LEGO and mice

[user]

My house used to have a mouse infestation upstairs. But we filled in what we thought was all the holes but then when I was playing with my Ferret Rodriego in the kitchen he crawled inside one! But he crawled out about 30 seconds later with his whiskers covered in dust and had a sneezing fit that lased another 30 seconds! Then my dad bought all sorts of traps which caused the mice to migrate into my Lego room in the basement! My dad says he will vacuum out my Lego room and spread more traps sometime soon but for the time being I have to move my Lego into my dads crazy guitar room.

~Computerbug

:EDIT: Oh I almost forgot one time a stray cat jumped into my room through my 2nd story window and knocked over a giant Me&@ 8l0k viking ship at the time I was sad because at the time I liked those things.

Edited July 8, 2009 by computerbug

[Sandy]

Stray bunnies?

I'm not kidding! There's a whole populace of bewildered bunnies that people have released into the parks of the capital city. And without any natural enemies, the amount of them has increased rabbitly, and they've taken over many of the parks there.

They're cute, but deadly to the plants.

[ProducePrincess]

Interestingly enough, there's a Carpenter Ant infestation in our house right now. We're winning, again by poison. They don't go into the LEGO boxes as they're not interested in shelter, just wood. But as I'm washing the LEGO all the ants are coming to the pipes for water because the poison dehydrates them. I have LEGO bricks drying on a towel in front of a fan and ants crawling all over them for the water and they're dying. I can't win, it seems.

Glue traps have caused another problem. I had one in the window by a display shelf. The sun melted the glue which ran down the back of one of my old MOCs. Some brasso took care of that. But then, I spilled my sand green tub onto the floor and a bunch of pieces got stuck to a glue trap there. I've saved the trap just to make sure I get the exact pieces back in an upcoming Bricklink order.

When i have Ant problems i just grab the vaccum cleaner and cause hell for the ants while I pretend i'm Chuck Norris.

I actually had ants crawling out of a crack under my lego desk last summer (didn't seem that long ago) and i had to follow the trail of ants to where they were going to. It was a old ice tea bottle from a few months back and i had to chuck the bottle out the window and vaccum the trail of ants . once i cleared them out i put silly putty all along the crack in the wall so they couldn't get back in, that was a mistake

I suggest you try and find where the ants are coming from and put the traps there or better yet find the nest. Having a different kind of ant like red ants for example can really help keep the carpenter ants away.

[paintballman413]

My brother has Mars Mission stuff and my cat will go into the basement somehow and chew on the plastic pipes that come with the command base thing. It's actually kinda funny to watch him get mad at the cat.

[Athos]

When I was younger, my sister had a rabbit that liked to crap all over my Lego building table. I found rabbit turds in my Lego buckets for many many years after that...

Steve

[Hinckley]

I was referring more to the cobwebs and such.

What cobwebs?

This sounds like a big mess. I've had it happen to me before when moving things that hadn't been moved in a long time. ICK ICK ICK. You don't have to be dirty or messy to get a pest problem. I grew up in a rural area and every year when the property behind us was cleared, we would have pest problems (mice, bugs, etc) because it stirred up everything outside. There was no real way to prevent this or we would have. My parents still live in the same place and the cat helps with the pest problem now, but it still happens. I lived in a city apartment as well and we had a rat problem (big rats). Luckily, I lived on the third floor so I never saw one inside. My cats are lazy and are useless when it comes to killing pests. I live in a place now that is also in the city but a more residential area. There are 3 stray cats that live outside and I havent seen a mouse since I moved in.

Anyway, I said all that to say... Poor you! It's disgusting to have to clean up all that stuff.

I love when Riley runs by with a tail hanging out of her mouth. She's good at getting mice...and squirrels, chipmunks and frogs. She got a groundhog once and with her friend Snickers tore apart a raccoon. She really wants to bag a deer.

Anyway, disgusting was part of the cleanup, but the D-Con was just annoying because it got everywhere. It has a protective wax coating around it but the few pieces I missed before I started washing the bricks dissolved in the water and the powder was coming out of the collinder when I tried to shake it out. So, I had to keep rewashing until I knew the poison was gone.

This story was totally gross. Just finding that stuff in an old MOC would be bad enough, but then dumping it into a big big of pieces... it makes my skin crawl just thinking about it. I will be extra careful when handling MOCs that have been on the shelf. Allow me to reiterate

Sorry to gross your out. And yes, especially in Chicago those mice can sneak up on you at any time, even in the cleanest apartment.

