In the past 24 hours -- no, not even, make it 12 -- we have caught two mice. This is the time of year they infiltrate the house and so we have gone into action. Of course, they have beaten us to it, as we soon learned after implementing The System. My husband has gone over the foundation, sealing possible entrances, but there's that stretch under the porch that remains unknown. Given mouse lore than says their tiny collapsible skeletons can compress to the size of an M&M, structural barriers will only take us so far.
Thus, The System. We employ one of those black plastic traps in which all the mayhem happens out of sight. The mouse creeps into the little entrance, tempted by the scent of the peanut butter bait. Taste, snap, and it's over instantly (and don't try to tell me any differently.)
The next morning, I check the trap and, for the initial couple of weeks, almost invariably find a tail extending from it. I'm usually the one who then takes the traps outdoors, where I release the tony mouse corpse into the realm from which it came. Circle of Life and all that.
Then the trap is rebaited and returned to its location against the wall under the sink, next to where the pipes come in. We've always placed it there and it's proven, over the years, to deliver with (disturbingly) regular success until we realize that a week has gone by without mayhem and the mouse problem is eradicated. (Knocking wood here.)
The regularity of our success makes me wonder at those old "Tom and Jerry" cartoons in which little Jerry the mouse was always outsmarting Tom the Cat. These Hanna-Barbera shorts apparently are rather infamous for the level of violence they employed, what with dismemberments, axes, bombs and the old matchsticks placed between toes. But there never was any actual blood or gore visible to viewers, which probably is why I favor the "See No Mayhem" trap.
At the risk of insulting you, dear blog readers, we can't possibly be the only family fighting mice these days. What are your methods? Are there better baits than peanut butter? Any other tips to get us through this annual ritual a little more quickly?
