Mice and Stink Bugs

Sometimes I get tired of living in an old farm house. We have always had problems with mice. When the weather turns cooler, the little furry creatures find their way indoors. They invade my living quarters and seem to think they are entitled to coexist with me. I refuse to let them win. For years, I would set mousetraps and empty them out each day only to have them filled up again the next morning. Finally last year, I resorted to rat poison. I had been afraid to use it because people said that the mice would die in the walls and the house would smell for weeks. However, it worked wonderfully! I put some in the basement and in the kitchen and even upstairs. The mice completely disappeared and there was no awful stench in the house. I figured the mice must have left the house to die. I was ecstatic. I had won the mouse war.

At the first sign of mice in my kitchen this fall, I went through the house and basement and put out the poison.  Within three days, we started to smell an unpleasant odor in the kitchen. Each day, it got gradually worse until it was REALLY BAD. We searched but could find no mouse corpse anywhere. Of course in the middle of all this, Megan starts dating a young man and I am envisioning her bringing him around and when they step into the kitchen the smell of the rotting mouse will have consumed the air and we will all be holding our noses or wearing gas masks. It did not seem like the ideal first impression to have of one's family. In desperation, I went to the store and bought several scented oil air wicks. I plugged them in and turned them to high. Soon the kitchen air was smelling more like apple-cinnamon than rotted mouse flesh. It actually covered up the horrible smell fairly well and I breathed a sigh of relief. One problem solved.

Then there are the stink bugs. Now I know that this has nothing to do with an old or new house. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to what buildings they decide to invade. I have friends in new houses that are bothered with them and friends in old houses that are not and vice versa. Ever since these nasty critters arrived several years ago, we have had a problem with them, especially in our office and bedroom and one of the upstairs windows and Megan's room. Our rental house next door (Dad's old house) and Josh's mobile home at the top of the hill are rarely bothered with them. This Spring, Steve decided he had had enough. He has his pesticide license and so gets some chemicals for spraying crops that the normal homeowner would not have access to. He tackled the house. He sprayed all the problem spots inside and out. I was afraid he was killing all of us as well. The house reeked and you can't tell me that what we were breathing was good for us. I opened all windows and doors and tried to get fresh air in and after a day or two, we breathed easier. The good news is that it worked. The stink bugs still tried to inhabit their favorite places, but they barely touched the spots that Steve had sprayed before they were struck dead. I vacuumed up hundreds of dead bugs (but at least they were dead).

As always, when the corn starts to grow, the stink bugs leave the house and live in the corn. The summer was stink bug free.  However, as soon as the corn came off, they tried to return to the house. I couldn't believe it when we were again deluged with dead stink bugs in the office and bedroom and upstairs. Whatever Steve had sprayed in the Spring was still working. The bugs would fly in and within minutes they were writhing in a death spin. I was happy, but a little concerned that these chemicals are still in my house and that potent. Thankfully they are up high around windows where little grandchildren can't reach. Once again, I am daily vacuuming up dead stink bugs.

So, for now I am winning the war on both the mice and stink bugs. What will be the next invasion to this 150 year old farm house? Retirement to the house next door is looking better and better.