Forced to Escalate This Beyond Conventional Weapons

Living in the woods has many advantages. One of the biggest for me is pretty much living with the wildlife. Deer, turkeys, bear, coyotes, and other critters of the forest often roam through my yard. It is always fun to watch them from my living room window.

Living in the wood has many disadvantages too. One of the biggest for me is pretty much living with the wildlife. Deer & bears destroy my birdfeeders. Bears, coyotes and other critters get into the garbage. And of course the mice.

Turns out mice find living in my little house more comfortable than living under a log. And that is a problem for me. A problem that starts a small war every fall when the mice decide to migrate from the logs to my house. Even though my house is pretty well sealed up to prevent a rodent invasion, a few always find a way in when the temperature drops in the fall.

I don't like this annual war on rodents too much. Even though I have no problems hunting game animals for food, I'm not into killing animals for just killing. But I am not into letting rodents chew my drywall and crap on my kitchen counter either. So, like voting, I pick the option I dislike less.

My preferred method in defending the sanitary conditions of my kitchen surfaces is the tried & true mouse trap. A little peanut butter on the pan for bait, and the little buggers it a last snack before the wack of a quick death. Little fuss, little muss.

The annual war's fighting pretty much ended a few months ago. But at least one remains or a final wave came in from the winter's chill. And this one is crafty. Either a mouse ninja or Rodent Army Special Operations Specialist.

For the last few days, the trap pans have been cleaned of peanut butter and this morning, a horrific discovery. Droppings in my silverware tray. That's it, gloves are off. With that, I am forced to escalate this beyond conventional weapons. Time to drop the chemical weapon option. That's right, the rat poison is out.

I don't care to use poison. The mice die a slower death that with the trap. Plus with the trap, you can recover and dispose of the fresh kill. Using poison sometimes results in discovering your foe's casualties by the smell. No, I don't care to use poison. But finding mouse turds on my butter knives call for action.