The Battle Continues...

I don’t know if mice back in the states are dumb, but Peruvian mice are sneaky little suckers. Ever since I got back, I have been battling these mice every single night. Now that they know of their existence, they are done being quiet and cunning. Instead they make a whole bunch of racket, which forces me to sleep with earplugs and a flashlight. Here is my tale (pun intended…):

Day One: After my deep cleanse of my room, which I found mice droppings every which way, I decided to get my family involved. I discovered two openings in my room where I thought the mice come from and escape to. One was behind my bed and the other in a corner. So my host dad gladly mixed up cement for me and covered up those holes. “Ah-ha,” I thought. “That will teach those little guys.” But no, the next night, I heard rustling once more…

Day Two: How the heck did they get in?!? I was going crazy much like the chef in Little Mermaid, only I had two “Sebastians” on my hands. “That’s it,” I thought. “I’m not going to rest until these suckers are dead.” So I hopped out of bed and un-did all of my cleaning. I took out my drawers. I took out my suitcases underneath my bed. I took out all my manuals in my book case. I didn’t want them to be able to hide anywhere. I would spot them and then they would get away and hide someplace else. This happened about every half an hour during the night. Finally I had them trapped, but they skidded through my grasp and out, underneath my door where upon I hear “Annie, are you okay? Are you sick?” from my host mom. I had apparently woken her up with all my noise throughout the night. “No, just the mice,” I replied.

Day Three: Having woken up my host parents the night before, they decided to help me out again and so my host dad nailed more plywood on the bottom of my door so that no mice could enter. At last, I can rest. We even put our cat Colorado in the room for good measure, but he apparently does not like my room and instead, just meows the whole time until we let him out. (Where’s my little kitty, you ask?? My family says it ran away/got stolen/dead somewhere, but that’s a whole other story.) Having put all my stuff back away earlier that day, I went to bed in peace….with earplugs.

Day Four: I wake up from a glorious sleep only to find two Hershey kisses gone from my night stand. I can’t believe it. They had the audacity to climb up on my nightstand and eat my chocolate, again! I only I could have heard them last night. These guys were getting bold, and desperate; seeking out every little morsel in my room. This meant I needed to put my food where they can’t reach it, so up it went.

Day Five: Again, I wake up in the middle of the night to rustling. With my flashlight I point it towards my bookcase, where I find one of the mice on his hind legs just staring at me and not moving. Ah-ha! Caught in the act. So jump out of bed and head towards my bookcase, but he disappears. I go back to bed, but then hear some rustling in my garbage bag. I sneak up towards the garbage, where upon the little guy jumps out at me and runs out of my room squeezing underneath my door to escape. Obviously they were still getting in regardless of the added plywood. A new plan needed to be hatched. I needed to get reinforcements….

Day Six: As I went in to town today, and told my story of my restless nights to one of my community partners, he suggested getting mouse traps. So together we went to a ferreteria to purchase some. I come home and set them up in my room placing a small morsel of bread to lure them in. Well, when I came back from dinner, the bread was gone and the trap intact! The nerve….I decided not to give up, and so put a dab of peanut butter on the trap; something they hadn’t had the chance to sample since it’s in a plastic container. I turn out the lights and go to bed and wait for the snap. A few hours later, I hear the rat trap snap, and I went back to sleep with a smile. In the morning, I wake up hoping to find a dead mouse, but instead find the trap devoid a mouse AND peanut butter.

Day Seven: At this point, I don’t know what else to do. My host mom suggests buying rat poison, so I guess that is my next step. I just don’t want the little guys dying in some hide-away spot where I don’t find for some time. In the meantime, I am now sleeping with earplugs every night, as all of my food is hanging, so no mouse can get to it. The next morning, I find fresh rat droppings on my bench and a piece of a granola bar. At first I thought that they climbed up the wires and into my food bag, but impossible. Then I saw one of my bags partially open with wrapper shavings on top and I looked inside….those little creatures got into my bag and ate one of my emergency granola bars!!! Goodness, these guys just don’t stop! I took out the remaining granola bar and threw it in the trash, where upon I then hung it up, so as the mice can’t get back into it.

Day Eight: As was the norm, I go to bed with my earplugs, but because the mice were making so much noise I took them out and just listened. It sounded to me like they were near my seeds, so I get out of bed and shine my light towards them. Nothing. Rats! (Pun intended) I go a little closer, this time removing a bag or two and out skids one of the mice. They seemed to be focusing their attention over there, so to make things easier on me I removed all the bags and put them in the middle of the floor. That way they don’t have any hiding spaces. Having looked around a bit, I go back to bed. But around the middle of the night, I hear a lot of noise, even with my earplugs on. I realized that they were in one of my bags, and not just any bag, but the bag that I forgot contained candy! So I creep closer and grab the bag quickly covering up the openings. Eurkea! I’ve done it! I’ve finally caught the mouse! So I then put the bag into another bag, in case it eats through the bag and tries to escape. Then I did want needed to be done. I step on it. Over and over again, just to make sure he’s really dead.

Day Nine: I wake up with a smile. I have finally won one over the mice. There is still one more out there, but that doesn’t matter. Maybe he’ll get my little message about his friend. I go over to the bag and gently step on it, just to make sure I wasn’t dreaming last night and that the mouse was really dead. Then I gently open the bag and take out the contents, whereupon I find a surprise. I didn’t kill just one mouse, but two! I got a two-fer!!! A two-for-one deal!!! I come outside and show my host mom my two dead mice, like a little kid showing her mom her A+ paper. I have finally defeated my whiskery nemeses, and have come away with a good lesson...

Never leave chocolate unprotected…