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?

Comments

Taradharma said…
oh, ick. Not even after 20 frozen margaritas.

I know of no deterrent, they go where it is warm and where there is food. Maybe store seeds elsewhere. Of course there is always poison, but....

Maybe get a pool house cat. Hope you were wearing a face mask when you clean that stuff up! And gloves. Ewww....
Anonymous said…
this may sound gross, but my nephew stored some of his hunting equipment in my shed and it had fox urine (something you can get at hunting places, and is hopefully synthetic scent, I assume)and the little mices (and the gigantic squirrels stayed away this year. I was sure his clothes would be ruined, but nope, they're ok.I'm tempted to just put some rags with the stuff around our other shed, where the squirrels have made abodes similar to your meeces, to see if it would work.
Anonymous said…
that post possessed possibly the worst sentence structure I have typed in a long while. Sorry about that! Also, I forgot to sign my name because I think I will never remember my Google one.
Barb
Hey Tara! I would have to agree - not even after 20! I was all decked out with goggles, mask, gloves, and sun block. A sight to behold. My neighbor popped by to return a beach ball that had blown into his yard. I think I scared him.

Hi Barb! Have you seen my sentence structure and typos - I'm the queen of bad spelling and missing words! I think the fox urine sounds like a good idea. A lot less nasty than 10 pounds of mice poop. Thank you for the suggestion.
CJ said…
Can you find a nice cat??
I think I need a lion CJ for these bad boys.
KMae said…
Hahaha! No lion, maybe 2 cats tho' so they can keep ea other company. They will keep away the little creeps.
weese said…
its true.there is only one true deterrent.
its a cat.
gotta be a tough outdoor...even a barn cat.
they work.
i know this from experience.
Thank you weese and KMae! So a cat could really do the job huh? I don't suppose a Yorkie would be of any use in this situation.

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