What is nesting in my kitchen drawers?

In my kitchen, I have two large drawers. In one I keep grain type things -- pasta, bulgar wheat, corn meal, etc. etc. In the other I keep spices, mostly in jars, but a few sacks of some herbs and spices that I haven't found jars for yet. Recently, I looked into one and found a whole bunch of pink, soft, fiberglass insulation, and many of the sacks chewed open. I decided a mouse had gotten in there so I left the drawer open a day or two in hopes it would get discouraged and move elsewhere. It moved to the other large drawer. I found poo, slightly larger than mouse poo, but not as large as rat poo -- a rat got in once and we went off for a month long vacation. When we returned we found it had drowned in the toilet. So, I know the difference between mouse and rat poo so I was thinking this was a large mouse.
I set traps all over the place, the snap kind and the springloaded reusable type and the electronic type. I caught two mice and thought the problem was solved. Today, I noticed that the bouganvilla that sits on a balcony outside the French doors in my bedroom was about 2/3 gone. I wondered if my dogs had been eating it. They devour raspberries, both berries and leaves and lemongrass but I have never had anyone describe bouganvilla as tasty. It didn't seem like them. I found about a 3 inch growing tip with leaves on my stairs and was sure that it had something to do with the dogs.
But today, I opened the drawer where the "nests" had been previously and found that one of them was lined with bouganvilla leaves which are nice and soft when they are young. My dogs have never opened drawers. Whatever this critter is, it has gone the length of my house and up the stairs to get leaves with which to line its nest. I have no clue where it is getting the pink insulation. It really likes my star anise and opened up dried galengal and spilled it all over the place.
We have been leaving our upstairs French doors open just a few inches this summer for ventillation.
What on earth kind of critter has moved into my drawers? Next question, how to I catch and evict it without hurting my very sweet elderly dogs. At night I keep them in a downstairs room with a door to the outside. I keep the door to that bed room closed at night so they won't come in and jump on us on nights when there is thunder and lightening of which they are very frightened. But that means that the dogs aren't available to scare off whatever critter is stealing bouganvilla leaves.
A mystery. I thought perhaps you fellow Rocky Mountain types might have a clue. I couldn't really come up with another forum that seemed to pertain. We do have Appert's Squirrels ( the pretty ones with tufted ears) and chipmonks in our neighborhood and heaven knows what else.

Don't have a clue but am *most* interested in the thread and whatever we might learn from it! jo/nm

So far, I have just reset all my traps -- both mouse and rat. I will close our french doors tonight for the first time since the beginning of the summer. Tomorrow I wil clean out the drawers, put everything in glass or tupper ware and disimfect the drawers. Then I will see if it comes back. I have a friend who caught a chipmonk in his house with a mouse trap. or maybe it is just plain mice.

The pink fiberglass insulation is probably a sign that what ever visitor you have has been traveling inside the walls or attic.

you might have some kind of ground squirrel or jumping rat. NM, it has many strange creatures!

When you get up in the middle of the night, shine a flashlight on the ground. If there are bright eye-reflections all around you, you know it's not mice......LOL

Thanks for the suggestion. I will certainly shine a bright light on my bouganvilla. I am suspicious of ground squirrels, tree squirrels and pack rats. I didn't know we had jumping rats! Sounds terrible!
Betty

You gotta be real careful what kind of critters you let into your drawers, my friend ....

(Laughter)
My uncle found an extremely long-tailed aquatic rodent in the mountains near his home, so I did research to ID it. I figured out two things- what it was and that there are more obscure species and varieties of rodents in the rockies than any planet has business accomodating.
What materials your beast uses has interesting implications- A burrower- of the walls. A climber- of Bougs.
Good Luck.
Kenton

Oh my!! I will be watching to see what it is/was. We once had a hamster get loose, and she made a nest with insulation.. lol you arent missing a hamster are you?
"My uncle found an extremely long-tailed aquatic rodent in the mountains near his home" was that a muskrat? When I first saw one while I was fishing one day, I was horrified LOL. It sure wasnt scared of me one bit!

Well, Green Jay, I expected that remark would have to come sooner or later. It is a natural! And correct, too.

Shelley221,
We don't now and never have had a hamster unless we have an escapee from someone else's house.

