JFF - Are You Afraid of Mice?

No, not at all, I think they are super cute! Still don't want them in my house though because of their little poop etc, but my two cats keep them out very well!!!! Actually this summer, my husband found a mommy mouse with her 5 tiny tiny babies in the garage in the bottom of a barrel. We kept them in an aquarium for a few weeks and pampered the mommy mouse until the babies eyes opened and they became slightly independant. Kids thought it was cool watching them grow. Think we had them for 3wks? They grow really fast!

UGH! They disgust me and I'd never want to touch them. We have a rat problem outside right now that is driving me nuts! I'm off to the hardware store later to get wire netting to protect plants and see if there is a repellant I can use. I guess I am fearful of them because of the hantavirus. I know it's rare but I have to admit it freaks me out to think about it.

I am not scared of mice, but I do sceam whenever one jumps up when I am putting compost in the compost bin, but more because they startle me.

EWWW! Yes, I am totally freaked by them. I had them in my home a couple months ago. I saw one at night when my son and I were watching t.v. It ran across the room! I couldn't sleep that night.

Fortunately, I caught them all with the bait traps. I used the Tomkat ones with peanut butter/cheddar cheese. Worked. Then, my husband purchased some kind of sound radar thingy at Home Depot that supposedly scares anything away with some kind of feet. It works. So, Good luck to you! I can't stand them!

Pet mice, no. I think they are adorable. I know they are free of disease etc.
Wild mice. Scared? No. Disgusted? Yes!
We got them in the house and garage years ago once. We had 2 cats at the time. Do not count on them to do anything but watch them LOL My cats were useless.
The mice got all over my pantry, we had to throw out a ton of food. It was nasty.
Those glue traps are the best bet. Put a tiny little bit of peanut butter in the middle, about the size of a pea at most. You don't want too much because it can coat the trap and they can get off. It can sometimes take a couple days before you catch anything. If you see one, odds are high you have more than that.
It took several weeks before we got them all and sealed up where they were coming in etc. It was not fun!

I am not scared of them. I am SCARED of spiders!! I have to say that when I first met my husband, a spider jumped in my hair, and went down my shirt. I ripped my shirt off as fast as I could and did a jig. My husband has not let me forget it.

Yes but I am more disgusted that they carry harmful diseases in their droppings and certain viruses can become air borne and you can inhale them if you're cleaning up the droppings incorrectly.
I will say that rats gross me out way more than mice. We had some that were coming over to our back patio from a neighbor's yard in the middle of the night and leaving their mess, it totally freaked me out. Never thought I'd pick up a rat trap with a dead baby rat in it but I did several, of course with some old tongs that I threw away afterwards.
I agree with you though, they've never been inside the house or I would've flipped out. I hate rodents, bugs, and anything that crawls.

Nope. Aside from disease spreading, I actually think they are kind of cute. My husband would go buy the traps without a moments hesitation and I would be the one saying "no, let's catch it and set it free" or "make sure you buy the humane traps."

I can't say I'm afraid of them, after all they are so darned cute. But when my cat brought a live one to me while I was in bed, I jumped out of the bed and that doggone mouse jumped off the bed AT me! I guess I was the next highest thing for it to climb on to escape the cat. Not a pleasant moment. Oh and there was the time I heard something in my bathroom in the middle of the night. Went in there to check it out, looked to find a box with our new towel hanger (I use the term "new" loosely since we have had it nearly a year, just haven't gotten around to hanging it up) on the floor next to the toilet. Hmmmm, I think to myself, how did that get there?" Pick up the box and out jumps a HUGE rat! Yes, I screamed. Yet another lovely gift from my cat. I have never found any mice or rats in my house, just the ones that my sweet little cat brings in through the kitty door (aka hole in screen door.)

YES! So afraid and grossed out I can't even read your entire post or any of the replies!! I always push any mouse related thought OUT of my head!! LOL!

