For Release February 26, 2006

A Mouse Hunt

AGRI-VIEWS
by Chuck Otte, Geary County Extension Agent

Out of the corner of my eye I saw a shadow run across the floor. Or at least that was the first impression I had because I didn't want to think about the other possibility, a mouse! I was getting the trash together that morning, so wasn't necessarily totally awake yet, and as I reached to get the trash and liner out of the wastebasket I thought I saw something run across the floor from the pantry to the laundry. I really hadn't seen a lot of evidence for having a mouse, but decided that to be on the safe side I should set some traps.

I set out a couple of traps and baited them with the usually effective peanut butter. You have to understand that for me, trapping a mouse is a thing of pride. If in fact it was a mouse, then I will not be outsmarted by that mouse. For the first couple of days that the traps were set, the bait remained uneaten. Well, if it was a mouse, it was not a house mouse.

A house mouse is a European import that exists primarily in connection with humans. They set up housekeeping somewhere in your home, often finding a corner that they load up with shredded and chewed material for a nice nest and then start raiding food supplies. House mice are smallish and fairly easy to catch. For some reason they aren't cautious around traps and will be easily caught.

A few days later I suddenly realized that the bait was missing from one of the traps. Hmmm. I either have a very hungry cockroach or a very cautious mouse. I suspected the latter. I rebaited the trap and changed the position of the two traps. Mouse traps are often more effective if used in pairs. Place them end to end along a wall with the triggers facing away from each other. Or else place them side by side with the triggers against the wall. Again, the bait disappeared from one of the traps, but not the other.

By now I've decided that this had to be a deer mouse or a white-footed mouse. These closely related mice are native to Kansas, are larger, with longer snouts. They move in and out of structures, surviving just as well in the outdoors as they do indoors. A house mouse would be raiding the bait, all the bait, daily and would be more easily caught. The bait, one trap at a time, continued to disappear every few days. This is getting serious and my pride is now at risk!

I hate to use poisons, because the mouse invariable dies in the house, in a place where you can't find them, you can just smell them.... for several days! So I took the traps and did some modifying of them to give them more sensitive triggers. Still the bait disappeared. Maybe I just need new traps. A trip to the hardware store found me returning home with seven new traps of three different styles. All were baited and located in key areas in the pantry and laundry areas. And none of the bait disappeared.

For about ten days the bait just sat there in the unsprung traps. I checked daily with nothing happening. Well, maybe the mouse moved on. Then on another trash morning, as I was grabbing a new trash bag out of the pantry I saw a furry tail that wasn't moving. In the trap was a white-footed mouse. Victory!!!!! It was one of the old original traps too. And then I noticed that the bait was missing from several of the new traps. A tricky little rascal who had finally met his fate. Mice, and insects, will always come and go from our homes. This one went out with the trash. But where did he come from in the first place? Hmmmmm....

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