Living in the Land of the Big Cheese

I have been learning a whole lot about mice lately - more than I really care to know.

We thought we had solved the problem of the marauding mice at Pacific Gardens, but now they've come back.

To put this all in perspective, when I first heard that we had rodent guests who had stayed too long at the party, I checked out the internet.

When I typed in, "Mice in Nanaimo", the names of two major local hotels topped the list - so we're not the only ones!

But it hasn't been much fun. We've spent hours filling holes, cleaning, meeting, setting traps, and checking crawl spaces and duct work for entry points.

And then Chad took control of the mouse patrol. He definitely likes to use humour to get his point across.

Chad's our strata council vice president, and as the one coordinating our efforts to get rid of the pesky varmints, dubbed himself mice president (MP).

He was quick to explain that as the royal Mice President he was just a figurehead that oversees everything in this land of the Big Cheese.

He called the group tackling the problem the Rodent Response Team, or the MLA (Mouse Liberation to-the-afterlife Army).

The people responding to questions and concerns from residents were MEOWs (Mice Extermination Outreach Workers).

And if people wanted to contact the MEOWs directly, they could e-mail them at mice@pacificgardens.ca.

With the humour, however, came a detailed plan, and community members willing to carry it out. And it's working!


I just received the first report from the Rodent Response Team logger, Doris.

According to her splendid spread-sheet, 18 of our units have had no sightings of mice, and three have, but only sporadically.

That leaves four with serious problems, and these are being dealt with by having holes blocked to prevent entry, traps, cleaning, etc.

Round one in the fight against rodents!

Kathryn