Saturday, August 20, 2011

Just Rambling ~ No TG Content

Really.  If you only have a limited time to do your tg reading, go elsewhere and read this later, if you wish.  I won't be insulted.  I will notice however. :D

Occasionally, I have a problem with mice in my house.  I'll be sitting at my computer in the basement and I'll hear feet scurrying across the ceiling above me.

I tried glue traps.  After catching a mouse I would carefully peel its little feet off the glue and put him elsewhere.  Then one mouse sort of laid down on the glue and I had to drown the poor thing.  No more glue.

Rather than torture the animal by leaving it in a glue trap, I bought a couple of snap traps.  After I caught the first one, I mentioned to my wife that I caught one and I'll have to bag it and toss it.  My sons looked surprised and said "why don't you just let it go?"  I said "this isn't a Tom and Jerry cartoon."

I got rid of the snap traps too.

Then I found little cage traps.  I had used them for squirrels but I didn't know they made them for mice.  I put a little peanut butter in the back of each, put two back-to-back along a wall, and after a couple of false alarms I caught the critter.  I brought him some distance from my house and let him go.

A couple of times a year, I'd hear the little footsteps in the ceiling and in a few days I had a mouse which I would take to work and let go in some bushes there.

A couple of weeks ago, the pitter-patter of little feet was back.  I check the traps daily, but I forgot to check the trap on Sunday morning.  Monday morning, I remembered to check the closed trap.

Mice weigh a bit less than nothing, so it's hard to tell if the trap is full or just closed.  If I set the trap down, sometimes it will rock and I'll know it's occupied.  But opening it might result in an empty trap or it might result in a little grey head with large black eyes and larger white teeth popping out.

I took the trap outside and c-a-r-e-f-u-l-l-y opened the door just a bit.

A tail flopped out.  Great.  I killed a mouse.

I tried to turn the trap so the tail would flop back in.  It didn't quite go back in and I didn't want to touch the mouse so I put it on the bench in front of my house, with the door almost tightly closed.  It was sort of out of sight.  I figured, after work I'll bag and dispose of the mouse.

When I got home I pulled out a couple of plastic bags, went to the trap, opened the door, and nothing flopped out.  The trap was empty.

Apparently, I made a bad situation worse.  A few nights later I heard a mouse in the ceiling.  I didn't catch one and it stopped.  But I still don't know if I have a mouse in my house, or if I have a zombie mouse in the house.  But just in case, every morning I check the trap, and then I check to make sure I still have my brains.



6 comments:

  1. Of course you could always get a cat

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm pretty sure "Zombie Mouse" is one of new Saturday morning cartoons starting in September.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The secret to keep mice out is to insure they cann't get in. I found here a hole (crack) in foundation which I sealed. haven't had problem sinces then.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Get an exterminator to show you where they're getting in. Then fix that. Otherwise you'll be doing this dance forever.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Every spring and fall, I buy a box of mothballs and scatter its contents through the attic. Mice and bats do not like mothballs and will avoid inhabiting the area inhabited by the balls.

    ReplyDelete
  6. --Zombies are cannibalistic. You don't have to worry about a zombie mouse gnawing at ya, but let me know if you happen to see some half-eaten mouse-brains. I bet you could sell the rights to Syfy.

    ReplyDelete

My day is brighter when I hear from my friends!