My roommate and I just spent an hour and a half trying to catch a mouse

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

This question is filed under "abject stupidity".

This is the first time I've ever seen a mouse in any place I have lived. Ever. Growing up, on my own, never one mouse. Finding them at work or at ex-gf's places doesn't count.

So, we got it out from under the sink and it ran under the stove. After blocking off all possible escape routes from the kitchen, we prepared a box to trap the mouse and moved the stove to force it out. It wasn't there. There is a hole in the wall behind the stove (where the electical connections are) that is plenty large enough for the mouse to enter and exit. There is no such hole under the sink or anywhere else in the kitchen. This is the only enter and exit as far as I can tell.

Clearly we must set traps. What kinds of traps do I use? These "humane" traps which catch the mice without killing them -- do they work? Are they recommended? Is there anything else I should be doing, besides telling the building management? Why is there a mouse on the 11th floor anyway? I hardly ever see bugs up here, let alone a mouse.

Now I'm wired from all this cloak and dagger mouse crap, and I don't know whether to try and get work done, go to sleep, or what. Today, I went to a wedding, a post-Ph.D. defense drink-fest, and had to help a friend home following said drink-fest after he threw up all over the place, fell down a basement stairwell into the snow (while barfing and pissing at the same time), and had to open the front door of his house for him (since he was too drunk to do it), and then spot him as he went up the stairs (he would have toppled over backwards had I not been there).

(note: I am not drunk, I drank two beers tonight and that's it)

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Thursday, 20 January 2005 07:37 (twenty years ago)

Your Experiences with Rats and Cockroaches

― ken c (ken c), Thursday, 20 January 2005 07:49 (twenty years ago)

ouch!

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Thursday, 20 January 2005 07:54 (twenty years ago)

After reading that thread, I have decided to move to a mouse and rat-free country (do such things exist?)

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Thursday, 20 January 2005 07:59 (twenty years ago)

ugh!
I can't bear to kill a mouse, so I shoved one of those curly metal washing up thingy's in the hole - no more mouse (it can't chew through it!)

― tatters, Thursday, 20 January 2005 11:02 (twenty years ago)

I was hoping that the end of the story was you and your roommate finally realizing that all along you were in love.

― dave225 (Dave225), Thursday, 20 January 2005 12:32 (twenty years ago)

> There is no such hole under the sink or anywhere else in the kitchen.

says you 8)

i thought i'd filled in all the mouse size holes in my flat only to see him disappear into a 5mm crack between the floor and the skirting board. the kitchen sink cupboard also isn't sealed and they can get into that from under the floor.

i used peanut butter in those traps that tilt up and force a door to fall into place, trapping the mouse, and then i take the mouse down the park and give him/her their freedom. caught 3 in the space of as many months and haven't seen one since (but have heard one. and found a dead one on the floor where, i think, the neighbour had put down poison). remember to check the traps every 6-8 hours though or the 'humane' aspect of them no longer applies.

the other thing to do is to not feed them - keep food in mouse-proof containers and overhead cupboards - and they'll soon get bored and go somewhere else.

― koogs (koogs), Thursday, 20 January 2005 13:00 (twenty years ago)

i had mice in my last place in toronto. yuck. anyway, we used those 'humane' traps at first, and they sorta worked. but then i was told that they can actually be quite horrible for the mouse (koogs is right about checking regularly). if they are in there a while, they usually go into shock, and at the very least piss themselves because of fear. they can also die due to trauma. not a nice thing to go through, i imagine.

anyway, my morals were loose enough so i switched to the old school wooden/snap ones (using peanut butter), and they worked like a charm. dealing with the dead mouse is not pleasant, but at least they died instantly. (ok, i've heard that they can get trapped badly in the old-style ones and still live, albeit horribly injured, but i've never seen that happen)

― Rob Bolton (Rob Bolton), Thursday, 20 January 2005 13:24 (twenty years ago)

I was hoping that the end of the story was you and your roommate finally realizing that all along you were in love.
The story sort of ends with me dreaming restlessly about catching mice all night, and the drunk friend from last night calling me and having to tell him what happened yesterday because he can't remember a thing.

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Thursday, 20 January 2005 14:24 (twenty years ago)

I think the spring trap is one of the greatest human inventions ever, but that's me. Koogs OTM about checking glue traps frequently -- I've seen them where mouse 1 walks in and dies, and then mouse 2 comes along and starts eating mouse 1 -- not good.

The absolute worst, though, is when you bait a spring trap and then come back to find the trap unsprung and the bait gone. There's no feeling quite like knowing you've been outwitted by a mouse.

― Jeff Wright (JeffW1858), Thursday, 20 January 2005 17:54 (twenty years ago)

that's what happened to mine :((( (see other thread) i was hoping to keep the mouse as a pet as well :\

― ken c (ken c), Thursday, 20 January 2005 18:11 (twenty years ago)

i don't think glue traps count as a humane trap jeff....

― ken c (ken c), Thursday, 20 January 2005 18:12 (twenty years ago)

Well, you didn't get to keep it, but you DID get to pwn it. That counts for something.

xpost

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Thursday, 20 January 2005 18:13 (twenty years ago)

Sorry, not familiar with 'humane' traps -- I assume they're something that allows a catch and (live) release, a la chipmunk/squirrel/raccoon traps?

― Jeff Wright (JeffW1858), Thursday, 20 January 2005 20:19 (twenty years ago)

The glue traps advertise themselves as Humane, but when I had mice in my old apt last summer, I found that mice usually chewed through their stuck legs. VERY HIDEOUS.
The trad mouse traps are probably most humane because death is usually very fast.

― Huk-L, Thursday, 20 January 2005 20:26 (twenty years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.