All, I will definitely let you know what I catch. There are a lot of chipmonks around here these days. I have seen them get into walls and houses. This one has eaten a hole in almost every pasta and grain package I have. Grrr.

I am going to try to fit a trap on the floor behind the cabinet drawers. Perhaps it is getting in that way.

Shelly, My uncle told me in one of those don't-tell-a-division-of-wildlife-guy-or-anyone-else-he'll-think-I'm-nuts sort of voices. He saw it run across a bit of low vegetation and dive into the water, trailed by what he figured was almost a foot-long tail (on a three or so inch animal). "Will (his son) is my witness," he said, and told me he reached into the brook and pulled it up, swinging and running in the air as it dangled from its long tail. After I did some research and asked around, I found out what it was- and I am suprised to say that I recall it being a "Zapus princeps!" K

A western jumping mouse?

http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Zapus%20princeps.html

I was thinking maybe a kangaroo rat because of the leaf lining, but your jumping mouse sounds more probable.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kangaroo_rat

My uncle's animal was the W. Jumping mouse, but I doubt that is what Betty's got until she finds a very small pair of goggles and snorkel in her drawers.

What a great visual! LOL!
mouse in diving gear doing breast stroke through the grains!

You might have vole's they are like a big stocky mouse, I use to get them in my kitchen drawers over at my old house, we have them here but none in the house so far.

Well guys, I put traps on the floor underneath the drawers --2 of them where I saw droppings and I put 2 traps, one large and on small next to the bouganvilla. I caught absolutely nothing. But I am thinking the kangaroo rat might be it. It keeps stashing things in my large kitchen drawers. More insulation, and in a new drawer, a piece of felt that used to be on the bottom of a lamp which I can't guess where it found it, The felt was formed into a nest like shape and on top of it were 3 well gnawed small carrots that had been lying on my kitchen counter.
I have been baiting my traps with peanut butter and have caught 2 mice in the process, but this critter is not biting on peanut butter.
Do any of you have any other ideas for baiting my traps? I have mouse traps and rat traps, both electronic and spring loaded. But this critter doesn't go for them. I feel like the animal FBI.

Have you tried seeds? Kangaroo rats eat seeds primarily. One of my friends in HS had a pet kangaroo rat named Belle. She would stuff seeds in her cheeck pouches.

No, I haven't. And this one seems to really go for grains. It has moved into my grain drawer. The traps aren't really set up for seeds, but I could probably stick some in the peanut butter I have been using. I will give it a try.
I am going to have to move the bouganvilla. It started out as about 3 ft. in diameter and is down to just a few branches with leaves right now. It looks like it may have started on my jade tree now.

This whole situation just gets more and more interesting! I still have nothing concrete to contribute but am fascinated, can hardly *wait* to see what it is! jo/nm

Not completely off topic --

Today I dismantled a rather disgusting 95% dead juniper (a.k.a. moldy meatball) that was about 5 x 5. After I had cut it down to the center, I found the following items in the center of the bush:
1 unopened bottle of Stoli vodka
1 large flashlight
1 golf ball
1 rubber ball
A rodent nest composed of miscellaneous candy wrappers and what might be a plastic tampon, well chewed.

Make of it what you will.

The bush:

The stash, minus the vodka:

Wow! Sounds like your critter is strong to haul around a bottle of vodka and a flashlight. Maybe it was a local kid looking for a hideout? I hope my critter isn't as strong as yours.
Betty

so what happened to the vodka?

I didn't take a picture of it. I had already put away my camera when I found it.

After all these days of attempted trapping and no luck, I finally called a company here called Kritter Getters. They haven't arrived yet but the owner says it sounds like a Wood Rat or a Pack Rat and he says they can get it. This company removes all kinds of 4 legged invaders such as mice, rats, skunks, or whatever. This kritter springs my traps, several mouse traps and one rat trap. It hasn't touched the expensive electronic traps I bought.
And I do get more responses from peanut butter topped with sesame seed than I do from plain peanut butter.
Help is on the way.
Betty

Your critter might like some millet too. It will be interesting to see how Kritter Getters manage to trap it.

