lament for a mouse
I share a house with my good and dear friend Justine. In fact we own the house together – or are in the process of collectively paying back to the bank a great load of money for it. Ownership is some ways away.
We love this house. It has character. It also has mice (and once, famously, a rat.)
I am a country girl and, based solely upon this criterion, am delegated to ‘deal with’ episodes relating particularly to spiders and mice. Rats! I take no pleasure from setting and emptying traps. It interests me not – although I have found after much experimentation that pieces of Weight Watchers’ Chocolate Chip biscuit are a fool proof bait for the trap. FYI.
Yet, at each mouse crisis my expertise is appealed to in order to get rid of the problem. I am a reluctant fixer in the on-going culture clash between the humans and the rodents.
Unfortunately, I’m developing a reputation – and not for my negotiation skills. I wield the sneaker with a tad too much dexterity.
If more mice were like Stuart Little perhaps it would be easier to come to some sort of compromise position. But no mice – actually not any people I know – have such a natty wardrobe, a fine red sports car and an apartment overlooking Central Park. There are no bargaining chips at my disposal.
Sigh. Today I set a trap in the kitchen. Justine has just informed me that there is, in fact, a mouse in the trap. And there it remains until I get home. Alas, poor mouse….Rats!
hey Marita, I have a solution of sorts to your mousing. I recently saw a nifty little trick with ruler, rubbish bin and chocolate bar on one of those helpful home hints shows, house calls maybe? Do I dare admit to that?
March 6th, 2003 at 5:21 pmPlace the plastic bin under a shelf or next to a desk – wherever the mice come a huntin’ and gatherin’. Put a piece of chocolate on the end of the ruler and just balance the ruler on the edge of the desk, overhanging the bin like a little diving board – which is essentially what it is. Crumple the chocolate bar wrapper and leave it on the desk end of the ruler. The wrapper tempts the mouse along the ruler to the choc at the end, it over balances and ends up, eating chocolate in the plastic bin. Make sure it’s deep so the mouse can’t jump out. Then you can get Justine to take the bin down to the park/creek/river/end of the street and set it free to roam elsewhere.
Happy hunting!