Not for the Faint of Heart

From CNN…this is gross.

Embedded video from CNN Video

Mouse Troop Surge. Casualty One.

Okay, the good news: I caught a mouse! I fortified my defenses with bread. (Or, to be specific, Pepperidge Farm Whole Wheat Hamburger Buns.) The peanut butter was not a popular meal choice, apparently, but it did help me to secure the bread. When I got home today, one of the old fashioned snap traps had a mouse in its jaws. (I'll spare you the picture I took…)

The bad news comes next. It was not alone. As I was picking up the mouse corpse, I saw a little mouse head peek out from one of the burners on my stove. Quickly, but there was no mistaking what it was. Drats! I felt like it was laughing at me. I wanted to put up the other mouse on a skewer as if to say "Look what can happen to you…"

Mouse Troop Surge. Casualty One.

Okay, the good news: I caught a mouse! I fortified my defenses with bread. (Or, to be specific, Pepperidge Farm Whole Wheat Hamburger Buns.) The peanut butter was not a popular meal choice, apparently, but it did help me to secure the bread. When I got home today, one of the old fashioned snap traps had a mouse in its jaws. (I'll spare you the picture I took…)

The bad news comes next. It was not alone. As I was picking up the mouse corpse, I saw a little mouse head peek out from one of the burners on my stove. Quickly, but there was no mistaking what it was. Drats! I felt like it was laughing at me. I wanted to put up the other mouse on a skewer as if to say "Look what can happen to you…"

Mouse Bombing Intensifies

Okay, not really. It's at the same level as before. As in, I see droppings, and no matter what I do with the traps, the mousey won't bite. What's most disturbing is that I have found droppings in my bedroom, which freaks me out. I literally have trouble getting to sleep thinking about it and have started sleeping with my feet to the head of the bed (why? I don't know…I think in absence of doing something useful, I decided to do something symbolic). Let's examine what we know about the mouse species:

They're fast

 

They're annoying

   

They're wily and hard to catch

 

They're disturbingly buff 

 

I'm going to try some different bait this weekend. I'm pretty much setting up a mouse smorgasbord. I hope he decides to indulge one of these days…

Mouse Bombing Intensifies

Okay, not really. It's at the same level as before. As in, I see droppings, and no matter what I do with the traps, the mousey won't bite. What's most disturbing is that I have found droppings in my bedroom, which freaks me out. I literally have trouble getting to sleep thinking about it and have started sleeping with my feet to the head of the bed (why? I don't know…I think in absence of doing something useful, I decided to do something symbolic). Let's examine what we know about the mouse species:

They're fast

 

They're annoying

   

They're wily and hard to catch

 

They're disturbingly buff 

 

I'm going to try some different bait this weekend. I'm pretty much setting up a mouse smorgasbord. I hope he decides to indulge one of these days…

Mouse Insurgency: Day 10

Even after my elaborate mouse-catching get-up, no mouse has been caught. I added some Kraft 2% American Pasteurized Process Cheese Slice bits to the glue traps in hopes that would make them more attractive. Guess the mouse is a bit more of the brie type.

Mouse Insurgency: Day 10

Even after my elaborate mouse-catching get-up, no mouse has been caught. I added some Kraft 2% American Pasteurized Process Cheese Slice bits to the glue traps in hopes that would make them more attractive. Guess the mouse is a bit more of the brie type.

Mouse Fatwa Update

I have been informed today by officemates that DC mice are too "street" to go into covered traps.

Coworker: Oh, those never work.

Me: But they worked in Philly.

Coworker: Well, DC mice won't go into them.

So, it was no surprise when I came home and saw droppings but no dead mouse. Sigh. After several jittery nights at home, I've HAD it. I believe the horrid thing is living in my stove. I'm calling the landlord again tomorrow whether or not I catch it because the last thing I need is a chewed gas line. Ka-boom.

Therefore, I have gone against my "Cadillac only" policy, realizing sometimes a Honda will do, and have pulled out all available forces. I'm hoping this does it.   Here's one of my get ups.

 

It consists of 2 shoe boxes, 2 of the Cadillac traps, and 2 glue traps. Additionally, one side of the stove is flanked with a traditional "Chevy Nova" snap trap. I have also set up 2 on one side of my sink where I found mouse poo.

I hope this does it. Die Mouse Die!

Mouse Fatwa Update

I have been informed today by officemates that DC mice are too "street" to go into covered traps.

Coworker: Oh, those never work.

Me: But they worked in Philly.

Coworker: Well, DC mice won't go into them.

So, it was no surprise when I came home and saw droppings but no dead mouse. Sigh. After several jittery nights at home, I've HAD it. I believe the horrid thing is living in my stove. I'm calling the landlord again tomorrow whether or not I catch it because the last thing I need is a chewed gas line. Ka-boom.

Therefore, I have gone against my "Cadillac only" policy, realizing sometimes a Honda will do, and have pulled out all available forces. I'm hoping this does it.   Here's one of my get ups.

 

It consists of 2 shoe boxes, 2 of the Cadillac traps, and 2 glue traps. Additionally, one side of the stove is flanked with a traditional "Chevy Nova" snap trap. I have also set up 2 on one side of my sink where I found mouse poo.

I hope this does it. Die Mouse Die!

Death to the Mice

It's not often I can agree with a Muslim cleric. I can't believe I missed the news that a month ago, Sheikh Muhammad Munajid called for death to all mice, real and fictional. He "claimed the mouse is 'one of Satan's soldiers' and makes everything it touches impure." (See the full article at the Telegraph). I could not agree more. Also from the article "…he warned that depictions of the creature in cartoons such as Tom and Jerry, and Disney's Mickey Mouse, had taught children that it was in fact loveable."

Don't worry Mr. Munajid, I'm not fooled. Mickey drives me nuts, not in small part due to my extended family's fascination with all things Disney. And, frankly, I could do away with Tom and Jerry too if need be, though those guys crack me up. My real beef with mousedom, though, is the one in my apartment.

I saw one dash across my kitchen floor one evening. Hadn't seen it in a week and thus thought it met its demise. No. Evidence was provided yesterday–on my countertop–that proved that the mouse (I'm hoping singular) is alive and well and apparently partying it up while I'm at work and asleep.

I have no sympathy for the mouse. I hate it when people get all "Oh, catch them and set them free." What? And then drive it 400 miles to a field?  I'll reserve my sense of compassion for other creatures and occasions, thanks. I know it's one of God's creatures (or Satan's depending on who you ask), but so is mold. I don't want either in my living space.

My landlord, God love him, provided sticky traps and cheap wooden ones. I haven't the stomach to deal with either. I have acquired what I consider to be the Cadillac of mouse traps–the D Con Ultra Set mouse trap. So far, my faith in this trap has been tested. I have not yet caught it. At least not while the trap was on the floor. I have–gulp–moved the trap to the counter, hoping that will do the trick and hoping its friends aren't crashing on its sofa. 

I used these traps when I lived in a mouse-infested dorm room one summer in grad school. I caught EIGHT in less than a month. That was my first encounter with mice in my living space. The second was at my last office–where we also used these traps.

I am torn between desperately NOT wanting to see the mouse when I go home and wanting to have caught it. I guess I'll choose the latter. This is one of those occasions I wish I had a man around. Or at least a very butch woman. I'm pretty independent but mice give me the heebie jeebies.