About a week ago, as I was doing my morning devotional, I heard that tell-tale scratching of a little mouse in our boot room. I thought to myself, "Where did we put the mousetrap from last year?"
I felt pretty confident because last year, Allie and I made a great mouse-trapping duo. I put the bucket over it and she stomped. Team work in action.
But by the time I found the mousetrap and loaded it with peanut butter, my lovely morning quiet time was passed, and I was feeling a bit miffed at that "little rat." I headed off to school fully expecting to have caught the mouse by the end of the day.
When I got in from work, I was disappointed---no mouse in the trap. Also, no peanut butter. Licked clean.
Later that evening, he was at it again. But the annoying little scratchy sounds became loud gnawing wood sounds. He worked fast, I'll say. There were wood shavings all around on the rug. So I put the trap right in his work space. Then I left. When I returned he had moved the loaded trap to the side and continued shredding our doorfacing. Thinking it had to be a fluke, I put the trap back into his demolition area and closed the door. Yep you guessed right--he moved it and continued in pursuit of making himself at home.
Below is a picture of the doorfacing. I put duct-tape on it because I've heard that duct-tape will fix anything. He chewed through it, of course.
My next move was to put the trap in the doorway so that he would have to walk over the trap in order to get into our house. He had no way around it.
A few minutes later, there was Mighty Mouse scurrying across our kitchen floor. I suppose he jumped over the trap because it was still blocking the doorway.
When he saw me, he stopped in his tracks. I yelled. He ran---thankfully back out to the boot room.
Next, I put a sledge hammer in his work place. My thinking--at least he can't move it.
I wanted rat poison but didn't have any. So I sprinkled Comet Cleanser all around because I thought, "I'll make the place very uninviting to that little varmint." This was becoming a war!
Allie and her sister put together a trap they'd used at camp. It was a bucket of water with peanut butter just below the inside rim. They propped a stick up on it hoping the mouse would climb it, lean in to eat the peanut butter, fall in and drown. Did it work? nope. Well, for one thing he was already full of peanut butter. I'd been feeding him peanut butter for the last few days on the cocked and loaded trap.
The next day I was telling my co-workers about our genius rodent trying to move in and Inez says,
"Put lots of honey in a little foil tray. That's how I always catch mice. They step in to eat the honey and get stuck. It works everytime."
I had my doubts but I did it anyway. I was getting desperate. He was starting to do some serious damage to the property. Plus I knew he was pooping and peeing nearby. If it wasn't so cold, it would've already been smelly.
Below is a picture of the honey trap. Yum!
So do you think it caught the mouse?
No. In fact he vacated the premises. We didn't hear him or see him for several days. But we left the instruments of war out just in case. You know. Maybe the Comet gave him a bellyache or something. Maybe he went to get his friends and family to join in the Thanksgiving feast. I had a feeling he'd be back.
I really wanted to clean up the mess because we had company coming for Thanksgiving. But decided to leave it and let them know of the dangers to their toes.
Sticky notes on the door as a courtesy warning to our guests.
Below is an aerial pic of our complete Mouse War strategy.
Two days later, I decided to give up and clean up. But I needed to run an errand first. Guess what! When I returned, there he was! Stuck. Dead stuck in the honey. It worked! Thanks, Inez!
So I hope this concludes our Mouse Wars. It feels good to be the victor. Oh the thrill of victory! Especially when defeating such a worthy opponent.
Gee, I kinda miss the little guy. Not.
