Weapons Of Mouse Destruction

Report from the front line.

We have had a successful week on the vermin front, there has been a steady procession of mice leaving the house for rehoming (my choice of homes for them does tend to reflect how pissed I am at the little sods at the time).

It does seem to me that we may face a growing mouse population, given the recent series of warm winters.

So, for what it is worth I think there are probably three strategies for dealing with the little ****ers:

Starve

We have put quite a lot of effort into cutting off their food supply. Who would have thought that mice would eat soap? Anyway, they don’t here, not any more.

Deter

The sonic repellers work, but they do take time. I think it is worth buying the more expensive ones to get the benefit of the higher output. Also, the high pitched sound they emit doesn’t pass through doors or walls, so each enclosed area needs it own. We tend to leave doors open and two of them seems to have helped to produce a steady decline in mouse activity.

Eliminate

The Rentokil Live Capture mouse traps are pretty good, and I have had increased success by baiting with peanut butter sprinkled with a smidgen of drinking chocolate. The drinking chocolate smells quite strong when it first comes out of the tub, and I trapped one mouse within two hours of setting the trap, while I was still in the room.

I have been referring to the trapped mice as POWs. One problem if you go for live capture is that they do need to be let out fairly quickly, otherwise they get stressed and dehydrated. It might be more humane to use a break back trap than to scare them to death.

I commented to Jax that one of them had looked a bit sad when I let it go and was a bit perturbed at her reaction – she shrugged and said it was a “Casualty of war”.

Loveable (YMMV 🙂 ), tree-hugging, veggie Jax is metamorphosing into THE SLAYER.

Incidentally, just a little bright note to finish with, with warmer winters, global warming and all that, there are apparently no less than five endemic breeds of mosquito which can carry and transmit malaria.