A Surrey resident’s battle with a resourceful mouse

It’s a classic game of cat and mouse, and for now it looks like the mouse might be winning.

Surrey resident Andy Baryer has been fighting this battle for a while, a resourceful and pesky mouse just keeps finding it’s way into his kitchen. Even worse, nibbling it’s way through a loaf of bread and leaving a trail of crumbs behind. Baryer has documented his time trying to solve this mouse issue on YouTube and Twitter, with it’s scurries gaining some traction online so far.

“Jerry, I call him. From Tom and Jerry,” he said.

The ???? came back last night, I can't figured out how it's getting into my house!

So far, this little fella is outsmarting but I will prevail. Wish me luck! #mouseinthehouse pic.twitter.com/8jXv8rhGai

— Andy Baryer (@AndyBaryer) February 28, 2023

This dispute began back in November, when Baryer first noticed a hole in the bag of bread and crumbs all over the place.

Baryer did some digging after realizing he might have a rodent problem. As a bit of a tech expert, he grabbed a security camera and set up a bit of a “sting operation” facing the bag of bread. After waking up in the morning to a phone screen full of motion detection notifications, there was Jerry, nibbling away on his bread.

He spent the next few days shuffling the camera around, trying to see just where Jerry was getting into the kitchen, he quickly found an area under his dishwasher where he left a hole open after some renovations. Baryer then patched up the hole with some steel wool, problem solved.

“Put the dishwasher back in, set up the security camera with some peanut butter. I made like a little mouse dessert to try to lure it back in, and it never came back. So, I was like, ‘yeah, I caught it, I won. I have won this little man versus mouse battle.'”

After not seeing the mouse for three months, he was Jerry free, or so he thought.

“I remember it was like minus five or something like that one day, and I in the morning,” he said. “I saw these bread crumbs around my toaster, and I’m like, ‘oh, here we go again.'”

Back to the drawing board Baryer went. He brought the security cameras back out and set up round two of his sting operation, and there he was. Jerry had returned.

After a few days of surveillance work, Baryer determined Jerry’s new route into the kitchen was through an area above the kitchen cabinets.

On Tuesday, Baryer decided it was time to rip out the bulkhead above his cabinets and take a closer look.

What he found wasn’t pretty, mouse droppings all over the place.

I think I found the mouse hole! ???? #mouseinthehouse pic.twitter.com/8NYTwJ7d1c

— Andy Baryer (@AndyBaryer) March 1, 2023

Baryer had a plan right away, he had done this before.

“Again, I took steel wool, I filled that hole, I put the bulkhead back up. I got three cameras all stinged, up ready to go for tonight. And I don’t expect to see any footage. If I do that means the mouse is coming in from another place and this story is not over,” he explained.

“I’m praying to god that I solved it again this time,” he said with a laugh.

If Jerry looks to make a triumphant return to the kitchen, Baryer says he’ll be ready.

“This is all I’ve been thinking about for last two, three days. So, if it comes back, I’m just gonna have to keep moving these cameras. I might even buy more cameras,” he said. “I’ll start ripping up cabinets if I have to. I just can’t live like every night until I don’t get footage of a mouse.”

Baryer adds people have told him to just trap the mouse, but he isn’t quite on board with that strategy, explaining he thinks another one will just come along and keep the issue going.

“It seems like the same one, it really likes my bread,” he said.

A local exterminator says mice are a growing problem in the Lower Mainland because of provincial regulations that require less potent poisons when trying to catch them.

“We’ve got a population that’s reproducing violently and we’ve been seeing mice giving birth to other mice while leaving behind droppings that are basically purely the color of poison, like just totally pretty much flat out resistant to it in some cases,” said All Green Pest Control co-founder Garth Sylte.

Sylte says Baryer could use non-lethal traps, but says all homeowners should try to seal off their homes as much as possible to prevent mice from getting inside in the first place, because their pheromones attract other rodents.

“There’s urine staining from the mouse’s body as it is coming and going and pushing and running through kind of cracks and crevices and siding, trying to get in.”

Unfortunately for Baryer, Jerry made his way back into the kitchen Tuesday night.

I can't believe it, the ????is back!

Pulling out the stove today, I will not give up! #mouseinthehouse pic.twitter.com/o12VnDgziZ

— Andy Baryer (@AndyBaryer) March 1, 2023

Back to the drawing board.

With files from Chad Harris and Sarah Chew