by Allan Taylor

Created on: August 27, 2011   Last Updated: August 29, 2011

How to catch a mouse, that is the problem.

When I first moved into my apartment I found mice to be prolific, actually nesting in the food cabinet. I quickly got rid of them by having a good clean out and laying mice/rat poison. All was well for a few years but recently I saw the fleeting glimpse of a mouse in my kitchen, when I was occupied doing other things.

I may be at my computer in the evening and from a side glance I see a mouse scuttling across the kitchen floor. Or I may be relaxing in an armchair  and see a scuttling animal, hurtling along the hallway.  I am not anti-animals, but I draw the line at being invaded by unwanted ones. The other night, when at 3 am I decided to make myself a cup of coffee, Lo and Behold there was a mouse scuttling across the kitchen bench.  So then I decided to declare war on these pests, and so the mouse saga begins.

It is 3 months later and I have still not caught my mouse. This would suggest that the mouse is more intelligent than me.   I continue working on the problem.

What is amazing is that on cleaning out the cabinet beneath my kitchen sink I find that the plastic bag of rat poison had been eaten into and its contents spread wide and far, which needed cleaning up .Still my elusive mouse was alive and well.

Each morning I feed the birds which are doves, pidgeons and sparrows. Their plastic bag of seed often gets eaten into by mice.  One morning I actually found a mouse inside the bag!  Being very tolerant, I took the bag  into the garden and let loose the mouse. Not a good idea.  Next day it was back in the kitchen.  The bird seed  bag is now kept in a pottery pot.

I set the conventional wooden and spring mouse traps baited with peanut butter and cheese but nothing happened. Next I tried a fancy circular plastic gadget designed to lure the mouse inside and so trap it alive, but my mouse ignored it.  Woe is me!  What to do?

I remember, long ago in my youth, of having dispatched a mouse at 5 yards by shooting it with my Smith and Wesson air pistol.  A good shot, but I doubt that this  would be allowable in my present establishment.

Today, Saturday, I went to a United Church Fair where I bought pot plants, and a novel plastic mouse trap for 10 cents.  I set it baited on my kitchen floor.  Surely my mouse will be fooled by this old spring trap?

Yes, success!  Bang, caught one.  Reset trap and half an hour later, Bang, caught its mate.  Why does this mouse trap work and the others not, I wondered?  Well, I figured the difference is that the base and trigger mechanism is made of hard plastic,  whereas the other spring traps  had a wooden base and metal trigger, both one carefully attached to the metal spring arm.   It seems that the  combination of hard plastic and metal is more sensitive than a metal/metal contact; it must have something to do with friction, I think.

The optimal bait is cheese wedged under the trigger covered with a smear of peanut butter.  Now I am happy and feel in control of my kitchen once again by keeping it free of vermin.

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