Something Ate My Son's Sandals- Could It Be a Mouse?

Updated on July 16, 2012
T.C. asks from Round Rock, TX
5 answers

Something ate my son's sandals. Not only is it gross, I'm annoyed because these were $16 water shoes he used for a week of camp. I want to figure out what did this so I can keep it from happening to anything else in the house.

Late Friday evening, my husband took the plastic grocery bag from the car that contained my son's hat, water shoes, and wet clothes. He left the bag on the floor next to the kitchen, but didn't tell me. Sunday evening I cleaned the kitchen and brought the bag to the laundry room. When I opened the bag of wet clothes, I found a small hot pepper from the kitchen, half chewed into tiny bits inside the hat. Then I shook out the shoes, and there were more little bits of hot pepper and green foam bits. At first I thought the green foam was just little punch outs from the mesh pattern of the shoe insole, but there are actually a few chewed spots.

We have had mice before, but I thought we got rid of them. I haven't heard any mice in the ceiling, our cat is indoors during the day and didn't notice anything, and we have a box of poison behind the kitchen cupboards. The fact that whatever it was moved the pepper into the bag, and then chewed the foam does sound like the kind of thing a mouse would do. But there's no sign of typical "mouse poo" just tiny bits of pepper and foam. The bits are tiny, like smaller than the head of a pin.

What could have done this? A really tiny mouse or an insect like a caterpillar, cricket, or roach? Ick. I'm definitely going to wash everything really well, including the shoes, and see if they can be salvaged.

What can I do next?

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More Answers

L.A.

answers from Austin on

When you give a mouse a pepper, then they will want some water shoes.... They queso, then chips..

Our cat used to carry mice into the house, alive!! They were gifts for us.
One time it got into my cabinets and the cat chased it around the pots and pans!!!!

When I called my husband to get in there and get it out., he called me in to see what was going on.. I lie to you not, The cabinet was open and there was our cat, sitting right next to the little mouse, both of them looking at us, like "What?"

6 moms found this helpful
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V.P.

answers from Columbus on

No, that definitely sounds like a mouse, I'm sorry to say. I can't think of an insect that would carry a pepper like that.

4 moms found this helpful
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D..

answers from Charlotte on

Added - Laurie, that's hysterically funny! I love the "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" nod too!!! You are so great!

Original:
Yikes! Sure does sound like it.

I think that if I were you, I'd hire pest control to come in. You need to find where they are coming in and have that fixed so that they can't continue to come in and out of your home. Look under the sink and see if there is ANY space around the drain. The only thing that they can't chew through is steel wool - it tears their mouths up. When I was a little girl, we moved to a house that had mice AND wolf rats in it. (And roaches!!!!) My dad dealt with the rodents, and my mom dealt with the roaches (God bless them both!) When my mom was cleaning under the sink, she pulled a whole loaf of half eaten bread out of a small hole under the sink. That was ONE of the places they were coming in.

The book "The Rats of NIMH" is one of my favorites stories I read as a child and with my kids. When reading it, aside from the cool story, you do find out how rodents are able to come in and "share" your dwelling. However, real mice and rats are not "cute" like the ones in the book, and you really have to get a handle on them. With rodents, it's really all or nothing.

Dawn

2 moms found this helpful
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B.B.

answers from New York on

Sounds like a mouse. Try to figure out where they are coming in. They can climb pipes up from the basement and can sqeeze though small holes in the foundation. You can keep killing them but they will come back. My biggest concern is that they usually don't come in in the summer. Keep an eye out. As you said there was no tell tale poop, so don't freak out...yet.

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R.K.

answers from Appleton on

Put moth balls out --- mice don't like them.

1 mom found this helpful
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