Ladies...any truth to the old canard

[Zolok]

about women being afraid of mice?
Y'know th' old "Eeek a mouse!" routine?

Y'see I once dated this woman who could've given inspiration to Tex Avery with her intense aversion to mice.

My rational liberal mind sez it's hogwash...but D.L. all but climbed up on a chair this one time...

[MissMillie]

1. I'm not afraid of mice

but I do wonder about what little germs they might be carrying around with them.


I wonder.... do you think they think the same about us?

[RubyDuby in GA]

2. Sorry, but it's true

I can deal with snakes, bats or just about any other thing, but put me within a 100ft of a mouse and you will see one crazy woman in the process of totally freaking out.

[RebelOne]

3. Mice don't bother me. I just don't want them in the house.

In fact, I used to buy white mice to feed to my boa constrictors.

[BigMcLargehuge]

19. we had two white mice as pets at different times

Skweeker, who lived a hell of a long time for a mouse, almost three years, and Hoodini who lived considerably less time (like 4 months).

I miss Skweeker. She used to hang out on my breast pocket when I was writing.

Mrs. McLargehuge and I don't have an aversion to mice. However, since they don't pay rent they can't live here and eat our dry goods. Thus Mizuki, out cat, gets to deal with the occasional mouse infilitration. She got two last night.

[King Of Paperboys]

4. Being liberal doesn't mean believing we're all the SAME

Just that we have equal rights.

Women and men are different (thank God!)

Since the cloning of humans is just around the corner, we should be glad that most women are afraid of mice and spiders. It's the only reason they'll keep us around.

[ihaveaquestion]

5. Lots of folks afraid of something or other

My daughter is afraid of spiders. A friend of hers (male) is literally terrified of frogs/toads, another (female) of snakes. Personally, people scare me more than any animal.

[Loonman]

6. Some, but not really

We had a big ol' rat in our house during winter, and one of my female roommates was terrified of it.

Recently the rat came back, I have since made repairs to insure him not coming in, again, and a different female roommate who subletted from the one scared of rats is pretty non-plussed about it. Even though she's seen the rat and heard him running around in her ceiling.

[eyesroll]

7. My aversion to mice has, shall we say, evolved

I'm more grossed out than afraid of them. We get mice in the house occasionally, and we use live traps. My husband usually empties them, but I sometimes do. (I also got stuck cleaning up a dead mouse from the middle of the basement.)

I also cleaned up after a mouse that somehow got into my bird's cage, between the grate and the floor. It involved putting the bird in her carrier, depositing the mouse outside, and completely disinfecting the cage, dumping out and replacing food and water bowls, etc., and a panicked call to both the emergency vet, at 6 a.m. when I discovered the problem, and to the regular vet when they opened. Both said birds and mice usually don't make each other sick, so absent actual physical trauma, which there wasn't, there's nothing to worry about.

[sus]

8. i don't like mice, but

i don't think it has anything to do with the fact that i'm female.

i'm just a big pussy. :)

[GOPisEvil]

9. ...which is why you work at Initech to begin with.

Uh, yeah, well, I work at Initech and I don't consider myself a pussy, OK?

Yes, I am also not a pussy.

[sus]

10. Yeah. Uh, did you get that memo?

it said you're a big pussy!

(BURN!)

[GOPisEvil]

15. I could set the building on fire.

[sus]

18. if you do that,

you'll never see your precious red swingline again!

muahaha! (<---maniacal laughter)

[Philostopher]

11. Mice ... no problem.

Spiders? No problem.

Wasps? Bumblebees? Problem. I scream and run, carrying along with me whatever I have in my hand, or drop it and flail wildly.

Anything that can silently approach me and jab me repeatedly with a stinger, then live to fly away to sting somebody else (or come back to sting me again), scares the living crap out of me.

I don't like having mice in my house, because they go everywhere and poop everywhere and contaminate food, but they don't cause me anything like the near-panic a wasp does, especially in the house. I have a house full of cats, though, at least one of whom would joyfully dismember a mouse if they caught it, so I guess maybe I worry less about them for that reason. I seldom have to deal with a living mouse.

Honeybees (what's left of them) don't bother me, either, since I know if they sting me, they're dead. There's a certain evenness to that, I always felt kind of bad about stepping on them because I knew once they got that stinger in, they were dead. Now I feel even worse, since they're dying off because of a parasite and we may see a day when the only honeybees are the ones beekeepers raise for honey.

I've only been stung by wasps or bumblebees a half-dozen times in my whole life, mind you. I did have to help my dad get down from a ladder one day when he was fixing an eave trough and got a yellow jacket up under his shirt, though. The damned thing stung him so many times he had a spot on his ribs that swelled up to the size of a golf ball, and he ran a fever for a day or two. Anything that's silent and relentless like that scares me.

[Misunderestimator]

12. No... I used to trap them in humane traps and let them back outside

I don't care much for snakes though... unless I KNOW they're harmless.

