Wednesday, December 10, 2008

The Mousecapades Continue

The web page I found for a "catapult mouse trap" turned out to be a big letdown.

Explanation: As you probably know by now, I am having an issue with a rodent (or rodents) in my garage. After hearing a scratching in our wall on Monday night, I decided it was time to head out to Target and get some new ammunition. I bought some newfangled twist traps that appear to have a pretty low risk of being dragged off by our supermice.

After making my purchase, I decided to see what the internet had to say about the traps. I googled for "twist mouse trap" and found a VERY interesting looking article entitled "Catapult Mouse Trap Offers New Twist on Old Design". I was quite excited about the prospect of launching mice across my garage into walls, but when I read the article I realized that it should have been called a "Mouse Trap Catapult" and not a "Catapult Mouse Trap". That was quite a letdown.

Of course, that web page prompted me to search the web, where sure enough I did find a mouse catapult.

Special Blog Bonus: Other interesting mouse traps out there include this infrared mouse trap, which seems like a great idea, except for its Achilles heel. Even cooler is Rentokil's RADAR mousetrap, which uses infrared to catch the mouse, carbon dioxide to gas it to death and then sends the owner a text message telling them to dispose of the carcass. Honestly, I'd like a mousetrap that kills the mouse and THEN catapults the carcass into the woods behind my house... but that's just me.

Special Mouse Update: This morning, I found all of the bait missing on my snap traps with one of them triggered but mouseless. None of the new traps caught anything. Without bait in the snap traps, I'm hoping tonight is the night that the new traps prove their worth.

3 comments:

Willie Y said...

I have found a great mouse trap, it is called my furnace. The mouse gets in thru the fresh air vents and it is eventually killed in the furnace, works every time. Downside is you have to call the furnace repairman to remove the mouse.

I use have-a-heart trap and they work great. Capture and release preferably on your bad neighbors, that you dislike the most, property in another town.

Jeremy said...

I must say, I laughed quite a bit at your blog post yesterday. I hate when these little critters get into my house, but the garage is certainly a better option than the furnace.

Jack said...

I also have a sure fire way to eliminate mice. Several years ago a mouse crawled into the compressor for my central air conditioner. The mouse then decided it would be a good idea to chew on the wires and managed to electrocute itself. I called for a repair on my AC unit (yes, the short burned out my compressor) and the repairman found the mouse and a dead snake.

I am sure you see this leading to a great story about “what really happened” but the good news story is that my compressor still had three days left on its warranty and under the warranty all but $20 of the repairs were covered.

I too am having trouble with the conventional mouse traps. They keep missing, although I got close last night. I found two tiny yellow shoes, tiny white gloves and an equally small pair of red shorts in the trap.