Mice no match for Valley columnist

Are you having trouble with mice? I sure am. I don't like to use poison, because we have too many animals that could ingest it and I don't like vet bills.

I was out in the garage working on the motorcycle and I noticed mice droppings on my work bench. I set a glue trap in one corner and a paper clip style trap in another corner. I didn't notice the glue trap caught the foot of a little mouse, I was too busy trying to take the rear wheel off the bike.

My neighbor came over to ask a question, and saw the little beast. Not thinking anything of it, she stepped on it. My daughter was nearly hysterical, but I assured her it was just stunned, and in a little while I would go and set it free in the field across the street. That seemed to ease her worrying.

Later that day I went out to the chicken coop to dump a bowl of table scraps. I saw two mice scurry into their holes. So I started looking around. I saw lots of holes in the dirt floor of my chicken house. I walked up to the garage to look for my mouse traps. I found a package of glue traps. So I set those up in the coop with a milk crate on top so the chickens wouldn't bother them and I thought for sure the next day I'd have the two little mice stuck in the glue. Instead I had two glue traps full of dirt.

I walked back up to the garage and found two "paper clip" style plastic traps. A little peanut butter, and I'm ready again to try and catch the two rotten mice. The next day, no peanut butter, no mice. So I drive to the store and buy two old-fashioned mouse traps. You know the kind you are sure to get your finger snapped in while you're trying to set it? I'll try a little cheese for bait this time. Yes. One mouse caught, one to go. Now I am getting sneaky.

So the two paper clip traps I set with cheese, and the two old-fashioned traps I set with peanut butter. I place all four in the shape of a square and put the milk crate over the top. Yeah. I caught two more. A couple days pass, and I am still losing my bait each day. How is the mouse not triggering the trap?

It has now been a month since I set the traps out, and I have caught 14 mice. But I will keep setting traps until I don't catch any for a whole week, because it is spring and there's no telling how many babies were born.

n Lisa Welch is a Johnson Lane resident and can be reached at 267-9350.