shina_poohな日々＠San Francisco。

朝、夫が台所のシンク下で "かさかさ" という音を聞いたという。周りの家の音じゃなーい？と話していた矢先、同じ場所から "カリカリカリ・・・"。

えーーー、なにー？今の音。。。


既に夜の23時過ぎ。しかし、気になるままほおって置くことが出来ない性分。意を決してシンク下の扉をそーーーっと開けてみる。一見、何も見当たらない。収納してある調味料をひとつずつ取り出し、お米の袋に手をかけたところ、、、





明らかにネズミです。ネズミがかじった跡。一目瞭然。



シンク下を空にし、覗いてみると、配水管が通る穴がかじられて大きくなっている。床には、崩された壁の残骸と、米粒大の黒いフン。。（涙）

（とっさに穴に布を詰めた状態↓床には壁の残骸が・・・）

それからが大変。まず、家の中にネズミがいないことを確認。（ネズミが家に入ったままだったら、出口をふさいでしまうことになるので最悪・・・）

シンク下にもぐりこみ、崩された穴以外に外とつながる穴がないかを確かめて、穴と溝をダンボールとガムテープでふさいでいく。とりあえずの応急手当。ネズミ（小さい mouse のほう）は、1/4 インチ（0.6cm）の隙間があれば入り込んでくるらしいと聞いて必死！

その後、衛生のため、塩素系洗剤で床をよーく拭く。



夜中 1:30 終了。。。
夫もぐったり。私もぐったり。。。。。



アメリカの家にはネズミが出る！とは聞いていたけれど、まさか自分の家に出るとは思いもよらず。穴とフンの大きさからして、大きな rat ではなく、小さな mouse のほうだと思うけど。アパートの管理オフィスに連絡したら、一応ネズミ駆除業者（rodent control）を入れてみようということになった。

ナメクジどころじゃないよー。。



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つづく。そして、教訓。

ネズミ対策（rodent control）
ネズミの巣（mouse's nest）と攻防戦




■あるメーリングリストで流れていた、ネズミ退治方法の興味深い（＆恐ろしい）やり取り

（抜粋訳）
最近家の中にネズミがいる形跡があるのですが、どうしたらいいでしょうか？

- 猫を飼ってみたら？

- ゴミ箱を毎日きれいにし、食べ物を外に置かないこと。

- アパートの管理人がネズミ駆除業者に連絡した。ネズミ駆除業者は、ネズミがどこから入ってきたかを見つけ、いくつかのネズミ捕りを仕掛け、農薬系の科学毒物をチーズに混ぜてネズミをおびき寄せた。

- ネズミがどこから入ってきたかを見つけること。その近くにバネ式ネズミ捕りを仕掛け、チョコレートかピーナッツバターでおびき寄せる。毒は使ってはいけない。手の届かない場所でネズミが死んでしまうと、どこからか悪臭が漂ってくる。粘着系のネズミ捕りも使ってはいけない。ネズミは死ぬまで排尿を繰り返すので、見ていても最悪だし、衛生上もよくない。ネズミ駆除業者はお金の無駄。

- 電気ネズミ捕り機は効果絶大。

- ネズミが入ってきた穴を見るけること。家の下にネズミが這うスペースがあるなら、すべての穴、通気孔、排出口をふさぐこと。粘着系ネズミ捕りは効果がなかったので、通常のバネ式ネズミ捕りを使ったが、周りに血が飛び散る可能性があるので、カーペットの上で使う場合は板を敷いたほうが後処理が容易になる。家に小さな子供やペットがいる場合、危険なので手の届かないところへ設置する。数日経っても捕まらないときはネズミ捕りを別の場所に移動させてみる。1匹見つけたら、通常もっといるものなので、複数のネズミ捕りをしかけたほうがよい。

- 毒は使わないほうがいい。毒を使った数週間後、死骸のような異臭がし始めた。ネズミ駆除業者を2度呼んで、死骸を1匹見つけた。また、夫が屋根裏に何度も登って数匹の死骸を取り除いた。それでも臭いは続いた。ネズミの死骸は壁と壁の間にあることがよくあり、ネズミ駆除業者はそれを取り除く保障はできないのだそう。半年以上ベッドルームで寝ることが出来なかったが、最終的に夫が非常に手の届きにくい場所から数匹の死骸を発見した。ラッキーなことに壁の間ではなかったが、十分に起こりうることである。


（original dialogue）
I recently found mouse activity inside my house. Could you suggest what I need to do?

