A Nightmare Realized

Sammy Grigio

Avid Member
For the last few months the wife and I have been waging a relentless battle against mice in our house. This is a rather hardy and persistent variety that is endemic to Alaska. They're not any bigger than any other mouse but they do seem to be a lot more tenacious in eating and breeding. We have tried everything short of fumigation to eradicate them. We go through a few weeks of peace and no mouse activity to spurts of tepid activity and rummaging wall raptors. Raptors because the sound they make scurrying around inside the walls sounds like a ravaging raptor looking for a way out.

The defining characteristic in these mice is the figurative size of their balls. They are absolutely fearless. They aren't scared of our two pit bulls, our crazy kids or us. A month ago as we were having a family dinner with a hearty spread on the table one of them jettisoned up my daughters leg, down her arm and onto the table. It darted for the dinner rolls and parked itself right there and began munching in front of us. We were shocked. My daughter was frozen still and mortified. Once I came to my senses I attempted to shoo it off the table. It catapulted off the with a piece of dinner roll in its mouth and vanished as they do.

That was the last straw. I bought 50 sticky traps and 50 "poison control stations" and set them ALL around the house. Within a few days there was no sign of them anywhere. Out of the 50 sticky traps 36 had done their job and captured the culprits. The rest we assumed were done away with by the poison. That was four weeks ago.

Now, the nightmare. Last night my wife and I were in our room watching a movie. My chameleon Jimmy (male Ambilobe) is housed in our room with us just off and to the right of the foot of the bed. I heard a scratching sound inside of his cage. I didn't think anything of it as it's a fairly common sound caused by crickets that escape the feeder and claw at the walls in the bottom which are lined with poly film for water proofing. The scratching sound continued and became a bit louder and more hurried. Then it stopped suddenly. Shortly after it stopped the wife and I both looked over at each other simultaneously and said "Did that kind of sound like a mouse in Jimmy's cage to you?". Panic. I jump up to investigate and my eyes immediately catch one of those little a-holes trying to get into Jimmy's feeder to munch on the veggies and bug burger. Before I could land on my feet I saw Jimmy staring at this mouse with utmost disdain, and it that moment he did it. In pure chameleon fashion he stuck him with his tongue, reeled him in, gave him about four hard chomps and swallowed.

I still can't believe he did that. It makes me happy and excited but also mortifies me. I can only pray at this point that mouse didn't have any poison in its system. I will find out, no doubt, when I get home from work today. If Jimmy is still alive, not only will I be a very happy and relieved man, but it will further prove the sheer awesomeness of our beloved chromatic dinosaurs.

Who needs a cat when you have a chameleon.
 
well, while jimmy may have taken care of his mouse, you may need to take care of some gout. i only feed pinkies every so often to avoid gout but a meal that big may be cause for it. its the whole animal proteins are not the same as bug proteins thing. i hope hes ok tho! good luck with the mice if they arent already gone!
 
well, while jimmy may have taken care of his mouse, you may need to take care of some gout. i only feed pinkies every so often to avoid gout but a meal that big may be cause for it. its the whole animal proteins are not the same as bug proteins thing. i hope hes ok tho! good luck with the mice if they arent already gone!
What is gout? Don’t mean to be ignorant.
 
He wut!? :LOL:

I wish you luck... I hope it was not poisoned but you had better keep a very close eye on him. Personally, I would remove the poison traps until you figure something out. I would be very uneasy about them potentially biting your cham.
Shhh typo lol
 
Outside of the immediate concern with the poison, him being bit by the mice is my next biggest fear/concern. I did in fact remove all of the poison traps almost immediately after this happened. We are going to try the cat thing. We've made plans to go to our local shelter and see if there's one that has a penchant for hunting mice this weekend.

Yes, it was a very big meal for him. It's easily the biggest thing I've seen him eat. Part of the shock of course comes from seeing him put down a whole buffet in one go. Needless to say, he won't be getting fed for a few days since he's decided to eat like a snake this week.
 
