Historic Friends

I was hanging out with two of my girlfriends and our little ones tonight. What fun. A nice treat to hang out and catch up. One of them is a relatively new mom and a PhD student, so you can only imagine how often I see her( not much). Anywho, it was getting late so she decided to put her little peanut (who, by the way, is sooo adorable) into her pj's. She had these super cute fleece pj's with little yellow chicks, and a big fat hole in the material.
"What happened?" Was my natural inquiry.
She had no idea, she said she just found it that way one day. I carefully studied the hole, and it hit me. "Could it be from a mouse?"
Her eyes lit with realization and disgust. "Yes, we actually do have a mouse in our apartment." She mentioned how she hears its scurrying at night.
Here's the thing: I know I'm supposed to be nature loving, and appreciate all forms of life. But ask my husband what I do when I see an insect crawling in the house. Now imagine a mouse! My theory is: appreciate them, but from far far...far away.
I live in an historic building, found in an historic neighborhood, located in an historic city (as historic as an American city can get, I suppose). Great, but with all these historic elements comes our good ol' historic rodent friends, who find ways in these historic pipes and walls to pop up and leave their remains behind. "Yuck." Not a very hygienic thing for a 14 month old to play with. I don't think she can appreciate history yet, and hopefully not in this form.
I woke up my husband last summer with a glass breaking shriek. The reason: I met our historic friend. EWWWW.

I shared the recipe I'm about to post with my friend after it worked with me last summer. I found it in one of the books I posted earlier.

Mouse repellent recipe:

What you'll need:
Fresh mint leaves.
Your vinegar rinse scented with mint essential oil.

We all learned from movies (unfortunately) that vampires resent the smell of garlic, well mint is our rodent friends garlic. They hate it. Just leave some mint leaves around areas with a vent or a hole. (My mouse came from the stove wall opening, so I left the leaves on and around the stove) and spray the vinegar mint rinse in the same places. Your friend shouldn't come again. If he does you can always buy one of those mouse traps (the one that only traps the mouse and doesn't kill it). Make sure to set the trap on a high surface, away from those cute little hands.
Enjoy your historic, toxin free, mouse free house.