HELP! Why Do Mice Go to My Pool to Die? Where Do They Disappear to Once Dead?

This is a real head scratcher. I need some real-life Sherlocks to help me solve the mystery of what happened to the dead mice I found in my pool.

Twice now I've found a dead mouse in the pool. A month or two apart. I'm terrified of the suckers and may need to sell or burn the place to the ground unless I can logically explain their disappearance. Part of me thinks these mice might be coming back to life and continuing their lives as some kind of 'Danger Mouse'-esque super villains (hence the 'terrorist' tag on this post).

FIRST MOUSE
First mouse was found floating on the surface of the water. I discovered it early one morning but decided against scooping it out immediately as I wanted to be 10000% sure it was dead (the thought of a mouse running up my net as I tried to scoop it out terrified me). I spent some time awaiting its definite death and devising a suitable game plan to ensure I didn't have to touch the filthy/terrifying thing.

Next morning, the critter was still there, floating on the water. Satisfied it was dead, I then spent a few further hours mustering the courage to get rid of the execrable thing. When I finally manned-up enough to go and fish it out, it was gone. Vanished. Nowhere to be seen.

Not on the surface, not on the bottom, not in the skimmer. Nowhere.

"Ah good", I thought to myself, "Some bird must've fished it out for me. Good riddance!"
…. or did it??

SECOND MOUSE
Fast forward a month or so (probably more) to Friday midday where I discovered another dead mouse in the pool. This time, the mouse was at the bottom of the pool. Slap-bang in the middle of the deepest part. About 2m from any of the pool's sides and 1.8m down. No chance of life.

Though convinced the mouse was dead (it was on the bottom and positively lifeless), I still needed to muster some courage and devise a game plan. Took me 2 days. I tell myself I was commemorating the loss of another mousey comrade and that the grieving process justified the 2 day wait.

I've just gone out to the pool (Sunday midday) to dispose the corpse and to my astonishment, the mystery has confounded itself further as mouse #2 has also completely vanished.

Right now, I'm terrified something even more sinister than filthy, bin-picking rodents is lurking in my backyard…

HELP! I need some theories (or perhaps someone courageous enough to buy the place so I can get out!)

TLDR;
- I'm terrified of mice
- I'm even more terrified of things that might eat mice
- Two mice have died in my pool recently. One floating for a few days before disappearance, the other at the bottom of the pool for a few days before disappearance.
- What could have happened to the mice?
- I may never be able to swim in the pool again unless I can solve the mystery

Comments

  • +2

    HELP! Why Do Mice Go to My Pool to Die?

    They don't go in there to die . They go in for a swim and to wash, just some of them unfortunately haven't had any swimming lessons yet .

    • I have seen a mouse go down a second story bathtub, run straight hot water down the hole after it, only to have it pop back up a couple of hours later. I doubt there are any that can't swim instinctively.

  • +1

    Maybe the chlorine in the pool is so strong that the mouse corpses liquify and disappear…

    • lol you meant sulfuric acid and not chlorine right.

  • I have no advice. I'm just happy to find someone else terrified of rodents - my family think I'm crazy.

    Last year we thought we had possums in the roof - turns out it was rats. Rats! I nearly fainted when the guy told me. We have ducted heating vents in the ceiling and I kept expecting them to jump out through the vents and fall on my head. Or that I'd find dead corpses everywhere - or that my dog would catch them and bring them to me while I slept.

  • Perhaps birds are taking the dead mice and eating them?

    I imagine you would probably see at least some part of the dead mouse in the skimmer box if it was sucked in.

  • +3

    your pool is on top of an old indian mice burial ground. these are ghost mice

  • Ask your wife / kids / house mate, I'm sure one of them has the answer

  • I live near bushland, and we get enough rats / mice around the place that I bought a "Goodnature E2 Automated Rodent Trap".. It works very well, and I'd recommend it to others. I initially used a container to capture the rats it killed to dispose of them, but realised quickly that there is actually loads of wild life around that will run off with them. Ended up removing the container, and 90%+ of the time the bodies will be taken by something during the night.

  • why are you afraid of mice? What happened to you?

    • +1

      Maybe he's secretly an elephant?

      • was read book after book about the plague as a child

    • Got RSI from one…t'was particularly un-ergonomic. Apparently I needed a raised mouse pad

      Jokes aside, I dunno why I'm afraid of them… Guess they just repulse me

      • There is no logic to the fear. Well meaning people keep trying to explain that I'm a lot bigger than spiders so I shouldn't be afraid of them, but I am. If I could stop being afraid of them then I would. In my case they have to be over a certain size, but huntsman are certainly within the fear factor.

    • +1

      Why aren't you? They're disgusting looking.

      • because im bigger, and a mouse isnt going to attack. unless you're made of cheese or cheap wiring from an old house.
        its natural to get a shock at seeing one dart across your line of sight, but its pointless being fearful of them. its pointless not knowing why you're afraid.

        read more books on the black plague of 1365

        • I know about the black plague actually being fleas and lice related and not rodents. Some people just have a natural fear of <insert anything>.

