h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Mice have become more and more visible in my house this Winter. I finally decided to pt an end to this a few days ago when I was eating crackers in bed. I looked down and there was a mouse just inches from my snacks. It scooted away as soon as I saw it, but this was too much.

So, the other day I went looking for mouse traps in Lowe's. There were so many different kinds -- the standard rectangles of wood with triggers, poisoned pellets, little boxes with bait that lured the mice inside. I was afraid of anything too violent, so I bought the kind with glue that would hold the mouse but not bash them. Within two days, I had three mice trapped. It's kind of sad to watch them struggle futilely. The best solution would be to send them to Patagonia or some wildlife refuge where they might either find some way of surviving, or become food for the next level of the food chain.

But they have short lives anyway. They seemed to be happy with my hospitality for a few months if not longer. I wasn't happy about having them die, but I fear for my electrical circuits, which mice have been known to nibble on. They can spread disease. Possibly the worst thing is their ability to multiply at crazy rates.

So, bye bye mousies. You weren't worse than other mice, but the problem was that you *were* mice.

I had a pest control company cover the skirting of my mobile home with a wire mesh to keep them out. Not cheep, but it came with a year's service. My problem with the glue traps it what do you do with them after they are trapped To me letting them starve to death is more cruel than just bashing them in the first place.

F S

I wrapped the glue trap in paper towels and put it in a garbage bag, and thence to a dumpster.

Aint that cruel and unusual and unethical and violating the law?

Surely there must be a place where live mousies are welcome - if only as food for others?

Like a pet store where they could be eaten by large snakes?

First I would need to catch them, then transport them.

When I was much younger, I would occasionally trap a mouse under a overturned wastebasket and bring it to a wildlife sanctuary a couple blocks up the street. I no longer live there.

I think there have always been one or two mice in my house, and I was cool with that. But this Winter, I got rid of four that were in my wastebasket. I didn't kill them, but instead put them outside. Maybe they came back inside, or maybe I originally had twice that many, but in any event I was soon just as overrun with them as before. Something had to give.

I know the feeling.

Now that the neighbor's chickens are under control, the next problem is evicting the kangaroo rat population, including the one that's moved into the house with me.

On the bright side, that one (elegant tail ti tuft and all) has put on so much weight she's hefty enough to tip the treadle in my smallest 'bring them back alive' trap and I have got a standing request for live specimens that may still be good.

You can buy an electronic device that screams at a frequency only the mice can hear. This will scare them away. No good if you keep guinea pigs, though.

You can buy maze-like traps that catch the alive

I have nearly always had good deterrents . . .

I think Simba my ate a , several years ago but he has not caught any more since then.

The good news is that the area around my computer, which was noisy before, is now absolutely quiet. I still hear the odd rustlings in my bedroom, but they're more subdued than they were.

Pierce, I didn't see those have-a-heart traps when I was looking for something to help me deal with the . That's partly the fault of those monstrously big stores that have everything.

Try asking for them. I'm sure those big stores have them

I rather like the idea of that machine that emits mouse-horrifying sounds.

I had one once, my was not fond of it

F S

Everyone's a critic!

If mice return to my house, I will look for such a machine.

I got zapped by my own cleverness today.

I accidentally stepped on one of the glue traps and had a of a time pulling it off my shoe.

What a nuisance! Never again will I try that kind of trap.