A Mouse in the House

We had to leave the bathroom window open during the recent resurfacing job. The technician removed the screen and we just left it like that overnight. I had a fleeting thought that a bird could fly right in but dismissed it as silly. 

On the Saturday night following the reno we were watching Storage Wars.  Barry was being a smart ass and Brandi was complaining about Jarod and a little brown mouse scampered from the bathroom to the shelf beneath the TV. He didn’t hesitate.  His pace was very steady and we were both so stunned we didn’t say a word. But we thought the same thing.  So now what?

My brother is fond of saying, “Google is your friend” but the first thing I did was text my brother.  I remember some mouse removal operations from our house when we were growing up.  Then I went to Google and found directions for a very simple, humane trap.  You take an empty toilet paper roll, flatten one side so it sits like a tunnel.  Place it on a flat surface with some way for the mouse to get to it, either a ramp or a table. One end of the roll sits on the flat surface and the other end, with a treat in it, hovers over the edge. Below it is a plastic waste basket or bin of some kind that’s deep enough that the mouse can’t climb out.  Then you relocate the mouse at least a mile from your house, he makes new friends and you lose a tenant.  I put a piece of cracker with peanut butter on it in my roll.  What mouse could resist?  Our mouse did.  We woke up the next morning and nothing had happened.  Sorry Mickey, you had your chance.

After that it was regular mouse traps. Some people recommend glue traps but if I’m going to kill Minnie, which I don’t want to do anyway, I’d like it to be quick. I bought some traps and after snapping them both on my thumb at least once, I consulted my brother again to find out what I was doing wrong. Once he stopped laughing I was able to set them up in range of where we last saw Stuart Little.  One with cheese, one with peanut butter.  We came home that afternoon and the traps had been licked clean. We had the luckiest mouse in the city.  It was being fed cheese and peanut butter!

Once again I consulted my brother. Apparently I wasn’t pushing the bait in far enough to the little ledges on the traps.  So we tried again. The following morning when we got up, Mr. Mouse was indeed deceased under the peanut butter trap.  But the cheese trap was again empty and it hadn’t tripped. At least he had a last meal before the end.  Derek took care of the final arrangements.  But I had a mystery on my hands.

When I attempted to trip the untripped trap I realized the problem.  It was faulty!  It had at least a quarter-inch of play in it and it would have taken a heavy-set guinea pig to make it even wiggle.  At 2 traps for $1.49 I suppose there must be duds along the way.  Someone really should build a better mousetrap.  But it’s not going to be me. I hope to never have to use one again.