"mice are like superheroes. they can do anything." - d. kramer
mice are becoming quite fashionable on our block. we don't have any currently, but i sought out the expert advice of mouse-hunter david valentine just in case. it's worth sharing...
Mice. Oh mice. I have some personal theories on mice.
As you know, we also dealt with rats. Rats are different in that 1), they’re frickin scary, 2) bigger, but 3) they don’t live IN your house. They just come in to get food and then leave (they especially enjoy organic salty snacks from Trader Joe’s).
We did call pest control (scherzinger, I think) about rats and I am assuming their policy on mice is similar, though I don’t know that for sure. Basically they set traps and come and monitor them once a week (which is not much, by the bye), and they make no guarantee that the problem won’t come back (which obviously would be a hard thing to guarantee).
Mice, on the other hand, live in your house. (In fact, most houses probably have mice in them. They can live in your attic and eat seeds from plants, for the most part, they are harmless. They are NOT harmless when they hide in your bathroom when your wife is trying to pee and then proceed to scare her to death by darting around the room. I repeat, not harmless).
Here is my theory, if you see mice, or droppings, you have a family of mice hanging out. I don’t believe you have hundreds of them, like roaches, but just probably like 5 or 6. Personally, I have no problem killing them. If you do have a problem with that, I’m the wrong person to talk to.
I have found the Victor clip trap (see attached link, you can also buy these at the Sears in Newport) to be VERY effective. Here is the trick, put peanut butter WAY in the back of the inside of the clip. Mice CAN NOT resist peanut butter. Its like me with free beer. Put the trap against the wall where you have seen droppings and start checking for dead mice the next day (I’ve caught mice within the hour of setting the trap. See how that once a week thing isn’t a great deal?)
Pull the dead mouse out, drop it in the trash (this is pretty gross) and reset trap. Repeat until problem seems fixed. It won’t be solved forever, but it will kill the mice you have.
Do NOT buy the black TOMCAT clip trap (see attached). Though very similar in design, I have found this trap to be WAY LESS effective. Not sure why, but trust me, they don’t work as well.
I have also bought poison pellets. Not sure if that works. (I don’t like the idea of finding dead mice laying in odd places)
I have also bought high frequency noise deterrent devices. Again, I think this might help a little, but its not a solid fix. Victor Traps = solid fix. They are good.
One note, these mice are frickin tricky, so you have to check to make sure they haven’t gotten your peanut butter. Sometimes they do, but if its far enough back in the trap it gets them almost every time.
(also, for what its worth, a cat is also VERY effective, just saying).
Here is another mouse catching theory from the guy who designed the CR website: how to catch a mouse...
we love zak morgan's music. last spring we were all out zak morgan groupies. he played a free show at our local library...
mac introduced himself before the show and asked a lot of questions: "are you really zak morgan?" he was even invited up "on stage" (on carpet). mac and bode were pretty shocked that zak morgan was just a plain old dude.
he also played a free show at the zoo...
and like good groupies, we were there...
participating...
fast forward to yesterday morning, 5 am. i'm half-awake, feeding chaney by the light of the tv screen and on comes a zoo baby commercial. "zoo babies are here... come see them... and this weekend, come see zak morgan..." and THERE THEY ARE -- davidrussell and bode at last year's zak morgan show. specifically the back of their heads and partially david's ear. of course, i'm like "what the...? how'd they...?" better judgement told me to wait until davidrussell wakes before telling him. anyway, i know you have a life and all, but if the zoo baby commercial comes on, watch it.