  • +1

    pretty sure they are conducting experiments on you, can't say that I have ever actually witnessed the mice at their work but this appears to be exactly that!

    • Hahaha I find the prospect of mice conducting experiments on humans amusing - a complete role reversal from most medical science we practice!

      • Gonna sell this to Pixar.

        • +1

          Or Warner Bros… Maybe instead of experiments they can be villains trying to take over the world.

        • +1

          @AncientWisdom: omg like laboratory mice? Yeah it should be about two lab mice. One being a genius the other being insane. Maybe the genius should be called Brain (cause he has like an enlarged brain for mice) and the dumb one can be Pinky (cause pinkies are dumb and useless).

        • @Munki:
          They can carry light shopping bags when you don't want to do more than one trip.

  • +1

    Maybe the sinky mouse turned into a floaty mouse after a while and then whatever took the first mouse returned for dessert.

  • +1

    Maybe they are mice who failed to catch a MouzeBargain deal and suicided in regret.

  • +1

    As someone that has been on warfarin and other heart drugs for eleven years. There is a lot of crap spoken here about it.I am not on wafarin to prevent a stroke. I have Cardiomyopathy and AF. The warfarin is to thin my blood so my heart doesn't need to work as hard to pump the blood around my body.

    For me being on warfarin doesn't increase the likely hood off a stroke but if I have one it's bye bye world as my blood takes 2/5 times longer to coagulate.

    As for the OP. Take off your blouse and skirt and be a man.

  • @Praeto.

    As you live near bushland what you are killing maybe Australian Native Bush Rats and that's illegal. ALL native animals are protected in Australia.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bush_rat

    • What about bin chickens? Surely those aren't protected…

  • They jump in, can't get out and drown. If you ever have a mouse inside, all you need is a bucket with a couple of inches of water at the bottom. They'll eventually jump in and get stuck, if you want to speed up the process, add some chocolate. They go nuts for it.

  • I sense click "bait"

  • Why dont you just hire a pesty and make sure they arent around ever again

  • Pool cleaner sucked it up and mangled it to bits.

    On a positive note it did its job well.

  • username (kinda) checks out

  • +1

    If only I could +1 you for your TLDR. Probably the most succinct yet hilarious summary I've read on these forums :)

  • Check out “Witches” with Anjelica Houston

  • +4

    to unlock the secret you must dress up as a mouse and lay in the pool for 2 days, you will be magically transported to wherever these mice are going!

  • +1

    Such a good read haha. I am going with birds/cats fishing them out as they float.

    • I prefer magic carpets and Hogwarts.

  • I'd vote cat, followed by a big bird

    • +1

      Why would a big bird be following a cat? Has all the wildlife round there got some kind of death wish?

      • bird uses the cat for foot patrol

  • In the hills district we have water dragons, they eat dead mice and can easy survive underwater for 90 minutes. Blue tongues would be unlikely as they are not the best swimmers.

    The dead mouse in time will float and then an easy meal for a bird.

    Has been so dry the mouse probably just needed a drink and drowned.
    Many other native animals are not scared of water for a feed.

    Unless it’s on film, just guessing.

  • +1

    IDK thinking maybe its just the same mouse circulating through the pool filter etc

    • Hmm, there's a thought I hadn't considered… Plausible!

  • +1

    You should setup a CCTV to capture what happens to the next dead mouse. You might find that mouse zombies to exist.

  • Someone found one in their coffee machine on reddit yesterday, have you looked there?

  • So much talk about cause being poison, etc.

    Since the beginning of man rodents have been turning up whenever there is lots of food around.

    Do your neighbors throw scraps of food in their back garden near your pool? Often rodents feast each night in compost heaps when food gets thrown in. Or maybe some nearby vegetation is being used by the rats.

    I prefer to control the source than poison everything including your own back yard and have the problem re-occur when the poison runs out or your kids develop tics or start flinching and needing to goto hospital…

  • Putting my Sherlock hat on, I deduce the OP is in fact, an elephant.

  • you have a stalker who collects your dead pet mice (so he thinks) from the pool.

  • There was no mouse to begin with. Your intense fear of mice has manifested into hallucinations. You imagined of your worst fear becoming true and when worked up the courage to face it, it was gone. Be like Batman, wear a cape and beat up ppl and the mice will disappear foreva.

  • I think the most likely reason they fall in is because they're going for a drink, or more likely because mice will always choose to run along the edge of something (if present) for cover rather than across open spaces. So either they go to the pool to drink, fall in, can't get out, and soon drown - or - because the pool is smack in their desired path, they're forced to run along its edge, and just slip in, or get frightened by a moving tree or bird shadow overhead, etc. and fall in because they're already running along the edge. Then later some kind of bird that dives/lands on water is eating them.

    • the most likely reason they fall in is because they're going for a drink

      Wouldn't it be because they're on the way back from a drink? That's how it works for me anyway.

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