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nightmare on downing streetFor over a month now we have been plagued with mice. I have always said I'd prefer mice over cockroaches, if only because the mice are less able to sneak up on me. But now I realize it probably was also because I've never had a persistent problem with mice; I've seen one or two, we kill them and then they disappear. This time, I've still only seen a couple and Chris has killed a few more but we know they are still here by the tiny, brown presents we continue to find each morning and evening. We've plugged up all the holes we could find and ramped up from Organic, Peaceful, Life Change Devices to full-on Hulk Smash Killing Machines and still: poos!
Then last Friday night I turned on the stove and after a few minutes it began to smell like hot, buttered death. A smell I recognized from Douglass St. The smell of "oh crap, there's a dead mouse under there." We paged the super, Dez (who is not a supercool pot-smoking Australian as his name may imply, but is a very nice man nonetheless) and he's coming over Wednesday.
Wednesday may not be soon enough, however, as tonight something absolutely horrifying happened. I was walking home, headphones on, crossing 6th Ave at Downing. I then went to cross to the other side of Downing, turning my head to make sure there were no cars coming. As I stepped off the curb between two parked cars, I tripped on something. Confused, I looked down and saw a RAT the size of a GUINEA PIG scurry across my FEET and run under one of the cars. I involuntarily screamed, even though there was a group of men standing near the corner who all looked over at the crazy lady screaming in the middle of the street.
I practically ran the remaining two blocks home and called Chris as I walked into the kitchen, just in case I found a rodent death scene awaiting me, but the traps were all clear. I think I'll make it til tomorrow but I can still feel a phantom scriggle on my feet. I need to learn how to levitate, stat.
You will win. You will not just up and move like we finally did, because you are not a scaredy-cat like me. Knowing Team Zuckerland, I am certain you will prevail. Don't let the fuckers get you down!! Kill with impunity and let God sort 'em out!
Posted by: Stacy on January 6, 2009 07:53 PMOh my god, I once tripped over a rat in front of my apartment building. HORRIFIC. And I am having the exact same problem as you. Aaron and I have gone on a kind of mice Tet offensive, and there's still poop everywhere. And I feel like with the killing, we're just really breeding a master race of scary smart mice. And they're getting more brazen. I'm half expecting to come home some day and see one on my couch, cocktail in hand, watching a little TV.
Posted by: Amanda on January 15, 2009 09:05 AMI had a horrible invasion when I lived in Bay Ridge. You could play wack-a-mole with the mice coming up through the burners (seriously! their cute little brown whiskered snouts would pop up and then disappear, only to pop up through another burner an instant later). What worked for us after I finally, finally gave in to it was poison. We had an exterminator put it out and within two days we never saw another one. Before that, the super had put out glue traps and I was drowning them in the toilet. Not pretty. Also not very effective.
Posted by: Molly on January 25, 2009 10:25 AM
