God dammit!

[soc_puppet]

I noticed shortly after making my first corn-filled hot-and-cold packs that mice love them. They also love being in our nice, cozy house in the winter!

After having more than a few hot-and-cold sacks ruined by mice, I decided to fix this by getting a big plastic tub to keep my extra sacks and unused corn in. This worked pretty great! For a while.

Today, I was planning to make some new corn sacks to hand out at work, since it's practically an annual tradition for me at this point. Only it looks like I'm going to have to break tradition (no big loss for me, TBH) because one or more mice has managed to wriggle in between the top and bottom of the plastic container. The three ready-made corn sacks I have stored in there, for a miracle, aren't chewed on; the bottom compartment is just soaked in mouse pee 😑 And there's soooooo much mouse poop. I don't even trust the corn that's remaining in the (presumably waterproof) bag that I bought it in.

So, upcoming tasks:

Dump the presumably bad corn in the yard waste bin

Get rid of or viciously clean out the plastic bin the corn was in

Brainstorm a new way to protect corn

Set mouse traps

Cry a little to myself over lost efforts

Pick myself up and start again

Not necessarily in that exact order.

Comments

[jesse_the_k]

Damn—that they can weasel their way into a plastic storage container is impressive and frustrating.

I can’t think of anything non-edible which provides the lovely form factor (and aroma) of dried corn.

[soc_puppet]

There's a couple of other plastic containers stacked on top of it, one of them medium-heavy, and neither of them the exact right size for a proper stack. My guess is that the medium-heavy one warped the corn bin's lid enough to allow a mouse (or mice) to squeeze inside; they can manage with as little as a half-inch 😬

My current plan is to save up a little bit, then go looking for more secure large plastic bins. There oughta be some out there somewhere! Luckily, the corn isn't too expensive (I think it was under $15 for a 50lb bag?), it's just going to be a pain to move all of what I've got in the bin down here to the yard waste bin. And I don't want to just dump the stuff in the yard, because apparently corn is bad for deer, and we've got a fair few of those around here.

Anyway. I'll rebuild, it's just annoying and a bit disheartening.