Office Drama

[Oakey]

You know when you hear something and think "pffft, like that will ever happen to me"? Well I just had one of those moments.

At some point in the last week or so we discovered we had mice in the office. We turned the place upside down looking for them but couldn't find anything. We were baffled where they (or it) could be.

So we get this guy in to get rid of them and he says "They like to nest in warm places" and starts looking around the water cooler.

At this moment I instantly realised there's a blanking plate or two missing from the mail server stuffed under my desk in the far corner. I pull it out and remove the side panel. Sure enough there's mouse poop everywhere. About a second later this tiny mouse runs through one of the blanking plates, sits on it's hind legs, looks me in the face... then jumps up into the drive bays. By the time I'd removed all the wires and pulled the PC out it had vanished again.

So yeah.. might be a good idea to cover any gaps with blankin plates, regardless of how much you might think you're safe

[Oakey]

And just to add to the fun and games, the rent-o-kill guy told the office admin "if you can fit a pencil through it a mouse can get through it".

So you can imagine my shock, after telling them it's been living in this PC, one of the (female) admin staff sticking a pencil into the back of the PSU on her computer :O

[Jimmy Little]

/me tries to put a pencil somewhere silly

[CrapshoT]

/me tries to put a pencil somewhere silly

Now come on sir.Why would a mouse want to go in there.lol

[Oakey]

Lmao, my own PC has a single blanking plate removed... sure enough.. mouse poop on the inside. haha, I've been sat on top of them this whole time.

[Jimmy Little]

that's funny! you should keep him as a pet!! don't kill him, i bet it's nice and toasty next to the cpu at night!

[Lee H]

lol...

Inside a PC is an Ideal breeding ground for mice, Nice ambience temperature, SECURE ( who would look inside their PC for mice ?????? now this is a nice sales point for window panels in all office PC's now ), they are hardly moved and have easy access ( cables into it ) so yes it an ideal placec for a mouse.

Just hope they've not chewed or urinated on anything as the acid in the urine could damage traces on the systemboard making it unstable.

An idea to remedy this is to get one of the office workers with a cat to bring it in for the day or even better - all have a bring your cat to work day. Pets @ work is shown scientifically to reduce stress levels and it also has the benefit of clearing mice away

2 birds with 1 stone as they say.

[Nick]

Apparently, the n-Force 4 mobos will have support for traps... Intel are going down the sonic deterrent route, but you have to upgrade your pc speakers and fit a 900w PSU.

[Zedmeister]

Reminds me of a time when i helped fixed a mate of mine's machine. Said he was having a little trouble with the modem. I opened the case and immediatly saw what the problem was. The insides were laced with cobwebs and in the corner - the biggest spider I've ever seen. Needless to say I shat myself and set about it with a hoover from a safe distance. After that the modem worked

[Oakey]

It's been living on top of the hard drive by the look of it, there's pee stains all over it. No idea where it's gone now, I've not bothered to cover the holes up, I'll check again in the morning with the hope it's gone back and try to capture it and free it somewhere. Otherwise it'll suffer the poisoned traps that have been left around the office.