My evening out with Mouse #2 could've been better. He didn't take me anywhere nice, just an abandoned parking lot, and once we were there he was really hesitant to make the first move. I don't think I'm going to see him again.
I went on over to Stoney’s to help him finish those chili beans he made on Thursday. He has these rat zappers sitting outside to electrocute the Antelope Squirrels that have been eating his tomatoes. He was watering his garden earlier today when one of them got wet. So he sat down with the zapper on his lap to re-bait it when it zapped the hell out of him, he said, and by reflex tossed it in the air about fifty feet away. Stoney said he ain’t going to make that mistake again. I bet the squirrels were watching!
It might have even been four. I named one of them Mouse 0 because it escaped for the trap on my way to release it far away, so he could have been a repeat offender as both Mouse 1 and Mouse 3 had the same coloration as Mouse 3. Meanwhile there's at least one more b/c w/ Mouse 3 in the trap overnight, there was still poop on the bottom of Kappa's cage this morning. Less than yesterday morning thankfully, and Kappa was okay with my having taken her food out overnight, so I'm going to keep doing that at least until the poop stops on the bottom of her cage, or maybe forever.
Oh boy...usually when one animal moves out, another is eager to move in! They are not the hantavirus carrying type are they?
I spilled some bird seed while filling the feeder the other day...doh! Not a good way to get rid of critters my ground squirrel. I'm going to block his holes at the foot of the step with rose bush branches as he keeps making rocks disappear!
They are not the hantavirus carrying type are they?
Someone mentioned that on PL so I looked them up, and I think of the four I've caught (or the three I've successfully released) one of them was the type (deer mouse, tan colored) that can be a carrier for hantavirus while the others were not (house mice, gray colored). Thankfully they mentioned it right after I caught the deer mouse and before I'd done anything with it or its poop. My standard procedure now is to use a glove to handle the full trap, and to clean the poop with a damp paper towel (to minimize dust escaping) and wear a mask while doing so.
Unfortunately I can't really see a good way to minimize Kappa's exposure to dust from poop while cleaning her cage out in the morning, so I can only hope that as a virus it's harder for it to adapt to birds. Well, I guess there's one way I could do it - put her in a sleep cage in a different location so she's less likely to get mice in the cage. I'm considering it but I'm not sold on the idea.
Thankfully as of Wednesday evening we're going away for a week (and Kappa's going to board) so hopefully with less food out for the mice they'll have less reason to come visit, and that alone may break the current cycle.
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I spilled some bird seed while filling the feeder the other day...doh! Not a good way to get rid of critters my ground squirrel. I'm going to block his holes at the foot of the step with rose bush branches as he keeps making rocks disappear!
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Someone mentioned that on PL so I looked them up, and I think of the four I've caught (or the three I've successfully released) one of them was the type (deer mouse, tan colored) that can be a carrier for hantavirus while the others were not (house mice, gray colored). Thankfully they mentioned it right after I caught the deer mouse and before I'd done anything with it or its poop. My standard procedure now is to use a glove to handle the full trap, and to clean the poop with a damp paper towel (to minimize dust escaping) and wear a mask while doing so.
Unfortunately I can't really see a good way to minimize Kappa's exposure to dust from poop while cleaning her cage out in the morning, so I can only hope that as a virus it's harder for it to adapt to birds. Well, I guess there's one way I could do it - put her in a sleep cage in a different location so she's less likely to get mice in the cage. I'm considering it but I'm not sold on the idea.
Thankfully as of Wednesday evening we're going away for a week (and Kappa's going to board) so hopefully with less food out for the mice they'll have less reason to come visit, and that alone may break the current cycle.