Mouse Hunt

When the kids were young we would go to see many movies together that the kids would enjoy.  For the most part I enjoyed them too but every once in a while we would see a movie that I really liked.  "Mouse Hunt" was one of them.  I just loved this movie.  We purchased it when it came out on VHS and have watched it many times.  

Little did I know that someday I would be on a "Mouse Hunt" of my own.  

I guess it was inevitable that mice would end up in the shed.  That's where I keep all my bird seed, and even though I am methodical about keeping my seed in plastic jugs occasionally some seed spills on the floor.  I started to see evidence of mice about mid way through the winter... little black dropping.  My suspicions were confirmed after a snow storm when a thin layer of snow blew in under the door.  When I opened up the door that day there were a million little mouse prints in the snow.  Well, maybe not a million, but a lot.

Ok, how was I going to get rid of the mice?  Craig suggested that I put some poison out there.  That was out of the question because I read in one of my birding magazines about poisoned half dead mice wondering around outside and owls eating them and then dying themselves.  I wasn't going to be responsible for killing an owl.    

I went to the hardware store and looked at all the different types of traps.  There were the sticky pads but I heard that they really didn't work.  There was the typical "snap" traps but I didn't like the idea of seeing a squashed mouse in one of those.  I ended up buying the live traps that you bait with peanut butter.  The mouse goes into the box and a trap door locks him inside.  I didn't know what I was going to do with a live mouse when I caught one but I figured that could be Craig's problem.  I baited the traps and set them out.  Nothing!  The traps have been out and check daily for weeks and not one darn mouse has been caught.  

So last Friday Craig and I are at Menard's and again I go to look at the mouse traps.  I decided to give up with the nice traps and just go ahead and buy 4 of the traditional snap traps.  Saturday night I baited the traps with peanut butter and set them out.  Sunday morning I go running out to the shed, just knowing that I would have 4 dead mice.  I couldn't believe it.  Every bit of peanut butter was gone and not one trap had been tripped.  Craig insisted that I had set them wrong so he reset them himself so that they would be even more sensitive to touch.  This morning I again go running out to the shed to see my 4 dead mice and it's just the same scene as yesterday morning.  How can the mice be eating the peanut butter and not trip the traps?????  Craig suggested that I go buy a different "higher quality" snap trap.  Come on, a trap is a trap, right?

Now, I'm having thoughts about what kind of a killer mouse or rat do I really have out there in the shed.  My imagination is getting carried away.    

So now I'm really on a "Mouse Hunt".  Any suggestions?  I'll keep you posted.