Mouse in the house, part two

I found more mice in my house. It was either one or a few more, I don't know. It (or they) ran from closet to closet and I could hear a lot of scratching at night. The problem is field mice, little brown ones that are fast as "hello". I saw the mice in the kitchen, in my bedroom, and one escaped from the closet it was in and ran under a couch. I finally called an exterminator. The tech who came out first got me to sign a long term contract for a year; he gave me a hundred dollars off the initial visit with the proviso that they would come out every every month and keep the bugs away. The latter is a minor problem. The tech that set the traps came out about five days later and said he saw droppings in the attic; the first guy also saw them under the house. The second guy then explained (wonder why the first guy didn't say that) that the mice were probably hibernating under my house. When the weather got warm, they all took off except for the ones that were left behind. Those were the ones that were running around my house looking for an exit. If I had known that, I could have left the front door open for awhile and maybe the stragglers would have hit the road and saved me $150 plus the every other month thing. At least I know in the future what to expect. The mice also don't fall prey easily to mousetraps. One ran right by two as he was darting from closet to closet. At least the house sounds a lot quieter for the past night. Maybe the one (or ones) that were left behind finally figured out how to get the hello out of Dodge and join their family members outside. Good riddance.