Mouse Trap: The Game

Maybe it is white trash, maybe its total redneck, maybe its complete paranoia--but a couple months ago I snagged a package of mouse traps for the garage. You know, cause even though we haven't spotted a mouse yet, I believe one can never be too prepared in preventing a rodent invasion.

It just so happened that there were 4 snap traps in the package, and coincidentally there are 4 members of our family. So we created a little game. We each claimed and initialed a trap, picked out our bait, and selected a spot in the garage for it. The plan is every time a trap catches a mouse we'll (Chod) put a tally on it. When spring comes whichever trap is the most successful will be deemed the winner. The prize is yet to be determined.

We're still on even playing ground at 0 mice for each.

I prefer the inhumane ones

Want to know why this is on clearance?

Because it is the worst idea ever.

A catch a release mouse trap? Really people. Where are you releasing them?

Slumber Party

Thanksgiving night my sisters and I visited my grandpa and had him tell stories of the past. One story in particular, the one where my grandma found a mouse in her pillow--grandpa assumes was put there by my uncle after a tiff with my grandma, kept going through my mind last night.

I saw another mouse. This one ran across the top of my washing machine as I was loading it. Brave little buggers. Makes me wonder how many of them there are and where they are coming from. Chod is out of town, so reinforcements were called in. Before going to bed I did a little mouse research. Cause I've got to know what I am up against if I am going to beat them.

The research left me more frightened than lethal.

I learned that they can jump 2 feet in the air, can climb almost any vertical surface (walls!), and can fit through a hole the size of a pencil, they have a life span of 12 months. In those 12 months they have an average of 10 litters averaging between 4-6 in each litter. Once you start doing the math you see there's an exponential increase-ugh. Hopefully a few snaps of the traps can take care of that.

So, as I climbed in to bed I imagined little critters under the covers, in my pillows, and jumping on the bed having a party while I slept.

It took quite a while for me to fall asleep.

If you love me, build me a mouseproof house

Before I get started, I am not afraid of spiders. I am not afraid of snakes. All my fears are rolled into the mouse. Seriously afraid of them. Chod asked what I would do if one ran up my pant leg. I would die. My heart would give out and I would be gone. No. doubt. about. it.

I thought I saw a mouse run from our bathroom across the hall to the water heater/furnace closet last week before I saw the critter in the garage.

Chod didn't think it was likely, and I wasn't sure it really was a mouse--I just saw movement. So I talked myself down and went about my business.

And then I spotted the peanut eating monster in the garage a few days later and I instantly knew it was a mouse I had seen. I insisted Chod set a trap in there, mandated shoe wearing at all times and told Lincoln there was to be no more crawling in mouse-y areas.

The trap was found licked clean and empty the next morning.

Suddenly Chod wasn't so skeptical of a mouse being in the house. And I knew that it was building a nest in our furnace and planning on taking over the house, one baby mouse batch at a time. We keep extra paper towels, toilet paper, cleaning supplies, etc in the closet and I refused to open the door. Never mind that there is a large space at the bottom allowing the mouse access in and out whenever she wishes--I wasn't going to take any chances.

Then we got sick. I told Chod it was hauntavirus. Once again he didn't believe me.

So I called the only person I know, who hates mice as much as me (or maybe I learned it from her). My mom.

She recommended a hotel room until the little bugger was caught, and agreed that most likely it was hauntavirus. Finally someone who understood!

Chod wouldn't go for that.

So everyday he has heard my ranting and my pleas to move as he continued to glue bait back on the trap, only to find it gone the next morning.

And finally last night, a successful catch. Chod refused to autopsy it to see if it had recently given birth, was pregnant, or if it was even a she. He is also avoiding my requests to check the furnace, just in case. I suppose it will be a few more days until we find out if this mouse was flying solo, or if there's a whole family hiding out in our toilet paper.

Oh, and two cheese eating friends were caught in the garage, the doctor thinks it was H1N1 and not hauntavirus, and Lincoln started walking.