Missives from the 6th Floor

The insulation under the sub-floor is fiber glass, so I suited up (long sleeves, hood, gloves) and started pulling down insulation over the most obvious evidence (i.e. mouse poop).

There was plenty of evidence of prior infestation - shredded insulation, more mouse poop than you can shake a stick at, etc. We learned from our neighbor the other day that the previous owners pretty much left the garage door open 24/7 (likely 'cause of the sorry state of the garage doors when we moved in) and there's plenty of ivy around the house, and other places for critters to hide, so the fact that they came inside at some point is hardly surprising. I also have an invoice from a pest control company that the previous owners hired just before the sale to take care of evidence of rodent infestation found by the home inspector, so I know they did something about it.

What I didn't find, after a couple hours of this, was evidence of a current infestation (i.e. fresh mouse poop) or any obvious breaches in the security perimeter. So I'm hoping that all the pounding during the re-roof disturbed old leavings. To that end, I grabbed the shop vac and cleaned up all the visible evidence. As of this morning there was nothing new on the floor.

I think I'll swing by Home Depot on the way home and buy some insurance (i.e. mouse traps) along with a new filter for my shop-vac, cause, ewww.

I'm hoping I can resolve this pretty quickly - 'cause in the war on rodents (which unlike the "War on Terror" has measurable victory conditions) I'm not looking for an Iraq sort of thing, more of a Six Day War, if you take my meaning.