Yes, I am interested to observe that as well. Maybe next time I will be able to catch my own. I believe these people take the dead bodies of their victims to the wild life center as food for the raptors. So they don't use poison which suits me fine. Keeping the animals at the wild life center ( rescue animals not suitable for pets) fed on their natural food is a problem. They have from small birds up to elk and bears. The ones that can be rereleased to the wild are, those which can't stay at this center.
Betty

Betty, that's wonderful to hear. I used to vounteer at a wildlife rehab center. It was indeed a challenge to catch and forage enough of each animal's natural local, diet.

The head of Kritter Getters said my rat has feet as long as its body. A powerful digger!

I am very fond of our local wildlife refuge which was begun by a very wonderful young vet some years ago. I have always taken my pets to her because she is good and because she she is such a fine person. This is the time of year when we all have to bring the bad apples from our trees to her for the bears which have to eat some incredible number of calories per day so they can make it through a winter hibernation. And yes, I would be thrilled to donate my rat (if that is what it turns out to be) to the cause!

re: "has feet as long as its body"

You have a kangaroo in your drawers?!

That is hilarious! It does rather sound like it, doesn't it. Betty

Sounding more and more like a Kangaroo rat.
Hopefully the link below will bring you to a photo of one. They have very large hind feet in relation to their body.

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.jeannieshouse.com/forest_friends/kangaroo_rat/k_rat.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.jeannieshouse.com/forest_friends/kangaroo_rat/kangaroo_rat.html&h=221&w=288&sz=25&hl=en&start=42&tbnid=n2YBhjlY7LpIAM:&tbnh=88&tbnw=115&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dkangaroo%2Brat%26start%3D40%26ndsp%3D20%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3DN

Your link didn't work. I would like to see the picture if you can find it. Betty

Arrgghhh! The URL was probably too long.
Let's try again. Here is a link (with shorter URL) to info on the cute little beastie:
http://www.oceanoasis.org/fieldguide/dipo-mer.html

I'm attaching the photo from that site as well.

Thanks for the info. It does sound rather like what I am seeing. Night before last, it tripped one of my rat traps and it must have been close because along the edge of the trap was a little gray and white hair. I am eager to get a look at this critter, not to mention get it out of my house ( almost said drawers which would have been another hoot). You have to really be careful how you talk about these problems.

I read the whole thread tonight, and now I'm anxious to hear what happened with the Kritter Getters. I would be totally unnerved by such a critter. The worst I've run into were racoons in the dumpster behind my house. And cats having babies in the cupboards, but this is definitely scary!

Yes, please do let us know what Kritter Getters finds in your drawers (kitchen).!
Kangaroo rats are actually quite cute. Your critter has demonstrated excellent taste in winter provisions. :)

Well, Kritter Getters has yet to show up. It seems the trapper at Kritter Getters had a death in the family and has been out a week and there are 10 people ahead of me. But I caught it anyhow.
I caught it in one of those spring loaded rat traps -- the reusable plastic kind. It is small but bigger than any mouse I have seen. It has small white feet, not the big white feet of a kangaroo or pack rat. It's color is gray and white and a little brown. It's tail is quite long, dark on top and white on the bottom. I didn't see scales, only fur. Its ears are large. From looking on the interet, I think it might be a small Norway rat. It's tail is furry and dark colored on top and white on the bottom and very long. It appears to have been coming in through my stove vent but it is hard to see how because there is a screen on the inside of the vent. But maybe it was able to push that screen away.
I called Kritter Getters and they will call back and identify it. One thing I want to know is if there are likely to be others around. I used several kinds of traps including the expensive electronic kind that is supposed to electrocute the animal. Apparently no animal entered either the electronic or mouse trap. I have had very good luck with the plastic, reusable snap traps on mice. Now they have worked on a rat.
I will let you know if I ever find out what it is.

The word from Kritter Getters. The creature was a wood rat and is likely to have kin. Wood rats are also called pack rats and come in several species. I am supposed to keep trapping or if need be, they will come and help. For now, I will keep trapping.

See description at:

http://www.desertusa.com/mag99/apr/papr/packrats.html

This message was edited Sep 11, 2006 8:47 AM

Oh wow! good job on catching it! I hope it was only setting up to make the rest of the "pack" and that you have no more.