Mice Update, The Final Chapter
The kind of trap Aaron brought back from the hardware store was your garden variety, 39 cent Victor mouse trap. Looks like this:
He baited them with peanut butter. The instructions for the Tomcat trap said NOT to bait it, and I was skeptical. No bait? If I was a mouse, I'd think, "What's the point?" But I decided to follow the instructions and give it another go. I nudged both kinds of traps into a little semi-circle in front of the hole we had discovered. With no room between traps. A mouse gauntlet, if you will. I can never tell if Aaron is amused or worried about my state of mind when I do things like that.
After Aaron and I set our traps, we put the baby to bed and started working in the living room. We were in the midst of a heated debate about course curriculum (nerds! nerds!) when we heard *SNAP!*
It was approximately 8:30 p.m. The kitchen lights were on, the dishwasher was chugging away like a old Gremlin without a muffler, and we were sitting about 15 feet away from the traps. This mouse had GUTS! "Had" being the operative word. The old reliable Victor mousetrap had done its job.
I, of course, immediately dove for the camera but couldn't bring myself to post the final picture here. Instead, here is a symbolic graphic for you:
Well, that was that. We had our mouse. Too tired and disturbed to pack away all of the other mousetraps, we retired for the evening.
The next morning? I noticed that there was another mousetrap missing. I went to find Aaron.
"Another mouse?"
His expression of distaste told me yes.
The next night, yep. Another mouse. Not too smart, these mice. For which I am VERY thankful.
Finally, we took my parents' advice (many of you noted the same thing) and stopped up the mouse entry way with some equally old-fashioned steel wool.
All of our Cheerios are safe now.
(8)
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Comments
In the house that I live in are some old mouse holes. The lady that lived here took the tops off of of old tin cans and bent one side and then nailed it over the holes. They were some of the first things I found and I left them they have been working for years. I have a cat that loves to catch mice so they dont last long once they show up in the house.
Posted by: norma | October 14, 2006 8:24 AM
I hate to say I told you so, but I told you so. Better leave the traps for a few days. Another trick is to place 3 traps along side of each other. No matter which direction the mouse comes from, he can't jump over 3 traps. Good hunting..POPS --30--
Posted by: POPS | October 14, 2006 10:49 AM
I guess that he's longer a "mouse in progress."
Oh...sorry.
Posted by: CPDay | October 14, 2006 12:00 PM
Oops, I meant "...NO longer..."
Posted by: CPDay | October 14, 2006 12:10 PM
thanks for not posting the actual photo of your kill. but is it odd to anyone else that the image you did post shows the mouse laying in such a relaxed pose, with one leg slung nonchalantly over the other? ;)
Posted by: ann-marie | October 16, 2006 4:35 PM
Hey guys,
Just diggin' around for some Grace pics and roaring with laughter. Fun to hear what you guys are up to. Grace is so big and has so much hair. Wesley is still just contemplating hair, he's more focussed on the teeth at the moment. We'll miss you guys at Halloween. Nate got a hand-me-down Buzz Lightyear costume and he is THRILLED. We're loving Alaska and the college. Nate has taken up counting moose and I'm already missing the sun, it's pitch black until 8am and the boys haven't caught on to the whole "sleeping in" concept, 7am feels like 5am. Wesley isn't sleeping through the night either, that great sleeper thing was all a hoax. Hope you get your heat going soon! -Meghan
Posted by: Meghan | October 17, 2006 2:22 AM
Yeah, it's never just one mouse. Ask me how I know this.
I had the same experience as you--my roommate and I set the traps and stayed up for hours, ears pricked, waiting to hear the SNAP. It never came because, rubes that we were, we had baited them wrong. Once we figured out how to set them correctly, we caught several (ugh) in one day.
The stove, in my case, was a particularly fun place for a mouse. Lots of crumbs and warmth. My roomie (god bless him) lifted up the hood one day and found, in his words, "several mice pinballing back in forth in there." So traps also went in the stovetop, with dramatic results.
My suggestion: Rent Mousehunt with Nathan Lane and buy more traps.
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