The mouse takes the cheese. The mouse takes the cheese. Hi-ho, the-derry-o. The mouse takes the cheese. (Yep, you know you were singing along, and now won't be able to get the tune out of your head. You're welcome.)
Actually, the mouse (or it could be mice) have taken a lot more than the cheese. For those of us who live in the colder climates, fall means field mice don't want to stay in the fields. They want to winter in the warmth of a garage or home. (Seeing as to how the mice can't be like what we Northerners call "snowbirds" who head south every winter, the mice have to make do with what they have and apparently a garage/home will do.)
I prefer the mice stay in their natural habitats and have therefore been on a weeks-long mission to catch the mouse/mice who have decided to winter in my garage. Tammy purchased for me four old fashioned mouse traps. I set three of them up with a nice morsel of cheese pressed onto the spring mechanism. I then snuggled in to bed with visions of "captured" mice dancing in my head. In the morning, I sprang to me feet and flew to the garage and what to my wondering eyes should appear but no mice --- and no cheese. Okay, if at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Apparently, I didn't put the cheese on well enough. So this time I smear the cheese in to the crevices of the spring mechanism. Wake up on day two. No mice -- no cheese. Day three, decided to try something a little different. Peanut butter. It's sticky and won't come off the spring mechanism so easily. Wake up. Not a lick of peanut butter left, nor a mouse to be found. Okay, how about some bread pressed into the crevices of the spring mechanism. Nope, they got that too.
To move things along, I will just list for you the smorgasbord I have shared with my garage mice -- pepperoni, apples, sunflower seeds, and mint dental floss (figured they might need to use some after all they had eaten). In all my endeavors, I have caught only two mice (No, Randi, I will not be posting pictures of them. So don't bother asking), but I know there must be more of them as the food keeps disappearing off the traps.
While cleaning the garage on Saturday, I found some old "sonic" pest noisemakers that are supposed to keep mice away. As a last resort (and the fact that I need to go grocery shopping), I plugged them in and am hoping the unbearable noise will make them leave my garage and begin their trek south for the winter allowing the cheese to stand alone. The good Lord knows I have provided them with enough nutrients to make the trip.
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2 comments:
Back in our old house, which was essentially infested with mice (old farmhouse built in 1875). You could always hear them in the ceiling or walls. Or smell them rotting away in said places. Anyhow, I became an expert trapper. PB was definitely the one thing that would guarantee me a catch. Make sure you get the traps with the fake looking swiss cheese and smear it nice and good in the holes of the fake cheese not a lot you don't want the fake cheese covered up you just want to fill in the holes. That way they have to work at getting the cheese.
Enjoyed your creative post on the subject. If need be I can be hired for a nominal fee plus travel expenses to capture these pests. Also, if they are only in your garage just put the poison out, who cares where they die. I wouldn't recommend the poison for the little guys that get inside your house though.
You are so creative with your posts. Who else can include a children's rhyme and a children's poem (the night before christmas). Sounds like the mice might be a bit smarter than the house owner... I would like to see a picture.
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