7 February

One For The Rodents: Our Kitchen Stove Has To Go

by Jon Katz

Score one for the rats and mice. We have to get rid of a simple but very effective stove. We’re getting one ($1,000) next week, and Tim Parisi will pick it up and bring it to the farm to get rid of the old one.

Rodents were texting in the stove’s insulation; there was a dread urine smell whenever we turned it out, and nothing would remove it. The new stove comes next Wednesday. Goodbye, white stive. The new one is black and white.

The rains have disrupted the rats and mice, slipping into homes in droves to get dry and find something to eat. Climate change was something we viewed from afar. Now all we have to do is look out the window or use the bathroom. I’m thinking of you, California people, and Texas people.

7 Comments

  1. I know it was just a typo, but I love the image of little rats with cell phones sending texts from inside your stove.

  2. We almost bought a house ( a house with a beautiful view and exceptionally clean) but on our second visit we saw mouse or rat droppings. I did some research and those “critters” are responsible for many house fires. They sharpen their teeth on the electrical wires in the walls. You probably know this but I didn’t. I contacted an exterminator and he educated me. I had never thought about them getting into appliances. What a shame.

  3. Zip has a great home, Ellie, he isn’t going anywhere, and there is never a guarantee that mice will not get into something. This is the first time for us. If it happens again, we’ll deal with again. Personally, I’m very happy to have a barn cat like Zip and I will continue being able to cook our meals. If you’d rather than have a beautiful cat than a warm bath, I would get one and not try to give other peoples animals away. That’s a bit creepy. The Mansion has a big old fat barn cat that we bought for them four years ago. They are quite happy with Summer, and please don’t give me silly advice like this. Blessings to you.

  4. For the first time in 35 years of living here, mice have dug a hole under the siding of my house, probably because I was feeding the birds a few feet away. Now we have to find an inexpensive way to kill them, without killing anything else. I did a bunch of research and the stuff that dehydrates them sounds like the best way to go. We don’t want the stench of dead mice as we enter the house.
    I’ve stopped feeding the birds.
    I’ll move the feeder to the middle of my backyard far away from my house. Then I can set out the poison without fear of harming the birds.
    Once it warms up, we’ll have to take the siding down and repair the damage they did to the house.
    Usually they invade the basement and we used to empty the snap traps daily. This is the first year we haven’t gotten mice in the basement.

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