We used glue traps to get rid of ours too. The forest that begins down the street had a fire that burnt several thousand acres. The mice, rats, snakes, racoons, coyotes, etc invaded the subdivision to survive. The coyotes and racoons cleaned up the ferrel cats before they went back into the remains of the woods, but the mice and rats stayed.

I used glue traps to eliminate the mice and rats. I'm not afraid of the little and not so little varmits, but my wife is. It took us several weeks to have our home to ourselves again. I used a small piece of apple or peanut butter to attract the varmits to the trap. Some times on the trap and sometimes on the wall next to the trap.

BTW, cats catching mice is a learned behavior. If a cat doesn't know or hasn't been taught to catch mice, it will just watch them.

Good luck to you and yours.

I am petrified of mice! I remember one time coming out of my bedroom and lo and behold there was a mouse in the hallway! I jumped back into my bedroom and slammed the door. My SS was next door so I yelled at the top of my lungs for him - over and over and over again. When he finally heard me, he came running but when I heard him come in the front door, all I could think is he's going to open the bedroom door so then I started screaming at him DON'T OPEN THE DOOR! Poor kid didn't know what to do. I was finally able to tell him about the mouse, but of course by that time, it was long gone.

Use peanut butter in your traps. They can't resist it!

Happy hunting!

I hate mice, rats, even hamsters I am not a fan of. My mother has a severe phobia so I am sure that played a role. I am not going to freak out like she used to be I do NOT like them at all. I am the bug killer in the family and my husband takes care of the mice.

Not so much scared, but I HAAAAAATE them. Well, maybe a little scared but mostly hate. I hate them more than any insect or spider. They are disgusting. I have two cats, and thankfully I've never had a mouse since I've had them (KNOCK WOOD).

Only when they dart out. Once i know they are there, it's fine.

When I was working at a bank, someone slipped a mouse in our night deposit. It had to be, because the box was in a welded vault. Anyway, I came in an hour after the morning crew. They (and one of them was a guy) were so afraid that they left there drawers and the deposits in there. I had to come in, cover the box, and get it out.

So you are not alone. :)

Afraid of mice? Not really. Afraid of the hantavirus they can bring? You bet. (That's the virus found in cabins at Yellowstone and it's killed a couple of folks already, with thousands more exposed and waiting to see if they'll get sick.)

Be proactive and ensure you do not clean up any mouse droppings except while wearing a mask and gloves; use a bleach spray to wet down any droppings etc. and get them in a paper towel that you immediately put into a ziplock bag before disposal, then dispose of the gloves and mask as well. Or look online for tips on disposing of mouse droppings safely.

Not saying this to create a panic but to let you know to take care of not just the mice but also the droppings - with care. It's not that likely that the mice have this disease where you are (it's largely in Western states) but it's never wise to just sweep up animal droppings. If you have any.

I would get in an exterminator to check for nests in the walls, or ways they are coming in from outside, etc. and to block up any entrances or clear out any nests.

I'm not afraid of them, but my husband is!!
We had one in the house once and he sent me in after it :)

No, I like mice. Just not in my house.

I am beyond afraid of spiders and one year we had a major issue with wolf spiders in our home I told my husband that I thought I was going to have to go live with my Mom for a bit so I feel your pain. We had a mouse in our house a few yrs back that had babies somewhere (Ewww) and I remember going to the basement to do a load of laundry one day and one of the babies was in the middle of the floor right in my path to the laundry room. This is when I realized I was scared of mice. I ran back up those stairs so darn fast and called my husband in tears. He works just a few mins from our home so I didnt feel TOO bad but I insisted that he stop what he was doing and get home to take care of the problem right then and there.
Just for the record we have a cat and that knuckle head did nothing for either our spider or mouse issue
Good Luck

Yes. They are rodents. They are creepy and crawly. And they scurry. And they jump out at you if they think you are going to take their cheese. I had one stare at me from the corner and wouldn't go away no matter how many shoes I threw at it. The sad thing is, like the cockroach, mice will most likely survive an epic solar nuclear blast and with all the humans gone will repopulate in Biblical proportions.