The only experience I've ever had with mice and lego was last year in my old apartment. I had a couple mice which I killed using the old fashioned traps, but one night in particular I saw a mouse scurry across the floor in my computer room. But when i went to the corner to see where it had gone I just found a couple of bricks. So either the mouse turned into lego or it was actually a lego fairy showing my where my lost pieces were. Either way, a much more pleasant experience than yours.

I've never really had mice problems, just spiders. The basement where my lego collection used to live was just crawling with spiders, combine that with the fact that the bricks were just sitting there unused for months at a time while I was off at college and it's no wonder that I was always finding webs and exoskeletons scattered about. The worst for me though is when they use the inside of a brick as a nest. I don't know how many times I've turned over a piece to find webbing inside the tubes or in the space surround the tubes.

That mouse was a thief! And yes, the spiders are a nuisance especially when making nest in tubes. I've been in this house for four years and we're starting to see some brown recluse around. That would be an unpleasant surprise in a bin of unsorted bricks...

Peanut butter works better as bait than cheese in my experience.

Yes and sugar cookies don't work at all.

2nd lesson of this topic: Don't have a Lago lair in your basement (or your garage)

I like having the collection down there because I don't have to worry about sun damage and yellowing. I just have to keep opened sets and enclosed MOCs away from the floor. I finally learned how the mice were getting up on my shelves and cut off their path, but there was still the "residuals" from their stay.

Stray bunnies?

Bunnies are overpopulating the midwestern US as well. My dog also likes a fresh nest of baby bunnies occasionally. It's a horror movie to see and hear, but at least they won't be eating our plants.

My house used to have a mouse infestation upstairs. But we filled in what we thought was all the holes but then when I was playing with my Ferret Rodriego in the kitchen he crawled inside one! But he crawled out about 30 seconds later with his whiskers covered in dust and had a sneezing fit that lased another 30 seconds! Then my dad bought all sorts of traps which caused the mice to migrate into my Lego room in the basement! My dad says he will vacuum out my Lego room and spread more traps sometime soon but for the time being I have to move my Lego into my dads crazy guitar room.

~Computerbug

:EDIT: Oh I almost forgot one time a stray cat jumped into my room through my 2nd story window and knocked over a giant Me&@ 8l0k viking ship at the time I was sad because at the time I liked those things.

What the hell? Are you some sort of horror movie Snow White? Bambi 2: Bambi's Revenge. Opening scene: Bambi jumps through computerbug's bedroom window and bites his face off... Scawy!!

[prateek]

So your dog eats the bunnies?

[JimBee]

I've had mice in my house before, but not in my Lego. The last one I found was bloody and dead in a laundry basket, thanks to my cat. Better dead in my clothes than alive, I guess.

Speaking of cats, I did find one in my Lego bin, once.

Spiders, ants, and nats also find their way into my collection. I'm not terrified of them, but I'd rather have them out of my house.

Living in the forest and having a basement LEGO room makes it hard to keep the critters away from things.

You lived in a forest?

Don't get me started on those guys. Always crawling into boxes and nesting up, having babies. Then they come out every spring wearing sunglasses and boxing gloves and just WHAM! scare the crap out of you as you innocently walk through the door. We had an infestation this last April and I couldn't get rid of them until I took those boxing classes...

I'm not kidding! There's a whole populace of bewildered bunnies that people have released into the parks of the capital city. And without any natural enemies, the amount of them has increased rabbitly, and they've taken over many of the parks there.

They're cute, but deadly to the plants.

We have a few rabbits living in the garden. They don't eat any plants or vegetables, fortunately, so they're welcome. It's the chipmunks that are the problem, though...

I love when Riley runs by with a tail hanging out of her mouth. She's good at getting mice...and squirrels, chipmunks and frogs. She got a groundhog once and with her friend Snickers tore apart a raccoon. She really wants to bag a deer.

Bunnies are overpopulating the midwestern US as well. My dog also likes a fresh nest of baby bunnies occasionally. It's a horror movie to see and hear, but at least they won't be eating our plants.

Now that's gross. Although it was pretty cool seeing my cat jump up and grab a bird from the air.

Good luck on your move, by the way, Hinck.

[Luke McAwesome]

the amount of them has increased rabbitly

Good pun.

Anyway, bunnies sometimes feast on the lettuce in my family's garden.

Curse you, bunny menace!

