I have found that
my toy poodles are excellent mousers. Smelling of foo foo spray, bows in
their hair, toenails aglitter with polish, they are curly-headed demons
when they think a mouse is around. Considering their size, I think it’s
therapeutic for them to pick on something that’s actually smaller than
they are.
One non-violent deterrent is
stuffing any opening a mouse could fit through with steel wool, since
they won’t chew on it (so ‘they’ say). The problem with this is that you
can never hope to find all those openings, and when you do, you should
just FIX THEM.
Another natural deterrent is to
soak cotton balls in peppermint oil and scatter them on your pantry
shelves. The mice love this one since it’s so tiresome just eating
cereals and chips and so forth. If you leave little notepads and pens
also, they will write you thank you notes for being thoughtful enough to
supply them with dessert.
There are lots of
anti-mouse devices out there, and most of them flat don’t work. The
phrase ‘Don’t try to build a better mousetrap’ is right- the original is
still the best. Let’s look at some of the others.
Many people reach for the D-Con
type poisons and they WILL kill mice. Also small dogs and children who
eat it and cats or chickens who eat mice who’ve eaten it. I’ve been in
Emergency Animal care for too many years to recommend any way to use the
stuff that’s remotely safe.
Those ‘sticky boards’ they sell
are just a laugh. Oh, sure you load the thing with peanut butter in the
center and the mice WILL get stuck. For a minute. Then they are off,
tummies full of peanut butter and just the loss of a little hair to pay
for it. Pretty sweet. Occasionally you will find a mouse in between
eating the peanut butter and yanking himself off of the board, but what
do you do THEN? Stomp on it? Gingerly put it in a plastic bag and wait
for it to suffocate? Drown it? The whole thing is pretty unappealing.
And again, if you have pets, most likely THEY like peanut butter too. I
have a vivid memory of my daughter’s cat running through the house on
his hind legs, sticky board attached to his entire tummy and front legs,
clearly not amused and laying full blame for his embarrassment on yours
truly.
There are things called Tin Cats
that are little metal lock-ups with one-way doors. The mice go in, but
can’t come out. Once again, what the heck do you do with a metal box
full of mice?
No, the clear choice is still
the spring-loaded mousetrap. An inexpensive investment on your part, a
quick kill for the mouse. The only two problems with the basic mousetrap
are that sometimes you have to come dangerously close to touching a dead
mouse to empty it (yes I use them over and over again, they’re not THAT
cheap), and if you are not possessed with lightning quick reflexes,
there’s the chance that you will get pinched setting the traps. I get
pinched setting the traps.
Enter what is the
only Better Mousetrap I’ve ever seen, the Victor Quickset, made by
Victor- manufacturers of the original spring-loaded mousetraps. The
Quickset looks like one of those big plastic clips you buy to hold your
chips bag closed, so to set it, your fingers are out of the line of
fire, and to empty it, your hand is on the opposite side of the trap
from the carcass. And they are made of plastic, so there’s less residual goo. Both the original Victor mousetraps and the newfangled Quicksets
can be found at your local feed/hardware/building supply store, or
online at
www.victorpest.com
Armed with a case of Quicksets,
snarling toy poodle at my side (OK, napping in my lap), wearing my
horned Viking helmet (just because I like to wear it), I am ready to do
battle with the Scourge of the Homestead: My Enemy Mouse.
