Monty Mouse

[azranger]

A mouse decided to come live with us during the first cold spell in Washington state a few weeks ago. We picked up one of the "As Seen on TV" plug-in electronic pulse repellers at an outlet mall in Linclon City, OR. It seemed to work, but a few days later he was back.

It was coming into the living area from under the gas stove. You might ask, "How do I know?". While watching TV one evening I saw it poke it's head up through the gap at the rear of the range cover. Also it had gotten into some hamburger buns that we left in the oven.

When we got to southern California I picked up some of the sticky traps and placed them around the buns in the oven. No luck. I tried putting some peanut butter on one of sticky traps. The next morning the traps were neatly piled on top of one another. The one with the peanut butter was on the bottom and there were mouse foot prints all over the sticky part of the traps.

Desperate, I did a Google search for ideas and came up with the following instructions for a simple, no cost mouse trap( the source with good illustrations and other details can be found at http://journal.chrisglass.com/2005/0..._catch_a_.html ):

1. Get a toilet paper tube and crease two lines to form a flat sided tunnel.
2. Put a treat on one end of the tube: A cracker and dab of peanut butter works great.
3. Get a tall (at least 20 inches) bucket. A trash can works well.
4. Balance the tube precariously on the edge of a table or counter with the treat hanging directly over the tall sided receptacle.
5. The mouse will scurry to the treat (they like tunnels) and fall into the trap.

It was so simple I decided to give it a try. I emptied our 20" plastic waste basket and set the trap on the edge of the stove top. Went to bed and before falling to sleep we heard some noise. Got up and found the tube in the basket but no mouse. Reset the trap and went back to bed. Within a few minutes we heard some more noise and sure enough we had the bugger. I released the "field mouse" into a field. Of course there are other disposal options but I will leave those to the readers imagination.

[DarMar]

Thanks for the info, it really does sound so simple and in your case proven effective. The only problem I see is that I would have to set this trap up after the DW has gone to bed and harvest what is in the trap while she sleeps. Somehow if it was set up with her knowledge no one would be getting any sleep. Just the thought of mice walking about on our table or counter tops is just not going to be conducive to anyone getting any sleep. I will leave the interpretation of the word "harvest" up to the readers imagination as well.

[Charlie]

What you might want to do is look where the sink drains and water lines go through the floor. They had left an excessively large holes when the trailer was constructed. I bought a can of liquid foam and sealed all the holes. No more mice inside the trailer.