[user]

What the hell? Are you some sort of horror movie Snow White? Bambi 2: Bambi's Revenge. Opening scene: Bambi jumps through computerbug's bedroom window and bites his face off... Scawy!!

I am not kidding that stuff really happened! No matter how strang it might sound!

[Ricecracker]

Wow, I must seem pretty lucky to all of you . All I have in the way of pests are the occasional ant or centipede-type creature. I've never had mice in or around my house, and (Hopefully) never will. Though we might have a higher chance of mice now, what with this garbage strike and everything. We do have one little rabbit that is only spotted every-so-often - and only at night, but it's outside in the garden.

Funnily enough, I'm actually at my cottage right now, which is one of the old no TV type ones, and we often have mice problems here, but luckily none this year (Knock on wood).

[user]

:edit: Woops! My computer is acting weird i pressed edit and it made a new post and now it wont let me see where i am typing i"ll restart it sorry!

Edited July 9, 2009 by computerbug

[prateek]

Wow, I must seem pretty lucky to all of you . All I have in the way of pests are the occasional ant or centipede-type creature. I've never had mice in or around my house, and (Hopefully) never will. Though we might have a higher chance of mice now, what with this garbage strike and everything. We do have one little rabbit that is only spotted every-so-often - and only at night, but it's outside in the garden.

Funnily enough, I'm actually at my cottage right now, which is one of the old no TV type ones, and we often have mice problems here, but luckily none this year (Knock on wood).

Yeah, the garbage strike is a pain. And the occasional rabbit or gopher isn't very bad, except when they eat you plants

[CommanderFox]

Man Hinckley I know excactly what your talking about with the whole mouse thing .

A few years ago we got a MASSIVE wave of them, but slowly they went , i think part of it was all the poison and our dog Nutmeg she was an amazing mouse catcher

JimButcher i had the same thing, I found a dead mouse in the old scrap clothing covered in blood .

But now it seems the Ants are determined to move in every 2 weeks or so we get a collony or two, and they crawl all over my Lego .

It's getting better but still it's alittle annoying

sorry for all the smilies in this post.

CommanderFox

Edited July 9, 2009 by CommanderFox

[Tom Bricks]

All I have are three cats who love to topple minifigs and chew plastic flags and rubber bands. This only means that I get allot of dust and cat fur in my lego but nothing major. My cat did knock down one of my earlier MOCs but there wasn't much damage. I'd take tis every day though over mice.

Edited July 9, 2009 by Tom Bricks

[JCC1004]

I have these holes in my deck for my cat to hide under and I've had plenty of things go under. The two worst was when a cat was under there and froze over winter, It was a pain to get out. More recently a poussom went under there and my cat was out and I thought it would killhim so I saw it sleeping hoping it would go away. The next morning it was still there and I got it with my pellet gun but It was already dead. Oh I accidenty got a gat in a raccon trap. I put in beef and this poor cat was in the rain all night. It looked like a raccon from my deck. I had ants craw all over my Temple Escape while I was building it! I think one gottrapped insome bricks.

[Hinckley]

So your dog eats the bunnies?

Yes.

Good luck on your move, by the way, Hinck.

Thanks buddy

All I have in the way of pests are the occasional ant or centipede-type creature.

Centipedes freak my megablocks. There's nothing I hate more.

[Lord Admiral]

As I'm packing up my LEGO lair to move across the country, I'm realizing the type of trouble mice can cause with LEGO bricks. Two of my creations: an igloo and a castle had become home to mice during the years I had them displayed on a shelf. Taking them apart to sort them out into my storage bins and drawers I found heaps of stored food, D-Con (mouse poison) and piles of mouse turds. Of course, the ugliest surprise came as I was dumping open sets, that hadn't been fully parted out, into a misc bin. Perhaps the last step in the packing process is that catch-all misc bin that you will just sort when you arrive at your destination. Unbeknownst to me, the final box I dumped into the bin had a great amount of D-Con stored in it and I basically dumped it all into a huge unsorted bin of LEGO bricks. Several hours later I am finally drying all of the LEGO bricks after separating the D-Con and washing the bricks, batch by batch, in a strainer in the bathtub.

Lesson to share: If you live in an area with mice, don't leave opened boxes at mouse level and check enclosed MOCs for uninvited rodent tenants.

