Don’t believe everything you read on the internet.

 I read on the internet that the scent of fabric softener sheets was deadly to mice.  Due to severe allergies I do not use scented products of any kind but I have no qualms about blocking the nasal passages of blood sucking field mice.    I do not fear spiders, snakes, or bugs.  Bats I tolerate as they play such an important role in ridding the property of mosquitoes.  But mice!   Given half a chance I know they go straight for the jugular.

 

 Last fall my dear husband dutifully filled every nook and cranny of our little trailer with bounce sheets.  Two days before my annual spring trek to the trailer he removed all the offending stinky sheets and thoroughly aired the trailer.  The only signs of mouse visits during the winter were a small amount of droppings in one drawer.   The fabric sheets worked, or so I thought.   Over the winter I took quite a bit or ribbing whenever I mentioned this new use for fabric sheets.  My friend Maria stated the mice would probably thank me for giving their homes that just washed scent, not to mention how much softer the sheets would make their nests.

 

 I began spring cleaning in earnest; gently lifting a spider web and placing it out doors, sweeping dead flies off the window, washing all walls, windows and dishes.   And quite smug with the fact our little piece of heaven was now a mouse free zone.  

 

Until I opened the rarely used cupboard under the bathroom sink, and there it was.  A mouse nest constructed of pink insulation tucked between a dozen fabric sheets