I do cakes occasionally for people. I have a cake due for next Saturday and also I was approached to donate a gift certificate for a cake at my church's fall fest tonight to raise money for a family in need. Well, over the past few day I have seen two mice and several mouse droppings around my small house. I have called the exterminator to come, but now I feel like I can't do the couple of cakes that I have coming up. I usually let cake stuff dry or sit out on my dining table. Can anyone relate?

YES!!! I live in an apartment. If the neighbor has issues they will soon be yours. Well, we had a family move in & out within a couple of months. well, I soon started seeing little creepy crawlies. I had a fit!!!!! i called the property manager & let them know. they quickly got the exterminator out here. I have refused to do a cake for the next few weeks. My husband suggested I do the coupon thing for our Kids Quest a few weeks ago. I said"NO!" One for the critters & two, I'm not legal. More for the critters.

don't you hate those little critters. At work they come in during winter. I put down those stick traps it catches them good. One got into my computer, now I keep a sticky pad their. their is a small opening I can not see but that little bugger can squeze threw that opening.

Do not use the food pellets if they die in the wall it can stink for weeks.

If you can cakes are on the table just make sure their is nothing they can climb (chairs, table cloth, etc.) to get on the table. If you are still not sure put something on the table a cookie or something and see if they go for it overnight.

Good luck.

One just moved in to my house. YUCK! We have set out traps. We live in an old farm house in farm country so it seems like we get one every year at this time. I just usually keep everything put away. Ovens and microwaves are great places to keep stuff put up. Just remember to take them out of the oven before you turn it on. I also try to make sure every teeny crumb and morsel is wiped up so they don't have anything to feast on except the peanutbutter in the trap!!!!! I think you are fine to do those cakes. Just wash all your work surface down before you start and keep things put up. I'm more worried about the fact my Mother-in-law is coming this weekend. She's going to be sleeping in the living rm which is right off the kitchen. YIKES. I'm trying desprately to get rid of it before then!!! Should I warn her??? LOL!!!

if you have problems with mice getting in especially between the walls, on the outside of your house in the weep holes between your bricks put crumpled up aluminium window screen, this will stop them getting in. also they can climb table legs, anything, so keeping your baked goods in the oven or microwave overnight is a good place as long as its not warm in there.

Sweetpeeps - weather to warn your mother-in law. It depends if you want her to visit again

My husband said to tell everyone that peanut butter is great to put on traps. That's how he caught our critter. Ya'll might know that though.

Maybe you could store the cake in one of those flat rubbermaid bins... you know the kind that fit under the bed? I use these to tote half sheet cakes.

Hope your new roomies move on soon!

Kat

We get mice every fall when they start looking for a warm place to bed down in the winter! YUCK!! I heard that they can squeeze through a hole the size of a dime!!! Traps are out and crumbs quickly picked up!! Of course, my two house cats just look at them - they are declawed so there isn't a whole lot they can do!

I feel your pain. We live in the country and bought our house 8 years ago in our development. The lot beside us has never been sold since it has a gas line through the middle of the darn thing. Every so often they send someone out to "cut the field". Everytime they do those critters make a beeline to my house. We always get them with traps (using peanut butter) but it is such a pain.

If you live in a house try putting the decon pellets outside and setting traps inside. Just rememeber if you have pets in or out don't use the decon. But if you don't have them it does work very well.

Funny story about it though:
The first Christmas we were here I purchased a real tree. I have always had artificial. The limbs started moving one day and I thought there was a mouse in the tree. After pulverizing the tree with my broom, I realized my decorations were heavy on the limbs making them move LOL. I will tell you though if that critter had been in there he would have never survived that beating LMAO!

patticakesnc - that is hillarious!! LMAO

Last winter, I had to do desserts for a Bar Mitzvah, and due to Kosher requirements, I had to do all of the baking in the synagogue kitchen. The synagogue is in a newly developed area, with lots of open space and wildlife.

They were experiencing a severe problem with mice in the kitchen. I was warned that all food items needed to be stored in the fridge, taken away, or put into covered plastic bins. I didn't realize that this included liquid food coloring!

I left one afternoon to pick up a couple of things from the grocery, and got back to discover that the little critters had chewed through a plastic bag AND a brand new bottle of red food coloring, resulting in a nice puddle of red food coloring on the countertop. WITH a trail of red footprints going across the counter and onto the floor.

No amount of bleach could get the little pawprints off of the countertop. (I had fears of the Health Dept. doing a surprise inspection. Rodents? What rodents? <lol>

RP

OH MY, that poor tree, just sitting there unsupectingly and all of a sudden "thwack" "thwack"
That is so funny!!!

I always seemed to get mice in my kitchen and we could never figure out why or where they were coming from, but our cat would sit and watch under the stove, there was a heating vent behind the stove. When we were remodeling we decided to fix the floor near that vent and guess what we found, instead of the heating duct being a metal pipe, it was made out of tin foil and had a real nice hole for mice to come up through. that was the first thing to get fixed.

