There is a mouse in my house. I know this, because I saw it come out of the hole in the wall just the other day. I didn't know I had a hole in my wall until a few days before, when I moved the tv to a new spot in the living room. After I saw the mouse, I shoved a poison block into the hole and placed other blocks around the kitchen. That night a mouse dragged a half-eaten poison block into the middle of the kitchen floor. I think it was a 'horse head in the bed' message. I talked to my father about it. He said that the use of poison is cruel. He suggested that I use traps instead. While we talked, I stared at the hole in my wall and my father stood in his garden holding a pitchfork trying to kill a rabbit.
I should be used to mice, but I'm not. There were mice in my parent's house, but my father always took care of the traps. I was the son who would wake up in the morning and make loud noises before putting on his eyeglasses. This routine helped me avoid many unpleasant mouse encounters. When I lived in Guatemala, my housekeeper took care of the rodents.
I'm going to keep shoving poison blocks into the hole in the wall. When I run out of blocks I'm going to move the tv back to its old spot.
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7 comments:
Stop. You're too funny. Funny and brief. Polonious would be so proud.
I had a mouse in my little shitbox apartment on East 9th street, so I bought the ultra-cruel glue traps. When I came home from work one day, the poor little bastard was stuck half-on, half-off the trap. His back legs were free and he was running around, moving the entire trap. His front legs were stuck and it looked like he had been gnawing at them to get free. He was still alive, although terrified. I was sick with guilt, skeeve, and indecision. Finally I picked up my never-used Yellow Pages, raised it above my head, and lowered it onto the mouse with the force of 1000 men. It was over. But I wil never forget it.
Mice are bad, but at least its not a rat. I hate rats. Yuck.
Regardless of whether it is cruel or not, I think using poison in your situation might be dangerous. What if your mouse freind dies near the hole or in the wall in your apartment. That little dude could really stink up the joing while decomposing. I say get the good old fashion spring trap. Swift, (probably painless--mouse does not know what hit it; everything just goes black), easily disposable and no mess like the Yellow Pages method suggested by Hans would seem to produce.
Also, if you keep your apartment clean (ie no food bits around), the mouse will probably find somewhere else to eat.
I'm going to stop shoving poison blocks into the wall. I'm no longer considering glue traps. I am considering doing a better job cleaning. Traps it is. My mother once set out traps and caught a mouse. She picked up the trapped mouse with a shovel and threw both mouse and trap out. No word about the shovel. Thanks to Aries for her kind words.
P.S. Apparently he/she is (was?) not a modest mouse.
My Dad was told the mouse trap style that snaps down and kills the mouse is cruel, so he went and bought 4 live traps which enclose the mouse in a box and 4 snap style and placed them throughout the house with the same food. The mice all went for the food on the traps that kill and none of the live traps were touched. He now only uses the snap traps.
Yup.
Charlie, I think you should let your parents rent your cat for the weekend.
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