- Get a cat?

- Even I'm facing the same problem. I'm cleaning my trash daily & not keeping food or fruit outside :-( As I'm living in an apt, having asked my help to the mgmt.)

- I had the same issue couple of months back in my apartment. The apartment guys sent a rodent control guy. He basically fixed some mouse traps and also once he found where they are coming from, he put some pesticides or rat poison chemicals mixed with food like cheese to attract the mice.

The plan was the mice will eat that cheese and die in couple of days (if they are not caught in mouse trap).

In short, either you can do the above things urself or u can hire a rodent controller to do it for you. Typically it lasts at least 3-4 days. But when u are doing it, make a note of storing the food always in refrigerator and no food is left in open containers.


- Find where they are getting access. Set traps nearby. Get the standard spring arm trap and bait them with chocolate or peanut butter. place them perpendicular to the wall - rodents run along walls. The spring loaded trap kills them instantly if it scores a direct hit. Check the traps daily. Dealing with the first dead mouse is hard - it gets easier. pick up the mouse and trap with a plastic bag, place them in a second bag and put them in the trash. Do not try to re-use the trap. If you have an active infestation, you will catch more than one. Then seal off their access so they don't return.

Do not use poison. It is cruel. The rodent suffers a long time before dying, and may do so in an inaccessible place. If this happens, you will be amazed by the stench.

Do not use glue traps. It too is cruel. And the mouse will urinate and defecate repeatedly until is dies from exhaustion or thirst, leaving an unpleasant and unhealthful cleanup project.

If you can't deal with killing the mice, you can use live traps and release the mice outdoors. However, a mouse released outside away from his nest is not likely to survive the night anyway.

An exterminator, in my opinion, is a waste of money.


- Buy Rat Zapper. Works great. I have caught 5 mice at different times so far.


- You need to figure out how it got into the house. Chances are there's a hole somewhere and allowed it to get in. If you have a crawl space under the house, make sure all vents are properly sealed. If you have trees too close to your house, it may have climbed up from there and down your chimney.

You'll have to catch the mouse/mice with traps using peanut butter as bait. Glue traps did not work for me. I had to use those standard traps that snaps at the mouse but be aware that it does kill the mouse and can sometimes be bloody. So using those traps on carpets, place it on top of a piece of board so that it'll be easier to clean the blood if any. That also said, if you have small kids or pets, make sure they can't reached it (even for the glue traps). Place it along the wall as that's how they usually travel around - they don't usually go to the middle of say the family room. If you don't catch any on a spot after a few days, move the trap somewhere else as chances are they're not going by that part of your house or wall. And if there's one, there's usually more than one so I recommend putting multiple traps.


- Whatever you try, you should stay away from the poison. We did it, and it worked. However, it's a big hassle to remove the dead body from the house.

　After we had used the poison for couple of weeks, we started to smell the odor like dead body. We have pest control over twice, and they found one body. My husband also went to the top of the ceiling couple of times for investigation and did remove some. The smell persisted. They told us that it is common that the body may be in between the wall. Since they did not guarantee the result. We stayed away the master bedroom for over half a year until my husband finally found couple of dead rats hidden in the hard to reach area. How lucky we were that the dead rats were not in between the wall. Otherwise, it could cause us thousands.

I believe that traps will be better. You know where do you put them, so you would never miss one.


- Nothing works better than Peanut Butter on a mouse trap, you can catch them very fast. Then you have to find out where they are coming from and buy something from home depot to close it with.