[baldguy]

13. What does gender have to do with it?

Hell, I'm afraid of mice. And bugs. And bats.



EEEEEK!

[ChickMagic]

14. I used to have pet mice

I think they're pretty cute critters, as long as it's not an infestation. Then it's them or me. But I also love snakes, bats, I don't mind bees (even though I'm highly reactive to them). They leave me alone, I leave them alone. It's worked out well. I've been known to move snakes off the road so they won't get squished. Maybe I'm not a typical female.

[NMDemDist2]

16. i don't mind mice, but rats......

OMFG I hate RATS!!

[pansypoo53219]

17. i like mice

the only thing that would get that reaction is a DEAD mouse. now those are EEEK worthy.

[Bunny]

20. I loathe the filthy vermin.

Outside of a laboratory, there are no good mice. I feel revulsion and fear at the very thought of them. This is no joke - seriously. I cannot abide mice. And don't even get me started on rats! I don't know why, but the fear and disgust is visceral with me. I once refused to go into a storage room in my basement for over a year because I found a DEAD mouse in it. And I was afraid to open the door again in case there was another one! Ridiculous, I know, but...

Spiders and bugs don't bother me at all, however.

[LWolf]

21. No, not at all.

I don't like rodents. They are pests. That includes cute little squirrels and bunnies. But I'm not afraid of them. I've been evicting them out of my house/s and barn/s all of my life; what's to fear?

I should say, I don't mind rodents who leave my house, barn, and garden alone. I have a sneaking affection for our local kangaroo rats. But rodents are one reason I really appreciate snakes, too.

[dryan]

24. Mice okay but they are dirty...

rats are something else again, they're aggessive and will attack people if cornered. Snakes I can live with as long as they are not poisonous. Not afraid of bugs in general they are just dirty (roaches, flies). I am afraid of wasps and hornets though but I don't think its because I'm a woman. Was bitten as a child when some wasps swarmed.

[LWolf]

27. Yes.

I don't mind them being "dirty;" I just don't want them in my house or barn, chewing, leaving droppings, etc.!

Rats are a plague. I'm glad I've had dogs and cats to help keep the place relatively free of them. Of course, kangaroo rats aren't like others; they aren't the least bit aggressive. They don't come into buildings.



http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/kangaroo_rat.htm

[THUNDER HANDS]

22. I've frightened many a woman

I don't know if that answers your question though. ;)

[AlCzervik]

23. Mice don't bother me

but spiders???? EEEEEKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!

[noonwitch]

25. I'm not afraid of them, but I don't want them in my house

I don't have to worry, I have a live-in exterminator (my cat).

[TheCentepedeShoes]

26. We have

a little brown house mouse. He or she has found a way in from under the floor. Shows up every now and then. Drives the dog bonkers.

[notadmblnd]

28. mice are ok except for

when the come out from under the pantry and sit in the middle of the dining room like he's pays the mortgage on the place. But thats why we all have cats now isn't it. I'm not afraid of critters or even bugs. Roaches and flies is what I have a particular disdain for. Not because they scare me but because they are so filthy and carry so many germs.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

29. Hogwash!

Woman checking in, no fear whatsoever of mice or any other rodent. :)

I have had cats all my life and they have brought in a plethora of small, furry wildlife over the decades. Field mice, sewer rats, moles, gophers -- you name it, they have brought it in and released it in the living room.

My cat Juior is an expert at catching sewer rats - the REALLY big ones.

With the small mice, I usually just grab their tails and leave them off in the front of the house. The sewer rats get the ol' towel grab and then release.

I actually really like some of the furry guys, especially the field mice (so tiny and cute) and moles (velvety soft).

[geniph]

30. The only living things I fear walk on two legs

and usually have the Stars and Bars on the window of their pick-em-up trucks. I'm not phobic about anything except telephones. I have kept nearly every kind of critter imaginable as a pet at one time or another, including a variety of rodentia, and have never understood being phobic of them.

Besides, the rodent that comes into my house is cat food tout-suite, with three enormous Maine Coons patrolling the grounds.

[Nikia]

31. Well I am

In fact when I was in high school, when I saw one run across the kitchen floor, I did stand on a chair and scream. That's just a stereotype though, one that I happen to fit.

[rbnyc]

32. I used to feed mice and rats to my snakes.

I have no trouble handling mice and rats, if they come from the store. But the ones in the streets and on the subways bother me because of the bugs that live on them. Birds creep me out for the same reason. But I'm definitely not the "eek" type.

[chicaloca]

33. I'm a woman...

And if I found a mouse in my apartment, I'd probably try to make it into my pet. But right now we have this incredibly cool spider that lives in our bathroom, so I'm satisfied with that for now.

On a slightly different note: Interestingly enough, my brother has been in a number of heavy metal bands, and at one point every single member of his band (all big bad-ass rocker guys) was arachnophobic. I spent a great deal of my childhood killing spiders for him or trying to make friends with them so I could use them to scare him. :evilgrin: