Yesterday, after Ken and Mike left to hunt doves in the late afternoon, I was sitting at the diningroom table, working away at my laptop, when movement on the floor caught my eye. I saw a mouse scamper silently around the corner and into the kitchen.
"No!!!" screamed the inner voice. No, I didn't say "Eeeeeek" and climb onto a chair. I just think it's disheartening when the cheeky enemy resists my efforts to control him and now flaunts himself in my house during daylight hours.
"We'll re-bait the traps tonight and we'll get 'im," said Mike confidently. But as we examined our eight traps, we noted that the enemy has been effectively stealing bait, mostly without getting caught. Not a good sign. That means we've been feeding him and he will be back – or, worse yet, hasn't left.
Last night as we watched television in the dimly-lit livingroom – our guest shorthair Duke on his blanket, Nellie sleeping at my feet – I saw it AGAIN! "There's that mouse!" I exclaimed.
"Where?" asked Mike.
"On that side of the chair. No – now it's right there. No, now it's gone again." I'm not sure Mike ever caught sight of it. We tried to rouse the dogs and get them interested. I'd like to say they caught a scent. They sniffed a bit here and there – probably just to placate Mike. So, we gathered up our traps, baited them with old peanut butter, and set them out in the livingroom and kitchen before we went to bed. In addition, we set out two commercial traps, which used to work well but haven't in the last months.
Upon arising this morning, I crept around the house, checking the traps. The enemy successfully eluded us this time, stealing the peanut butter off all the traps. He overlooked only one.
After discussing the enemy's strategy, we realized that we have to work harder at keeping him (who may well be a her) on the trap a bit longer. The traps seem to trigger
well, but the mouse in question (if indeed there is just one) is quite small. So, this morning Mike again baited the traps, this time using the peanut butter as glue for cheese.
So, I decided, if the enemy is so bold, I'd better check out the sofa, an old hide-a-bed that used to be in my dad's studio. I know the enemy loves the sofa and I've done much wit
h duct tape and Bounce sheets to try to protect it from them. This constitutes real work in my book, and I just hate to face the fact that it's not really effective. But this morning I made myself open it out -- and guess what I found. Dog chow! No-o-o-o! So, that's where I started my fall housecleaning. Up until yesterday it was useless to clean because Farmer Kyle was still working on the hill. [The photo right shows the sofa and Mike's newly renovated rocking chair.]
Does anyone know if those plug-in mouse-repellent units are any good? KW
5 comments:
The chair looks wonderful! And it's a very inviting living room. Good luck on the rodent hunt--maybe we should bring Buddy up?
Buddy would be welcome -- so would you. We probably need a cat or two on the job, but not pets. We need "street-wise" cats who know the score in the wild.
Anyway -- we caught not one but two mice last night. I have noted that if you can trap the one or two that show up, it stems the problem for a while.
Also interesting -- these latest ones were little and their fur dark. Sometimes they are bigger and gray. I feel research coming on . . .
Cotton ball pieces.
The pest control guys tell me that's the best bait in the trap - in part because it doesn't attract other pests, such as bugs. Gotta put the shredded cotton ball pieces into the trigger in such a way that mouse can't remove it without tripping the trap.
Key still is to use hair-trigger traps, so if the mouse even exhales, WHAM!
Interesting, Anonymous. So, we're using nesting material instead of food.
With our last go-round, Mike pasted cheese onto the underside of the trigger with peanut butter. I said we got two, but really we got three.
And someone else said they used to tie the cheese onto the trigger with yellow thread and that was effective.
So far, so good with the Black and Decker untrasonic units from Home Depot.
Do you put the cotton balls on with the real bait or just cotton balls? Why would a mouse want a cotton ball? I can't imagine how slight a mouse exhale would be...I don't want to be anywhere near that trap! I'm naturally jumpy.
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