Oh It's On

We knew we had a mouse problem.  We had some food on the floor of the pantry that had been broken into and we saw droppings.  We had a similar situation about a year ago, and simply setting a trap out seemed to take care of the situation, even though the trap never caught the mouse.  So I sat the same trap this time expecting the same result.  Except this time something else happened.

We were coming in from the sun room when Sarah saw a brown mouse running across the living room floor.  We were able to trap it in a corner and escort it out the front door with a broom.  Later that evening I was sitting at my desk where I have a trash can underneath.  I heard what sounded like something moving in the trash can.  I turned on the flash light on my phone and didn't see anything.  The sound quieted but 15 minutes later I heard the sound again. I turned on my light and this time I saw a small white mouse sitting on top of the trash.  It again ran to the living room where we were able to trap it in a corner and escort it out with a broom.

At this point I was pissed.  I decided the newer, fancy traps weren't cutting it and decided to pick up the more traditional traps at the store after work the next day.  Imagine my annoyance when Sarah texted and said she saw another mouse.  What is going on?  It's like we're being taken over by rodents.

I stopped by the Home Depot (after stopping at Target) and was reminded how awful traditional retail continues to be.  I picked up a batch of traditional mouse traps.  In all of the prior residencies I've lived, including growing up, I have never had to set a mouse trap and thus had no experience doing so.  The directions provided sucked, and I was half scared because I didn't want to catch my finger in the damn thing, so I ended up watching a YouTube video to show me how to do it.  Let me tell you, those things are medieval wicked.  It actually has a part titled the "kill hammer."

Classic mouse traps are finicky as shit.  I actually made one go off just transporting it from the counter to the floor (luckily without my finger in the way).  So I was surprised, not shocked, when the next morning we checked the trap and the cheese was gone but there was no mouse.  I was more annoyed than anything.  Still no mouse!  But we haven't seen any mice since the first night.  I have since decided to load the trap with peanut butter.  But thus far I feel a bit defeated.  I can imagine the mouse sitting some where, nibbling on cheese and mocking me.