Mouse in the house

I have shared my house with a mouse (or two) for some time now and though I’ve seen it a couple of times and occasionally heard it running around and scratching through the night - I was just beginning to accept that having a mice in your house was a way of life here. That is until the mouse started pushing the boundaries.

Initially on discovering the mouse I put down a 'humane' mouse trap. That was unsuccessful but at that point I wasn’t seeing any mouse droppings around the house so I’d deluded myself into thinking that it left. A few weeks later my family sent me out some 'sonar mouse repellents', these are plug in devices that give out a disturbing noise that only mice can hear. When I used these in England they worked a treat but for some reason the Gambian mice don’t seem all that bothered about them (possibly because the electricity is not on all day so therefore they only have to stay out of the house when the power is on, after that the noise has stopped and they are free to roam).

Since plugging in these the devises the mice have stepped up their game (maybe payback) and now the scuttling around on the floor at night and the scratching has increased. Also when I get up in the morning there are mouse droppings all over my cooker, clean dishes and books (I think they are going for the things that they know will annoy me the most).

Well recently I have not been well and therefore I just didn’t have the energy or desire to tackle the problem however yesterday I decided to make a start on the mouse eradication process. I moved the two key items of furniture that I know they run around in, I swept away all of the mouse droppings, re-washed all the dishes and bleached everything. I even rearranged my house to make mouse movement between key furniture less convenient. (Rearranging the house was particularly difficult as half the compound was sat in my house watching what I was doing)! During this massive de-mouse I glimpsed the tail of one but it got away in our mutual panic!

When I had finished my sweeping, rearranging and bleaching I was very proud of myself (not to mention hot and sweaty) and I decided to have a wash. As I walked into the bedroom I glanced over to my bed and there, right in the middle of my bed was a mouse dropping!!! I couldn’t believe my eyes. The cheeky little bugger had vacated the room I had been cleaning and was spending its free time running around on my bed leaving its little droppings as souvenirs. A few nights ago I woke up in the middle of the night thinking that I saw a mouse in my bed but then I put it down to my crazy dreams!

So now it is war. I will be content with nothing short of mouse genocide. The mice on my cooker - disgusting, the mice in my clean dishes - gross, the mice on my books - annoying, the mice in my bed - HELL NO!

Later today I hope to do a detailed inspection of the mattress and pillows (sometimes they make little nests in the mattress). When I next go to Kombo at the weekend I am going to buy some material (to fill the gaps under and around the door frames) and some masking tape (to cover up the holes in the ceiling). I will also have to buy a sealed container for my clean dishes. My family have purchased some UK style traditional mouse traps (which I haven’t seen anywhere here) and they will be sending them out shortly.

Hopefully within the next few weeks my house will be mouse-free. I don’t know if that is just a dream (one of the girls on my compound who was bemused by my de-mouse efforts told me that you can never get rid of them). Who knows? Maybe the mice in my house will be hard to eradicate (especially as the travel through the ceilings and holes in the wall) HOWEVER I will try. War has commenced! (At a very slow Gambian pace - as I can’t actually do anything until I get to Kombo and my traps arrive!!)