No, but the cats have left…um…identifying marks on them! :eek:
That’s nothing. We had one die in our stove and couldn’t find it. Couldn’t bake for months without the mouthwatering smell of dead mouse tinged with mouse piss.
If you were in Canada you’d have a moose in the hoose that you want to get oot.
Gaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! You win.
There was a mouse behind our microwave. I showed the cat where it was and the kids and I hid in the living room behind the ottoman, shrieking.
Husband caught the mouse a day later and released it.
Over by the neighbor’s house.
Helped a friend clean out rural back yard storage shed recently. Several cardboard boxes such as bankers file boxes had had their handholes enlarged by gnawing and the newsclippings and other papers in them had been shredded and mixed with imported pinestraw to make nests. Droppings were evident but nothing alive (or dead) was seen or smelled. She’s buying some plastic storage boxes with which to replace the cardboard ones for the stuff she feels safe in keeping. She’s concerned about germs that could be in the boxes. Would a spray with Lysol handle that? They also pulled the covers off Christmas tree ball ornaments and nibbled on the Styrofoam balls.
I don’t think “urban” mice pose much of a disease threat (no cite). It’s just the ick factor for the most part. The disease threats come more from the urban dwelling rats and rodents.
But then again, poop is poop. I would think vacuuming the stuff would work fine, if the stuff is vacuumable.
It really depends on where you live and the types of rodents about, Deer mice are the largest known carrier of Hantavirus, which can be contacted (however rare) by breathing dust from rodent feces. Care should be taken though, when dealing with stuff that has been infested by rodents. The virus particles get stirred up through dry activities like sweeping or vacuuming. The CDC website has a lot of useful information on Hantavirus.
The proper way to clean up rodent mess (feces, nests etc) is to wet the affected stuff down with a bleach/water mix or with a Lysol spray until thoroughly wet. Then clean up stuff and put into bags, seal, and dispose of. As far as important papers, not sure how that should be dealt with as getting them wet would sort of ruin them. The Christmas decorations, if they can be wetted down and cleaned with a bleach or Lysol mix. If not, they probably should just be thrown out.
This is, of course, highly dependent on the area where you live and if Hantavirus is a problem there. If you are unsure, call your local CDC or Health District office.
These links take you directly to the list of what rodents (can) carry
Are you sure about that? For one thing, the mouse in your photos has much larger ears.
One of the biologists my husband works with identified the offending rodent. So I am going to assume that is what it is. I thought it looked closer to the Pacific Pocket Mouse, but then again, I specialize in rocks, not rodents.