Ugh... The past few years we had them something fierce in our basement here... To the point I learned that "peanut butter with a peanut strategically placed really DOES catch more mice quicker than cheese"... My DH, won't go NEAR any critter, but we worked out a system that the wife does the "hunting/killing" he takes care of the carcas.. Needless to say, I own the power tools in this house..

I have to say though, the $4 container of "Great Stuff" sprayed into any POSSIBLE line of entry has done more for getting rid of them than anything else (traps, steel wool, etc.).. Just by sealing up the possible entry points we haven't seen a mouse since and it's GREAT! I still keep a few traps out "just in case"..

All I can say is, just make sure you wash your stuff up, you don't leave stuff out on counters/tables, and you'll be fine. The microwave is a good alternative storage location as are rubbermaid storage bins if you're worried about them. Also, remember that most food establishments are required to show "rodent control" or have an exterminator in on a regular basis for a reason. At least here, it's part of the law.

Go about your business, but remember an ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of peanut butter..

That's why I have a fierce CAT!

CATZILLA doesn't allow ANYTHING that moves in my house!!!

He hunts EVERYTHING...even US! lol

We hadn't seen a mouse or any trace of them for 3 years....I guess when our neighbor killed our cat this summer for "going" their garden doesn't help!

Maybe I should catch the mice & give them to my neighbor.

Good luck getting rid of them! I hope all goes well with the cake!

I get a couple of those pesky little critters every winter.
For the past 2 years I have I have cornered them in my dining area which s part of my kitchen behind a littleTV little stand that we have in there. Now, keep in mind that I am up at 4:30 am (school bus driver) and DH is retired (so he is still sleeping). When I get the mouse cornered and yell for DH, here he comes running in there, with only his underwear on yelling "what is it? I have him grab the broom and wait for me to pull out the stand. The varmit runs out, goes right towards my DH,
Stops, and I swear I could almost hear him say "oh,crap", just before the broom comes crashing down on his little bitty head.
Now can you just picture a full grown man, standin there in the middle of my kitchen, in his BVD's, a broom in his hand, and the look of "oh yeah, I'm the fearless hunter" on his face.
The cost of 2 mouse traps.............$1.00
The look of the fearless hunter.......priceless!!!!

All these mouse stories are so funny!

What do you think the mouse thinks is funnier a naked man with a broom or a women screaming standing on a chair? To see through the eyes of a mouse! ha!

I also live in the country in the middle of a field. I usually get mice for the winter, but last year I read somewhere that they don't like Bounce dryer sheets. You got it I put out dryer sheets and haven't seen them since. I replaced them about every 5 to 6 months.

The things you find out when you actually read all the junk emails family send you.

A couple of years ago I went into the office and found rat droppings on my desk. The guy that I practice with is deathly afraid of any rodents and nearly had a heart attack when I called him to tell him. He immediately told me to transfer the phones to the answering service, put a closed sign on the door, cancel all appointments for the next 2 days, call the exterminator and send the staff home. So every now and then when things are truly hectic in the office the secretaries and I will call my partner and tell him we saw droppings just so we can get a couple of days off!!! God forbid he should ever find out he'd probably go into cardiac arrest!!!!

Just so you know, mice can get in your ovens through the vent hole or if you have the ring type (electric or gas), they can crawl through the rings.

Be careful using the oven as storage

O.k.

Though, I must admit I was laughing at the story about the hubby standing in his BVD's broom in hand, it's so funny because my DH has made me go down and do the killing too in PJ's... When one wouldn't break their neck or wiggled their way out of a trap, but not so far that they could get away, he's too afraid to get business done... Now that we've exposed the dirty secret of "just whap em over the head with a solid broom handle or stick"...

When I was a kid we had to do this job out in the beeyard buildings (grew up on a honey farm).. I had to scare them out while my brothers took a "much needed break" to do that job (it was entertaining watching little sis afraid of a little tiny mouse). I can only imagine what those mice saw before their mind... Then, fast forward, graduated from college working for the future in-laws(at the time)... I was at work, walked into the back storage area, what do I see... a mouse... sitting there... middle of the walk-way, not sure if it's dead or alive... I go back to get one of the guys to take care of it... They're like "just shoo it out the door, I'm (too much of a chicken ) to handle the situation"... SO... I go "Give me the broom, I'll just go kill it and get the job done"... I go and take care of business as not to let anyone else outside of mgt. know there's A MOUSE IN THE OTHER ROOM.. Then go ask for him (BIL) to take care of the "carcas" and NOOoOOOOooooo... Too scared to do that as well... Of course, all this is taking place in front of my FIL who because of health problems couldn't do it himself who I KNOW would have.. Leave it to a Woman to do a Man's job... Thankfully, I have never seen another mouse since!

ewwww......I can relate to the mouse thing, it's a little embarassing to admit that I have mice, funny thing is I have 5 cats and not one of them even TRIES to catch the mice. I do, however, have a dog that can sense a mouse and she will catch them and eat them. One time, she nearly took hubs hand off cause he was trying to get the dog to let it go, but she insisted on eating that mouse. We just had a really bad infestation, thankfully their gone, for now.

