Mice and anxiety

[whiteraven]

Ok. This might be a little weird. I don't know where else to go with this to figure it out and I wasn't sure this was the right forum. But here goes...

I'm 57 (well, ok...58 in a few days) and moved out of my parents' house when I graduated from college - at 20-21. I've lived in 3 places besides my current place (which I own) and have never had issues with mice. I've had insects of various sorts and right now I get earthworms on my living room floor (no idea), but never mice.

So I came home 2 nights ago and there was a mouse in my living room. I thought it may have come in when I opened the door but regardless, there it was. I have 2 cats (who have never been outside and have never seen a mouse). The one chased and killed it - I gotta say I was very proud of her; she doesn't even really play much. And she was proud, too. But I'm the one with the dead mouse on my floor.

Got home tonight and there was another - quite dead - mouse on the floor.

So...I am passionate about animals. All sorts. Insects, spiders, everything. But *this* - this is freaking me out. I have so much anxiety about mice in my house. Like, fear and anxiety. I don't understand it. They are just mice, for gods' sake.

What little thinking I can allow myself to do about it leads me to think it has something to do with a violation of my space. There's also this feeling of a loss of control (no idea where that comes from). And maybe a little bit of "I'm not a good housekeeper because if I were, I wouldn't have mice."

Anyway, thanks for hearing me.

 

[scout86]

Mice are no respecters of housekeeping. It's not a reflection on that. They're little critters who need food and shelter and take it where they can find it. It's nothing personal. Of course that doesn't mean it can't bother a person!

You might want to check around and see if there's a new small opening that's letting them get inside. I tend to think of them as fellow travellers, but tracking down and closing off their routes coming in might give you a way to reclaim your space.

 

[Ronin]

You ARE a good housekeeper, so much even mice just find that a good home and livable and want to squat in. (They may be less high demand, but still, animals of all sort are not stupid, they do not live somewhere entirely hostile. I know I know, there are also the hooomans standards about what living is and what not, but for that, what Scout said. Not you, not even close.)

So I assume you aren't getting a snake (or getting them to one), or mouse traps for them, just want them out peacefully otherwise...?

Sorry you feel so bad about it. Not you being weak or anything, either. Mice are quite common having that effect on people, not just you.
(Reminds me, can a part of it be the noise they make? Or the scent?)

 

[Neverthesame]

I am passionate about animals. All sorts. Insects, spiders, everything. But *this* - this is freaking me out. I have so much anxiety about mice in my house. Like, fear and anxiety. I don't understand it. They are just mice, for gods' sake.

They're cute little buggers, I agree the animal itself is harmless.
But the things they do as they go about their business are not so harmless. There are some real dangers to having mice in your house.

They can carry serious diseases in their faeces such as Hantavirus. Because they are incontinent they are forever walking through each other's waste, it gets everywhere. When it dries it is easily disturbed causing a high risk of exposure. Here's a great example of this.

They cause serious damage to the inside of walls, they tear up insulation to make nests out of. The place where I work recently had to repair damage from an infestation. I just so happen to have a picture.

See all the gaps in the insulation? That's what they chewed out for nesting materials.
All that brown? Mouse shit.
Why they laid out 25 traps like that? We couldn't figure it out either. LOL!

Fortunately they didn't chew out any wires, but they often do. The cute little buggers have burned alot of peoples houses down. I would suggest setting out a few humane traps, you'll want to get rid of them as soon as possible.

Long story short, you're not wrong to be wary of them.

 

[Justmehere]

Sometimes people with PTSD get into a habit of thinking everything has to do with PTSD.

Lots of animal loving people with clean homes would be freaked about mice. I wouldn’t overthink the cause. It is within normal human experience.

 

[Mach123]

My experience. Once you see them you have reached infestation. They are anything but harmless and you have to treat them like any pest infestation which means eliminate them without mercy. Setting traps and poisons which I thought myself capeable of was just delaying the inevitable.

We had a green exterminator he came quarterly, very reasonable and no mess and no odor. If you try and "do it yourself" some poisons that claim to "make them seek water" and go outside, you end up with them dead in the walls and believe me, it stinks.

So that, along with being filthy and "eliminating constantly and everywhere" and a very real fire hazard, since the coating on electrical wires draws them like candy, makes me act quickly the moment I see any evidence of them in the house.

Good luck. Don't waste any more time than you would if it were roaches. : )

 

[whiteraven]

Lots of animal loving people with clean homes would be freaked about mice.

Yeah, except that I DON'T.