Of Mice and Sheds

At first it wasn't obvious. A few droppings here and there, a bit of seed over in the corner - nothing I couldn't handle. It wasn't until I started the clean up that I fully understood what transpired during the winter months. An entire neighborhood of mouse condos had been constructed in our pool shed sometime between November and May.

There were the high rise condos, built in the loft area. These were the expensive units, made of the finest inflatable pool toy plastic. They were "painted" in lovely shades of blue and green which used to be the color of the pricey solar rings we had been using to warm up the pool last summer. They were the Trump Towers of Mouseville.

There were also the water view units on the window sill, not as spacious as the high rise units, but very sunny and affordable.

The most popular dwelling appeared to be the garden apartments underneath the shelving on which the grass seed used to sit. I found an entire bag of seed plus an equivalent amount of droppings on the floor under the bottom shelf.

And then there was the stains - on the floor, on the pool equipment, on yard tools - which looked suspiciously like blood. Yuck. No one wants to float on a pool toy covered in mouse poop and blood, not even after ten frozen Margaritas.

So who knows a humane deterrent to keep these little monsters from re-building their village now that the clean up is done?