if you give a mouse a cabin

[lonesomepioneer]

So we have a mouse. It's a fairly polite little mouse-- it hasn't chewed any wires or left turds in the cabinets or anything-- but it's also very, very interested in its new tenants and for the first few days was in the habit of climbing the curtains, jumping from there onto the sofa, sitting a few inches from our heads and examining us with great

Comments

[myskat]

Sounds as though he may have been a pet if he comes that close. That said, catch him quick unless you wants lots of micelets, they breed and reproduce in a ridiculously short span! Not sure of a good trap though, best of luck managing that one!

[lonesomepioneer]

Not sure whose pet he would have been, though-- I think he may just be a very fearless little personality. Thanks!

[mrskitty]

Borrow a cat. At the very least, the smell will scare the mouse away.

[lonesomepioneer]

Hmm, Jeremy's parents do have two cats-- although I would worry that if the smell didn't scare it away, the mouse would die a rather painfully protracted death, given how I've seen my cats hunt. :P

[ashfae]

No-kill traps are difficult. Even the most humane ones will quite often kill the mouse by accident, because it will be so frightened it'll have a heart attack.

[lonesomepioneer]

Yipes. Good info, thanks. I seem to recall that when we had rats in our basement a few years ago my dad got some no-kill traps that worked quite well, but rats are probably a lot less excitable than mice, come to that.

[janeanger]

You can get no kill traps at most hardware stores, but if you dump him across the street, he will more than likely come back to you. I don't know. I'm just a weirdo who likes mice. I let them do whatev.

[lonesomepioneer]

Well, "across the street" is farther than it sounds-- the cabin is located a good way back from the road (there's a cornfield in between) and there's a fair bit of wilderness on the other side of the road too, so I'm hoping he'll get lost. Don't know much about the homing skills/ Incredible Journey potential of mice, mind you. Hmm.

My sister used to have pet mice. They smelled horrible. This one is actually less of a pain so far. I'm just worried it's going to find a little mouse spouse, build a white picket fence across the gap in the wall planks and commence to procreating. I don't think I can handle an entire Mouse Von Trapp Family squeaking merrily away in the walls all day long.

[mcausland]

You're asking the wrong kid, I've watched Jackie Chan maul any beast smaller than him he could hunt down and torture.