't seem to be afraid of us since Nico keeps seeing them. The funniest part was when Wiley turned the corner and saw the lizard, he jumped and yelled, "Oh!" I threw Tommy under the bus saying he put it there and Wiley said those things scare him. The irony of an exterminator being afraid of a toy lizard left me a little speechless. He put another glue board in the pantry (a place I will never go again) and one in the basement and then left to get the ticket in the car. While he was gone, I heard a noise that I swear sounded like plastic scraping the floor and thought, "Son of a *****, we already caught one! OMG!" I looked at Gia and stupidly asked her, "Did you hear that?" She looked at me like I was crazy which I was. The noise stopped and Wiley came back in.

"You are going to think I am crazy but I think there is one in there. I hear a noise that sounds like one," I said.
He listened and quietly, like I belonged in a padded room, said, "Are you hearing the noise right now?" It was dead silent.
"No, I don't hear it right now. Can you check it?"
He did and nothing was there. "It's your door, Miss AnnMarie. It is clicking in the wind." Great. He for sure thought I was crazy. He, too, was convinced that we had trapped the mice in and there won't be a problem.
There is a vent thing above the microwave that he said we should put wire around because maybe that is a problem (I bought the stuff but has Leo done it? Nope. Am I afraid I will seal up something that shouldn't be sealed? Yes.) I found out he is Jimmy's boss so I made sure I told him what a great kid Jimmy is and that it had nothing to do with him.

He left and two minutes later, Jimmy called. Can I just tell you that I felt like I cheated on Jimmy? I know. Ridiculous but Jimmy comes whenever I call him (like when Leo is out of town and I'm afraid we caught a mouse) and even put the foam stuff outside when Leo wouldn't. I explained why I had someone else come out and that I didn't think Wiley understood my fear because he put down traps where I would see the mice and Jimmy talked me off the ledge telling me he'd come out this week and check them.

My friend came over (PL) and when she went to see the pantry trap, she heard something shift and yelled. I yelled and grabbed her, accidentally stabbing her with one of my nails in the process. "Is it a mouse?!" I yelled. We were like two old biddies screaming about nothing. I think I might be losing my mind with this issue and I think the mice might be the devil.

We caught two mice on the one glue board in the basement and Nico confirmed that one of them was the one he saw. Leo thinks that because Wiley sealed up around the stove, those two couldn't get upstairs because we haven't caught any up here. He thinks we are done. I am going to live in fear that just when we think we are, one will pop up. Calling Jimmy right now to have him check.