This is, I'm sure, a familiar story. Several months ago, I was up early to catch a plane and groggily noticed from the bathroom that there was a small rodent sniffing around the living room floor. When I got back to Oakland, I bought, at my girlfriend's insistence, catch-and-release traps, and baited and set them. I'd see a mouse now and then, but, as it couldn't get into the food cabinets or up on the counters or dining room table, I didn't worry that much about it. After all, it's a mammal pretty closely related to humans, and was actually pretty cute. After a good while, I finally caught one baby mouse, which I released a couple blocks away. However, the presence of mice became less deniable and more evident, with lots of little mouse turds on the stovetop. (Evidently, they could climb up inside the stove from the floor.) The little crevice in the kicthen drawers shelving from which they entered was getting obviously dirty from their comings and goings. The catch-and-release traps, although cleverly designed, were not catching any mice.
Within 24 hours of setting the lethal traps, as my girlfriend finally asked me to do "sometime when I'm not there", I had killed 3 mice. Just this morning, the fifth was snared. It was a rather cute juvenile or young adult, looking at first like it had just paused at the edge of trap. However, the trap bar was clamped down on its upper back, probably breaking it immediately. Some of the others have been messier, making their eyes pop out or bloodying the trap. The worst one sprayed blood on the wall moulding, and was a little disquieting to clean up. After lifting the bar and allowing the fifth dead mouse to fall into the trash, I washed my hands, cut a small piece of cheese rind, re-baited and re-set the trap, and re-washed my hands.
Above, I make it sound like it's my girlfriend's fault I started using the lethal traps. It's not. Since I'm leaving the place at the end of the month, I felt like I didn't want to leave a mouse-infested place for my building manager to tend to. She has been very generous and helpful to me during my time here, and I didn't want to make more work for her.
1 comment:
Here's a mouse "remedy" that my Mom always recommended...identify the place where they are entering (which you have done), and plug it up with steel wool (you can get it at the grocery store). That's it. No eye-popping, back-breaking or any other such guilt-inducing methodology.
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