That is pretty gross--not the part about the poison or getting it all over, but the part about stored mouse food and droppings. I had mice once a long time ago, but they never bothered my sets, since I kept them high above the floor on a shelf. They can't get onto a shelf if they can't climb up there and they can't fall down onto it. I did used to have the occasional roach, but those are so prevailent in the apartment, I wouldn't be surprised if I've killed more of them by ingestion than acts of violence. The big roaches though, can get to the size of a minifigure. Had Men In Black been out at the time, I would've been tempted to make a MIB MOC.

Sadly (or maybe thankfully), there are far fewer roaches now, mostly little guys, and not at all interested in my Lego.

I am safe for now, with my LEGO on the top floor in my LEGO room. However, we do have mice somewhere in the garden. The only time animals have come in contact with LEGO was when I had a MOC outside and my chickens were investigating it. It happened to have a road down the middle and they followed it looking in all the buildings. Then a building fell over and they got scared. Ofcourse, they flapped like hell and they managed to destroy the whole city! But it was soo funny.

Greetings,

JD

That is absolutely hilarious. Funnier even, that the chickens were following the road down the middle instead of crossing it. ;) I can just see the chickens, walking down the road as giant birds of death, pecking at the minifigures and buildings, and then furiously squawking after one of the buildings topples over, causing other buildings to fall over, and in turn causing more flapping and squawking. Hilarious.

[Shadows]

Centipedes freak my megablocks. There's nothing I hate more.

Millipedes.

[Hinckley]

That is pretty gross--not the part about the poison or getting it all over, but the part about stored mouse food and droppings. I had mice once a long time ago, but they never bothered my sets, since I kept them high above the floor on a shelf. They can't get onto a shelf if they can't climb up there and they can't fall down onto it. I did used to have the occasional roach, but those are so prevailent in the apartment, I wouldn't be surprised if I've killed more of them by ingestion than acts of violence. The big roaches though, can get to the size of a minifigure. Had Men In Black been out at the time, I would've been tempted to make a MIB MOC.

Um, OK...so you ate them? *huh*

Funny thing I forgot to mention is that in the castle all the mouse food and droppings were isolated in one BURP. I turned the castle on it's side and pulled the baseplate off and that way I had it, everything had fallen into the BURP. So I conveniently was able to dispose of all of that mess without touching anything. Besides, it was all so dry that it looked like little seeds anyway. I pulled it all apart and washed it all anyway...

Millipedes.

Well sure...

[YG-49]

What about spiders? They could make a web in between a Castle maybe (Each end links to a tower.).

[CP5670]

This sounds really extreme. Those must have been fairly big models if the mice could actually enter them.

Centipedes freak my megablocks. There's nothing I hate more.

If you're referring to house centipedes (big, long legs, very fast despite their size), I hate those things too. They have been in my parents' house for many years. My bedroom (which used to contain all my Lego) was the only place in the house where they weren't around, although they occasionally just came in through the door.

The good thing is that there is nothing of note in my current apartment. I occasionally see these small brown bugs, but they are rare.

[fallentomato]

Millipedes.

Nah. Millipedes are slow-moving herbivores that usually stay outside. They can be pests in gardens, but rarely indoors. They are also less scary looking than centipedes, they don't have the creepy antennae or long spindy legs. They're kind of cute actually.

Err... sorry for the impromptu Biology lesson, I just don't like how millipedes are often considered worse than centipedes just because they have more legs.

Besides, it was all so dry that it looked like little seeds anyway. I pulled it all apart and washed it all anyway...

Now that you explained that everything was dried up, this story is a little less gross. Although it has still been the gateway for other gross stories (I agree with your about the roach eating and will add a ) so you're not entirely off the hook

[Hinckley]

This sounds really extreme. Those must have been fairly big models if the mice could actually enter them.

This was the castle:

And this is the igloo:

Nah. Millipedes are slow-moving herbivores that usually stay outside. They can be pests in gardens, but rarely indoors. They are also less scary looking than centipedes, they don't have the creepy antennae or long spindy legs. They're kind of cute actually.

Err... sorry for the impromptu Biology lesson, I just don't like how millipedes are often considered worse than centipedes just because they have more legs.

I don't like the non-cute ones with the stripes and the long legs that look almost like hair and they move super fast and freak me out. They are awful. I hate nothing more. I'm repeating myself.

[Luke McAwesome]

Thanks, Hinck. Now ads are popping up about how to kill pests and such.

Anyway, I feel bad for you guys. I hate bugs; can't stand ants, hate spiders, don't have much of a problem with centipedes, but I despise worms.

EDIT: I remember that episode!

Edited July 9, 2009 by Striker™