A better mousetrap
There is a hole in the wall behind my refrigerator. I think it was made by the previous owners of the house because they ran water lines there for the water-spout-enabled fridge they bought. Anyway, I didn't think about it much until I looked over from my computer one fine day in February and saw.... a mouse. In the middle of my kitchen floor. Believe it or not, I caught this mouse with nothing more than a paper bag. It scooted out of the kitchen to the hall closet, and when I got it to emerge, I strategically put the bag in its path, and it ran inside. Donning garden gloves, I carried the bag to the local creek and let the little terrified guy (or gal) go free. I told it to watch out for cats!
I wasn't really sure what would transpire from that, so I didn't do anything. And then a couple weeks ago, I caught movement out of the corner of my eye -- a little black mouse was slinking from the space behind the fridge to the space under the oven. Hmmmmm.
This one was much more timid, and hence impossible to catch in a bag. (Proving once again why we have a natural tendency toward fear, caution, and suspicion -- these mental qualities are evolutionarily valuable, even though they don't apply as much now as they did in the savannah). So I ordered a Smart Humane Mousetrap, which catches the mouse live.
It's a brilliant design. The mouse catches itself via a lever that springs the box closed. The bait is placed between two panels of a plastic lift-off door so that when you lift it open, the mouse must eat its way out. In this way, you avoid contact with the mouse, and the mouse gets the fuel it needs to survive out in the wild.
So I've had a relationship with this little black mouse for a while, as I worked to catch it in the trap. And consequently, I learned a few things about humans too. At first, I followed the directions to bait the trap exactly, placing the bait (bread with peanut butter) between the plastic panels. But this takes some effort, so after a couple days I got lazy and just put a little piece of bread inside the trap.
At first nothing much happened - the bread remained, the trap was unsprung. It got to be routine to check the trap, replace the rock-hard bread, and reset the trap. Sometimes I tried a bit of granola or cereal instead. Then one day I noticed that the bread was gone! But no mouse! Clever fellow. Or maybe it was a giant spider taking the bait?
When it happened a second time, I decided I was the problem. The directions did say to set the trap very lightly, and I wasn't sure how lightly I was setting it. With some experimentation, I found that I could set it like a hair-trigger, sometimes springing it just trying to set it down. I also went back to putting the bait behind the window, so the mouse would have to spend a little more time in the trap figuring out that the bait was not accessible.
Nothing happened the first night. In the early afternoon, I got the idea of weighting the level arm with a few pennies to make it even more sensitively triggered. As I typed on the computer at 2 pm, the trap sprung.
Yes! A little black mouse was inside!
I immediately felt the fear of the trapped mouse. And I felt sorry that I had put the bait behind the window because it meant that the mouse didn't even get a reward for venturing into the trap. In the future, I will bait the trap inside.
I put the whole trap in a paper bag and walked again to the creek. I got out the trap and set it on the ground. The mouse and I made eye contact. I apologized for scaring him. I reflected on the fact that mice can carry diseases, so that it was really better not to have him in my kitchen. And about the fact that not everyone would use a live trap, so if a neighbor had noticed him, he might have been killed in a deadly trap. Yes, there are cats out here, but there are cats in my neighborhood too.
I opened the box at one end. The prison door was gone. But the mouse did not go out. It stayed huddled at the other end, staring at me. Freedom was fully available in that moment, but the mouse did not get up and walk out the door. How similar it is for us.
Finally the moment shifted, and the mouse shot out and over a small ledge in two big bounds. May you be well, mouse.
(And just to be sure, I am baiting the trap again...)
I wasn't really sure what would transpire from that, so I didn't do anything. And then a couple weeks ago, I caught movement out of the corner of my eye -- a little black mouse was slinking from the space behind the fridge to the space under the oven. Hmmmmm.
This one was much more timid, and hence impossible to catch in a bag. (Proving once again why we have a natural tendency toward fear, caution, and suspicion -- these mental qualities are evolutionarily valuable, even though they don't apply as much now as they did in the savannah). So I ordered a Smart Humane Mousetrap, which catches the mouse live.
It's a brilliant design. The mouse catches itself via a lever that springs the box closed. The bait is placed between two panels of a plastic lift-off door so that when you lift it open, the mouse must eat its way out. In this way, you avoid contact with the mouse, and the mouse gets the fuel it needs to survive out in the wild.
So I've had a relationship with this little black mouse for a while, as I worked to catch it in the trap. And consequently, I learned a few things about humans too. At first, I followed the directions to bait the trap exactly, placing the bait (bread with peanut butter) between the plastic panels. But this takes some effort, so after a couple days I got lazy and just put a little piece of bread inside the trap.
At first nothing much happened - the bread remained, the trap was unsprung. It got to be routine to check the trap, replace the rock-hard bread, and reset the trap. Sometimes I tried a bit of granola or cereal instead. Then one day I noticed that the bread was gone! But no mouse! Clever fellow. Or maybe it was a giant spider taking the bait?
When it happened a second time, I decided I was the problem. The directions did say to set the trap very lightly, and I wasn't sure how lightly I was setting it. With some experimentation, I found that I could set it like a hair-trigger, sometimes springing it just trying to set it down. I also went back to putting the bait behind the window, so the mouse would have to spend a little more time in the trap figuring out that the bait was not accessible.
Nothing happened the first night. In the early afternoon, I got the idea of weighting the level arm with a few pennies to make it even more sensitively triggered. As I typed on the computer at 2 pm, the trap sprung.
Yes! A little black mouse was inside!
I immediately felt the fear of the trapped mouse. And I felt sorry that I had put the bait behind the window because it meant that the mouse didn't even get a reward for venturing into the trap. In the future, I will bait the trap inside.
I put the whole trap in a paper bag and walked again to the creek. I got out the trap and set it on the ground. The mouse and I made eye contact. I apologized for scaring him. I reflected on the fact that mice can carry diseases, so that it was really better not to have him in my kitchen. And about the fact that not everyone would use a live trap, so if a neighbor had noticed him, he might have been killed in a deadly trap. Yes, there are cats out here, but there are cats in my neighborhood too.
I opened the box at one end. The prison door was gone. But the mouse did not go out. It stayed huddled at the other end, staring at me. Freedom was fully available in that moment, but the mouse did not get up and walk out the door. How similar it is for us.
Finally the moment shifted, and the mouse shot out and over a small ledge in two big bounds. May you be well, mouse.
(And just to be sure, I am baiting the trap again...)
posted by Kim at
3:47 PM
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