El Andalous - Mice

Sahl Hasheesh from El Andalous Rooftop

After my rats incident, I’m still a little nervous every now and then in the flat if I hear an unidentified noise. One night I thought I had heard a thump in my kitchen and the next night I heard a plastic bag rustling. I went to look and it was a mouse.

Compared with my previous saga, this was mild. The mouse scuttled away and I’m pretty sure it was a mouse and not a rat. It was about a third of the size of the rodents I’d seen before and, like the previous rodents, it looked pretty clean and healthy. I think I would have been more freaked out if it looked as if it was about to starve to death or ridden with disease.

My fear was in approximately the same proportion as the size of the mouse (ie, only a third of my previous state of fear). My heart sank, but it felt nowhere as near as scary as before. This time I didn’t have a broken foot and the creature was considerably smaller. It was also more timid. As soon as I went to look at it, it scooted away under the dishwasher.

I was a bit disheartened, as I still have a sonic rat deterrent on in the evenings and the mouse had ventured forth despite that. I’d bought two different kinds, so I promptly switched over to the other one, just in case they emit different noises and the new noise would deter the mouse. Perhaps the mouse had adapted to the old deterrent. I didn’t see or hear the mouse at all after that.

I spent the rest of the evening looking up how best to kill them. I’d done this a million times before, but each time, I hope to find something new. Anyway, this time, most sites seemed to be praising the glue mats, even though I am really not convinced by them.

Anyway, I was pretty sure I still had a glue mat sitting under my sofa. Sure enough, when I pulled the sofa out, it was there. It had rather a lot of dust clinging to it, but it was better than nothing. I put it by the dishwasher, although I wasn’t really sure if it had any stickiness left. However, at least I felt I was doing something.

I went to sleep. Or tried, at any rate. I put the light out, which is more than I did when I had the rats. After a while, I heard what sounded like rain. This didn’t seem possible. Last time I heard a noise that I thought was rain, it was a burst pipe (I can’t remember now if I’ve told that story).

Anyway, I was curious, so I went over to the balcony doors from my bedroom to have a look. As I was trying to work out whether the ground was wet, in scuttled a tiny mouse from underneath the mosquito netting doors, right in front of me. I gave a yelp of shock and in turn it ran for its life out of my bedroom and into the lounge.

I leave the doors open at night for fresh air while I sleep, but I had really thought that rodents wouldn’t be able to get under the mosquito netting doors that I’d had installed. I think the mouse must have just pushed its way underneath and the sound of rain was the sound of the netting moving backwards and forwards on its castors. I closed the door so that no more mice could enter, although I was aware that the mouse was now basically trapped in my flat. With me.

It was a tiny field mouse; I would say about a quarter of the size of the mouse I’d seen earlier that evening. I had no idea that rodents came in so many different sizes, shapes, and colours. I didn’t really know what to do. I thought that once it realised it couldn’t get out from the lounge, it might try to come back and get out through my bedroom, where it had come in. This worried me. It might even communicate this fact to the other mouse and I'd have both of them dashing into my bedroom trying to exit. What if they couldn't escape, the two mice became friendly and decided to spend their dull evenings mating. My flat might quickly become infested.

There wasn’t a lot I could do, though. I couldn’t be bothered trying to block the bottom of my bedroom door, since I’d failed miserably last time with the giant rodents. If that little mouse could somehow get underneath my mosquito netting (it was not damaged in any way), I had no chance.

I decided just to try to get to sleep; the sooner I could fall asleep, the sooner I would stop worrying.

The next morning I woke up and wondered what had happened to my new residents. I went into the lounge and to my horror I saw that I’d left the balcony doors from the lounge open all night (albeit with the mosquito netting doors closed). I could have had hundreds of mice just flooding into my flat! I usually close those doors before I go to bed, but I must have forgotten.

On the other hand, it also meant that the mice could have escaped. If that other mouse had adapted to the noise of the first alarm, maybe it would make a run for it on hearing the second sonic deterrent?

I went to check the glue mat. To my complete surprise, the tiny mouse was lying there. I thought it was dead, but when I turned the kitchen light on, it started to writhe about on the mat, squeaking away. Part of me felt sorry for it and part of me was petrified that it would manage to yank itself off (it was doing a very good job at squirming) and make a run at me.

I went to security to ask them if they could get housekeeping to dispose of it. However, I’m not sure they understood me. They definitely understood that it was a mouse, but I’m not sure they knew what I wanted from them. Anyway, the answer was that they’d see to it tomorrow. It’s Ramadan just now, so no-one is keen to do too much.

I went back to the flat and looked at the mouse again. It squeaked and wriggled about. There was no way I could just let it stay there. What if it got loose? I returned to security and told them they had to do it now.

Once they saw it, they understood what I wanted. The guy picked up the glue mat and folded it over the mouse, which squeaked again as he did it. The poor thing!

Anyway, that was the last time I saw that mouse. I’m not sure what happened to the other one, but I haven’t heard or seen anything for about a week. I now keep the doors closed at night.