Of Mice and Men
There’s a mouse in our house… at least that’s what the woman folk said. As you may recall, I am in charge of any killing that goes on in this part of the world so I was told to go downstairs and eradicate the little fella. I looked around and didn’t see it, but I’m sure that it is there as there has been two eye witnesses to the lurker. So, out he (or could it be a she) must go.
Off course, my eldest thinks that we should be humane in the eradication of the wildlife. My wife agreed and bought two live traps so that we could release the four-legged friend in the wild. (I’m sure later to be eaten by a predator)
We tried for about a week to catch the “little guy” with no
avail. I agree that there must be something cruising around the house as this guy is either a professional thief or has got to be the luckiest mouse around. The live traps have been triggered several times without any success. He was even lucky enough to steal a piece of cheese and was not captured by the so-called better mouse trap.
Therefore, after a week of trying it their way ol’ reliable is back out and is ready to terminate the vermin. Stay tuned as Wild Kingdom II goes into overdrive with some heavy-duty violence.
Off course, my eldest thinks that we should be humane in the eradication of the wildlife. My wife agreed and bought two live traps so that we could release the four-legged friend in the wild. (I’m sure later to be eaten by a predator)
We tried for about a week to catch the “little guy” with no
avail. I agree that there must be something cruising around the house as this guy is either a professional thief or has got to be the luckiest mouse around. The live traps have been triggered several times without any success. He was even lucky enough to steal a piece of cheese and was not captured by the so-called better mouse trap.Therefore, after a week of trying it their way ol’ reliable is back out and is ready to terminate the vermin. Stay tuned as Wild Kingdom II goes into overdrive with some heavy-duty violence.
posted by Fe Man at 9:06 PM
3 Comments:
Zo,
I too have tried those live traps with only limited success. I had the ones that were a gray square tube that tipped up when the mouse went far enough in and the door then flipped shut. I found that they would only work on the smallest of mice since the bigger ones never had to go in far enough to tip it and/or their tails would prevent the door from closing all the way.
Of course I am coming at this from a totally different perspective. I was only trying to catch mice alive so I could feed then to my snake. (I'm sure Norm and the girls would love to hear that, but hey it's all cycle of life, right?)
You might ask why keep the mouse alive if it's just going to the snake. Well, I can't very well feed my snake a dead mouse that's been sitting out an indeterminate period of time potentially brewing a good crop of toxic bacteria! I gotta keep em fresh, ya know?
Anyway, I ended up making my own live trap using a tradition snap trap, a mayonaise jar, some thin wire and a piece of hardware cloth (stiff wire mesh). The trap was baited and lodged firmly inside the jar which was laid on its side. A wire was attached to the trap's bale on one side and to the wire mesh on the other where it rested loosely outside the bottle. The mouse would enter the bottle, go to the back and trigger the trap. The bale would then start to close which would pull the wire mesh firmly closed across the mouth of the bottle. Once the mesh was across the bottle mouth, the bale would be prevented from traveling any further thereby postponing the little bugger's inevitable death. It worked quite well and I was able to rid my house of the occasional mouse and provide my snake a few meals at the same time.
I thought that a fellow engineer could appreciate this little bit of ridiculousness.
Postcsript: I later successfully scaled up the design to catch an antisocial cat that had hidden in our floor and would not come out when we were around. But, alas, that is a story for another time.
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One mouse successfully caught (killled) today in the reliable old model. Of course I can't finish laundry now until Zo comes home and gets rid of the little body.
Bruce,
We had the same kind of humane trap, I think they need to make them longer so that the whole body gets in before the door shuts. Of course, being a nurse I wasn't about to build a better mouse trap like you did!! But then we really have no need for live mice, just the eldest who can't bear to think of a furry little creature being killed.
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