I am very afraid of mice. I wouldn't be able to sleep either. I hope it is caught soon. Good luck!!

nope the thought of being startled as they run across makes M. anxious (when I worked at home depot this would happen often) but when I actually see them not scared at all, actually i think they are cute and have held them

Nope. They're small and much more freaked out than you are. Imagine, they are only 2 inches long and just want to GET AWAY. They don't want to be near you. So maybe that will help :)

I like snakes, too... LOL!

no I am not afraid of mice.
I had one startle me in the dark room at school once and I screamed. But in general no I'm not afraid of mice.

yep - terrified!!! My SS jokingly said something about a mouse upstairs to which my children cut him off and said "don't even joke! my mom will sleep in the car for a week!"

It's not rational, just is.

Deathly afraid. As in my heart skips beats and I fear cardic issues when I see one. It's a phobia I've had since I was in the military.

Mice poop? Yes - as in - I see it as a hazard.

Mice themselves? No, I think they are cute to look at.

Spiders give me the heeby jeebies...hah!...I just got the shivers thinking about them.

I don't know if afraid is the right word. In a pet store, they are fine. Adorable. Cute. I'd pet and hold one. But the wild version...gross me out to no end. We keep finding them swimming in our pool and I overreact every time. "GET IT OUT and KEEP IT AWAY!!". I'd be ooged out by one in my house, but I wouldn't be too scared to go home.

when they are alive....no. when they are dead in the trap....yuck, gross, no way!

I'm not afraid of mice. When we've had them in the house (occasionally), I'm able to catch them in those big convenience store soft-drink cups and let them go outside.

I think I'd have a different response if you'd asked about snakes. But we haven't met any of those. Yet.

OMG-I am scared to death of mice!! I cannot sleep if I know one is in the house and I don't even like to look at them in pet stores or anywhere!! I totally freak out when I see one.

I never thought I was afraid until I nearly stood on one in our house. I hid in my bedroom (dd was at a sleepover luckily) I was in tears!! (WTH, also didn't know how dramatic I was) called my BIL, he came round and tried to catch it. No kidding this thing was practically running up the walls. He couldn't catch it so we went back to his house so he could get some traps. Peanut butter or nutella are the best. Over 2 nights there were 4 mice in total. Now if they were cute, little white things, wearing dapper clothes like Stuart Little, they could have stayed. lol

Mice I can deal with. Bugs and spiders, NO WAY! I have a thing about the number of legs something has. Once you get above four, I'm done. Snakes have no legs, so I can handle those. Yes, weird, I know, but it's just how I am.

I had a mouse in the house a few weeks ago and made a half hearted attempt to catch it. I think it left, but I don't know for sure. What I do know is that the mouse isn't eating any food in the kitchen, I haven't seen any droppings, and I have had a pretty good summer without many bugs and spiders in the house. I figure the mouse is eating them. If so, that is definitely something I can live with!

Yes yes! In Indonesia we have lots of rats at home. They are bigger than cat and the little ones usually running around our tv.
Cats are useless, they are smaller.
Our rice farmer put smoking weed in front of their nests, and when they get out, it would be thousands dying rats. They will be piled up and burned. Most Indonesian are not scared of it, but I do! The rest of my family can chase them around.
Some people even eat the tree white mice, as big as cats here. I saw them on a table in a market. So ewww..... like this http://www.panoramio.com/photo/43763531

When I was little we had pet mice and latter pet rats. No they do not scare me, but I still get startled if one darts out in front of me. I might even scream. But, you won't find me clamoring up a stool or anything. Whats it going to do, approach me?

I am not. My cats bring them inside to play with and turn them loose and I chase them down, catch them if I can, and turn them loose outside.