#hot #tub war in #New #Mexico: #mice winning

Then, he arrived at the appointed time, but said he had to come back in a few days with three other guys, lift up the spa and figure out where the leak is.  Also Rick mentioned that a tub that circulates every 10 minutes or less probably means that the computer control board is malfunctioning, something missed by Tom the Tub Guy.

         After lifting up the hot tub a few days later, Rick offered a bad news/good news assessment: it would take $900 to repair the hot tub, including replacing the computer control board and several rubber pipes, which circulated water and were chewed through by the mice.   The good news was that he had a hot tub that was similar to the one we had, but was already repaired good as new and he would sell it to me for $1,400, delivery of the new one and removal of the old one included. 

         I thought about asking, but did not: the hot tub you are selling to me – is that the one you got from John Berkenfield, then sold back to him and later took it back again?  In other words, are your hot tubs a modern version of the fruit cakes that would be given as Christmas gifts again and again not so many years ago?

         Two days later, with almost the same crew, Rick took away the old hot tub and inserted a slightly smaller, rebuilt one in its place.  He gave me this advice, “Put moth balls around the underside of the deck because mice hate the smell of moth balls.”

         I thought it was worth a try.  I bought nine boxes of mothballs, put them in plastic bags with holes in the bags and distributed the bags around the perimeter of the deck that held the hot tub.  Two days later, when the water was warm enough, Grace and I settled in to our new-ish tub and relaxed.  The only problem was that the entire hot tub area smelled like my grandmother’s sweaters in the fall when she took them out of mothballs.  I wasn’t sure they would repel mice, but I had a strong guarantee that, while we were in the hot tub, all moths would avoid us.

         Rick also said, “Never use poison pellets because, if you do and they work, you’ll be smelling dead mice around your hot tub.”   I should have asked him which aroma was worse: Mickey Mouse or mothballs?  I probably would have voted for the mothballs.