The best laid schemes of mice and men often go askew.

[Arks]

I had an interesting dilemma Sunday, when I got a text message from one of my housekeepers: there's a mouse in the washing machine.

I have a washer/dryer combo unit in each of my suites and apartments, and I know that this time of year the little varmints are looking for a warm home for the winter.

I usually am pretty quick at coming up with solutions to problems, but this one gave me pause, because in my mind I thought she said the dryer, and I pictured the little beast escaping into the suite as soon as I opened the dryer door. How to catch the thing??

I finally realized it was in the washer, which is top loading. So it couldn't escape. But, how to catch the thing? I pictured huge gnashing mouse teeth tearing into my hand and giving me...whatever diseases mice carry.

I finally landed on the plan to throw a tee shirt over it, then gather up the whole thing and carry it outside to freedom. Luckily, it worked. The neighborhood cats are so happy.

To a Mouse - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Morticia]

We had a red squirrel in the basement. I watched it a few times run across the patio with walnuts. Then I heard it scratching under my office. Gomez was working on the pellet stove in the basement when he had that feeling something was watching him. The squirrel was sitting there looking at him. Even tho it was fun watching the squirrel run around outside, not inside. Snap! went the trap. We put mothballs around to prevent more adventurers. So far so good.

 

[TheBeachHouse]

Hahahahaha. That’s what old towels are for! I’m afraid we get them several times a summer. Birds, too. Courtesy of our indoor/outdoor cat. Old towels are the best weapon! And P.S. for snakes, a broom and dustpan.

 

[CoffeeTreks]

We live in the tropics. I got a call one night...umm, we have a snake in our room. What a snake! It was over eight feet long- a boa. It was cuddled up in his dufflebag. Seriously, there are moments when you are like, how am I supposed to handle this? 10pm at night with your one year old son in tow and an eight foot snake and guests looking at you like you will fix things is one of them. You know you will, you have to, there is no choice. Like beachy says, we used a broom but to scare her out the door. We moved her to our back coffee plots, but she kept on coming back to the inn. I named her Charlotte....and thought, ever the optimist, she might work well with the idea of an eco-retreat. But we would hear the occasional guest scream in the morning from finding her on the lawn.... Finally my husband used two brooms to take her down to the creek in back of our place. We never saw her again.

 

[dumitru]

There's nothing worse than snakes. I wouldn't sleep for 3 days after finding one in my room. Flamethrowers exist.

 

[gillumhouse]

There's nothing worse than snakes. I wouldn't sleep for 3 days after finding one in my room. Flamethrowers exist.

My Mom was a city girl (Chicago born & raised) who got plunked on a farm in West Virginia. She was not a fan of snakes. However, she ran off a breadman after he (who was afraid of snakes) killed the black snake that sunned itself in the flower bed by the kitchen door. As long as that snake was there, we did not have a problem with mice. She knew what was coming.....

 

[CoffeeTreks]

There's nothing worse than snakes. I wouldn't sleep for 3 days after finding one in my room. Flamethrowers exist.

Only three days? Yes, I would be doing a daily snake inspection before bedtime with a flashlight for a while. We always wondered if the guest had brought the snake here in his duffel bag from his last place without realizing it (but you would have to be kind of unobservant not to realize the difference in weight from an 8ft long snake in your bag), or if it came in when he left the french doors open and curled up in his bag.

 

[Country Girl]

Lions and tigers and bears, oh my! I can deal with just about anything, but I absolutely hate mice! This is the time of year they try to sneak inside and they can get into the tiniest of openings. We're ready with the traps in our old basement. Maybe we should get a snake.