Disgusting story though, my uncle emailed my mom a couple weeks back about his mouse problem, actually it was a rat. My uncle is paralyzed from the waist down so he has no feeling. Anyway, he woke up around 6:30 am and he said that it looked like his big toe was bleeding. Sure enough, a rat got on his bed while he was sleeping and gnawed off his toe.

Oh my gosh, that is terrifying!
I've always heard rats are disgusting like that (i.e. hunting dead bodies), but I've never heard a true story. YIKES! I have a new phobia.

This thread is hysterical! I am totally loving the hunting hubby stories

My best mouse moment was catching a mouse under a tupperware bowl, and then trying to release him "Humanely". Never mind that...I'm sticking to the traps!

Lindsay

eeeek is for sure!

So many of you have experienced this problem! Now I'm paranoid! How do you know you have them, and how do you know they are ALL GONE??

so keeping your baked goods in the oven or microwave overnight is a good place as long as its not warm in there was said from another CCer
DONT put anythign in the oven and think its safe! It's not! I had mice living in my stove even when I used the oven.
You need to keep everything covered and then it will be safe from those pesky mice!
Good Luck I feel the pain I too have had them.

maybe you could borrow a friend or relative's kitchen for a bit. thats what i did when my kitchen was under reno.

hth

I've had mice, that's for sure. My story. We have a hole to the outside for phone lines and such (gotta remember, we live in Mexico), I'm sitting at my computer and I hear, chew, chew. I can't see anything but my cat is very interested in the "line hole". I never saw the critter, but for sure it was a mouse, We got a can of that insulation spray and plugged up the hole. If we need to put something through that hole again, we're in trouble. But, NO MICE! As for the baked goods, nothing sits out. It's in the fridge, the freezer, or in a sealed container. (Did you know there are insects that will eat through a Tupperware container, making the container like a sieve? I found that out the hard way.)

I've had my share of mouse stories, too, but none beats the time we found "evidence" in the kitchen. Hubby puts out two traps using peanut butter and a chunk of raw bacon as bait, and early the next afternoon, SNAP! next to the dryer (washer/dryer in the kitchen at that house).

I walked over to the wall, took a peek and, sure 'nuff, it was in the trap, it's little hind legs giving that last "kick" .. .. "kick ....... ....... "kick"...... ......

So, hubby takes a broom, sweeps the trap, mouse & all into a dustpan, and takes the whole kit'n'kaboodle out to the trash can outside. Mentions, when he returns, what a FAT mouse it was .... "hope it didn't have babies ...." he says.

Later that day, send 3-year-old daughter upstairs to "take a rest". She toddles off as I pick up the quilting books I've got spread out on the floor before heading up to tuck her in ....

"Mumma, there's a mouse on the stairs"

"No, way, Daddy killed it"

"No, REALLY, there's a mouse on the stairs!"

We banter back and forth for a minute and I ask her to show me.

She takes me by the hand, leads me to the steps and points. I see ..... nothing! "Where is it, Ashleigh?"

She points up, eyes about as big as a 16" round cake!

So, up I go ... and I get to just about 3 steps from the top, and there he is .... his ears and his tail were bigger than he was!!!!!

He really was just a baby, but I can't have him in my house, not with cakes and little kids! He's got to go!

I head back downstairs, get the broom and dustpan and quickly sweep him into the pan and down the stairs and out the door I go, tossing him into the yard (hoping all the while that a. the neighbor's cat will eat him, and b. he doesn't know HOW to get back IN to my house!!!)

Just wait .... it's better still ....

That night, as I'm sitting on the floor, I think I see a dark shadow off to my side, but I brush it off, because I had very long hair at the time and I figure it was just my hair moving, so no big deal, right??? I get up and head toward the kitchen, and what do I see???? THREE BABIES HUDDLED TOGETHER UNDER MY DINING ROOM TABLE !!! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!

So, being the good "earth mother", I call an exterminator and ask, how many babies are there in a typical litter of mice? Guess what I was told???? There can be as many as 16 babies in a litter! Oh, My Gawd!!!!!

Thankfully, we didn't see any more, but suffice to say the traps stayed out for as long as we lived at that house!!!!

Of course, NOW I can laugh about it, but at the time, it really wasn't very funny!!! You really do go through a lot of emotions when this happens, whether or not you've got baking to do! And those little buggers can get into almost anything! I'm always amazed at how crafty they are and what small spaces they can wedge their way into!

Just keep your chin up! It's really all worth it in the end.