For the last few months the wife and I have been waging a relentless battle against mice in our house. This is a rather hardy and persistent variety that is endemic to Alaska. They're not any bigger than any other mouse but they do seem to be a lot more tenacious in eating and breeding. We have tried everything short of fumigation to eradicate them. We go through a few weeks of peace and no mouse activity to spurts of tepid activity and rummaging wall raptors. Raptors because the sound they make scurrying around inside the walls sounds like a ravaging raptor looking for a way out.

The defining characteristic in these mice is the figurative size of their balls. They are absolutely fearless. They aren't scared of our two pit bulls, our crazy kids or us. A month ago as we were having a family dinner with a hearty spread on the table one of them jettisoned up my daughters leg, down her arm and onto the table. It darted for the dinner rolls and parked itself right there and began munching in front of us. We were shocked. My daughter was frozen still and mortified. Once I came to my senses I attempted to shoo it off the table. It catapulted off the with a piece of dinner roll in its mouth and vanished as they do.

That was the last straw. I bought 50 sticky traps and 50 "poison control stations" and set them ALL around the house. Within a few days there was no sign of them anywhere. Out of the 50 sticky traps 36 had done their job and captured the culprits. The rest we assumed were done away with by the poison. That was four weeks ago.

Now, the nightmare. Last night my wife and I were in our room watching a movie. My chameleon Jimmy (male Ambilobe) is housed in our room with us just off and to the right of the foot of the bed. I heard a scratching sound inside of his cage. I didn't think anything of it as it's a fairly common sound caused by crickets that escape the feeder and claw at the walls in the bottom which are lined with poly film for water proofing. The scratching sound continued and became a bit louder and more hurried. Then it stopped suddenly. Shortly after it stopped the wife and I both looked over at each other simultaneously and said "Did that kind of sound like a mouse in Jimmy's cage to you?". Panic. I jump up to investigate and my eyes immediately catch one of those little a-holes trying to get into Jimmy's feeder to munch on the veggies and bug burger. Before I could land on my feet I saw Jimmy staring at this mouse with utmost disdain, and it that moment he did it. In pure chameleon fashion he stuck him with his tongue, reeled him in, gave him about four hard chomps and swallowed.

I still can't believe he did that. It makes me happy and excited but also mortifies me. I can only pray at this point that mouse didn't have any poison in its system. I will find out, no doubt, when I get home from work today. If Jimmy is still alive, not only will I be a very happy and relieved man, but it will further prove the sheer awesomeness of our beloved chromatic dinosaurs.

Who needs a cat when you have a chameleon.
Tip: mice HATE the scent of peppermint try using some of that around the house. It blocks their scent sense.
 
Unlikely to have issues with gout after a single meal, but keep an eye out for poisoning for sure!

You have a way with words! Terrible story, but well written to the point of being entertaining haha! That really sucks, though... vermin are awful. Been there, done that half a dozen times back on the farm! We ended up setting up a few 5 gallon buckets with a few inches of water in them and balancing a chopstick or whatever on the end of a counter with a bit of peanut butter on it. Mouse would go to get the peanutbutter, chopstick would fall into the bucket, mouse would drown. Then we'd reset the trap and throw the mouse the crows. No poison, free snacks for the wildlife! Granted, we didn't set the traps in any main living areas. That was mostly the barn and outbuildings. We used live traps in the house and THEN killed them, cause we had too many animals wandering around to mess with other traps.
 
Sorry to hear your having such a rodent problem, I grew up in a infested house and it’s a nightmare. That said that is one hell of a story you have to tell the grandkids someday lol. Praying Jimmy isn’t affected by the poison.

Bill
 
I totally forgot about the peppermint trick! Thank you for reminding me. I do believe that I used that trick with great results some years back. I can't believe I forgot about it.

Thank you @GoodKarma19, that is very kind of you to say. I'm flattered. I really like the idea of traps that wouldn't pose a threat to other pets and critters in and around the house.
 
Back
Top Bottom