In the not quite three years that we have lived in paradise, we have experienced a number of "critter invasions." After all, we moved into their neighborhood, so what do we expect? We've had rattlesnakes in my husband's shop, a barn owl in the old dog house, chipmunks in the garage, coyotes within 20 feet of the house, bulls at the front door, lizards in the bedrooms, etc. And then there are the mice. They can get into almost anything, but so far they haven't been in the house itself – although they have made it into the garage and were nesting behind a big planter in the sunroom. They also crawled into the bathroom and dryer vents, despite the flipper covers. Very easy for them to lift up those plastic flaps, and get into the area above the fans, and into the dryer vent. After we discovered that problem two years ago, my husband put wire mesh cages around all the vents, so that problem went away. Of course, the contractor said "I never had that happen before" when we showed him the desiccated, mummified remains of a mouse who hadn't made it out of a vent until after we put the cage up (it is still there as a reminder). And I haven't mentioned the motorhome, I won't in this post. We keep sealing the cracks that they use to get into the garage and sun room, and they keep finding more cracks. It's a never ending battle. Amazing how small a space they can squeeze through.
Anyway, last week, after we got back from a quick trip to the north rim of the grand canyon (beautiful!), our younger dog kept looking at the "kiva" style fireplace in the corner of our living room, like there was something in it. It was very windy, and we thought that maybe the wind was making strange noises in the vent (wrong!!). The kiva is a propane direct vent fireplace – the heat gets in, and is fanned in, but the burners are sealed to the house and all of the CO emissions are vented out. The external part of the vent isn't on the roof, it takes a 90 degree angle and comes out on the east side of our back porch. A few days earlier, while out on the porch after sundown, I had chased a mouse off the vent. But when we looked at the vent, it appeared that it had wire mesh on it so mice shouldn't be able to get into it. Boy were we wrong yet again. The exit portion is meshed, but the intake portion wasn't meshed at all. Presumable there is only a very small open area in that vent – not big enough for mice (hahaha). Early the next morning (after our dog was so interested in the kiva) I was awakened at ~4am by a banging from the living room. I found two mice happily chewing at the fake logs behind the glass barrier in the fireplace – one of the smaller fake logs had been chewed from its base and was banging against the glass. They didn't even care that I was shining a flashlight on them! Oh the urge to just turn on the pilot light, and fire it up – but since they had chewed and damaged the logs, what if they had chewed something vital to the working of the fireplace, and I would blow our house up?? Plus there would be the smell of burning hair and little bodies…. When my husband awoke I told him the bad news. As soon as it was "business hours" he was on the phone to the person who had installed the fireplace - he was appalled – he had "never heard of that happening before" (were we surprised? NO!!). He said he would come out to our house that evening. During the day we had several "sightings" – as the mice would come into the glassed portion, and then run back into the vent – never more than two at a time, so thought there were only two (wrong yet again). The installer came out that evening, disassembled the unit, and showed us how to open and close the glass. He suggested a vacuum to get the mice out – well that got the chewed up debris and droppings, but it didn't get the mice. So then we knew we would have to place traps. He went outside, and put mesh around all entrance points in the vent so the mice that were inside wouldn't be able to escape, and (more importantly) more wouldn't be able to get in. We then set traps. We caught (killed) two that evening, and three the next day. None since then, so we think they are gone. The installer was going out of town for this holiday 4th weekend, so he won't be back until next week to reassemble the unit and check out the burners, etc., to make sure they aren't damaged. Meanwhile, we are leaving one trap set in it, just in case.
Just another day in paradise!
