The vermin poll.

[rivka]

[Poll #1243857]

What prompted this poll: we saw a mouse in our kitchen this weekend. Mice in our last house got a bit out of control, so we're being alert and taking immediate measures to try to get rid of this one. But although I know that mice can carry disease, I don't really freak out about them. They seem like a normal fact of household life to me. They're a pain, but they don't revolt me.

Then I remembered a post I saw once on mothering.com, which at the time I labeled one of the most unintentionally revealing posts I'd ever seen. It was someone posing a hypothetical situation in which Child Protective Services might make unfair negative judgments about a family: By the time the caseworker shows up Mom decides to be friendly because, of course, she has nothing to hide -- so she invites the worker in for a cup of tea. She pours the tea and they sit chatting ... a moment later the worker picks up her cup to see a roach floating in it.

Mom says, "I'm so sorry -- we've just treated for roaches, but you know how hard it is to get completely rid of them ..." The worker doesn't understand, she's always lived in newer homes: from her perspective, a roach is a sign of a filthy house ...

My first reaction to that post: My house is 168 years old, so I hardly think I'm biased. Serving someone tea in a cup that has a roach in it? Is, in fact, a sign of a filthy house. And if you think that's normal or understandable, there's something wrong with your housekeeping standards. My second reaction, though: Huh, probably there are people out there who would feel the same way about mouse droppings in the back of a kitchen cupboard, which to me is a sign of whoops-but-no-big-deal.

Your thoughts?

Comments

[casperflea.livejournal.com]

In my childhood home, we had mice, but we knew where they came from - two of my brother's pet mice had escaped and occasionally emerged to sit beneath the TV set and mock us.

We now (in Georgia, 1920s house) have both roaches and ants. Previously when I've had ants I would set out ant baits and that would solve the problem very quickly. Here the ants seem to laugh at ant baits. The roaches are the giant 2-inch variety. We've been told that if you treat for roaches, you get ants, and if you treat for ants, it does nothing to stop roaches. Since we had a negative experience with roach treatments at our old house (left poison debris everywhere despite being told we had small children) for now we're just dealing. I want to look into boric acid for the ants, as I am told it's non-toxic to humans and I think we've found where they are getting into the house.

[dglenn.livejournal.com]

I haven't tried to entirely eliminate ants, but discouraging them enough seems to keep them out of sight: when I find an ant trail on a counter, I clean that area thoroughly, remove the food that appears to be their goal, and maybe (depending on my mood) spray the nearer corners with generic crawling-bug spray ... but the only time I've seen a major occupying force has been when they've gone after Perrine's food, or (when anniemal visits) the food set out for Jamie (her poodle). I tried putting the cat dish inside a larger dish filled with water to make an ant-proof moat, but just putting a ring of ground black pepper on the floor surrounding her dish turned out to be just as effective and less hassle (despite looking much more slovenly). When they don't have access to what they want, I don't see them at all.