The Fall of the Urban Male
Before we left for the Bahamas, Sarah put out some cheap, exposed glue traps to catch our mouse. Last night, I came home to success and met it with failure.
The mouse had stuck itself to the trap under the living room radiator earlier in the day, and was still squealing and scratching its way toward death when we sat down to dinner. It was unnerving to say the least, but the thought of digging out the rodent and packing it off to the garbage outside was not exactly palatable. Not only did I not want to manhandle the thing, but I also couldn't deal with the idea of killing a mammal. In fact, I was so squeamish, we called a guy and paid him to take the mouse away.
Weak. I'm weak.
Before we left for the Bahamas, Sarah put out some cheap, exposed glue traps to catch our mouse. Last night, I came home to success and met it with failure.
The mouse had stuck itself to the trap under the living room radiator earlier in the day, and was still squealing and scratching its way toward death when we sat down to dinner. It was unnerving to say the least, but the thought of digging out the rodent and packing it off to the garbage outside was not exactly palatable. Not only did I not want to manhandle the thing, but I also couldn't deal with the idea of killing a mammal. In fact, I was so squeamish, we called a guy and paid him to take the mouse away.
Weak. I'm weak.
posted by isaacjosephson at 8:29 AM
5 Comments:
Those glue traps are THE WORST. I mean, they work, but they're really hard to stomach. A friend once told me her personal glue trap horror story where she felt so guilty that she tried to free the thing from the glue to set it loose in the park. I think she ended up with a detached mouse tail stuck to her thumb (or something equally gross).
Frankly, I'm very very thankful that right now my biggest more-than-two-legged worry is ant colonies.
i had a similar exp. with a rat (in our bedroom no less...) in october.
i too had to call someone...i was freaked beyond belief.
rodents are not cool.
You need the following:
- Spaghetti tongs protected with a heavy-duty ziploc bag
- Opaque paper bag to put the ziploc-enclosed rodent in
- Large rock, brick, or other heavy object
Put the ziploc over the tongs, pick up rodent, turn ziploc inside-out over rodent, put in brown bag, end its suffering with blunt object. The paper bag protects you from having to see the aftermath. (This sounds like how the Anal-Retentive Chef might handle it, come to think of it.)
Snap traps aren't much better -- half the time the animal gets just a leg caught.
This is one benefit of living in a warm climate, where rodents are slightly less likely to come inside.
You guys are funny. I guess everyone's got a rodent tale of woe.
Ariel, thanks for the detailed advice.
I sympathize. I recently had two rodent encounters. The last one happened in the basement, where I met a baby rat trying to climb out of the recycling bin. He just couldn't make it. The sides were too slick for him. I felt bad for him. He was adorable. But I couldn't help him, of course. So I called the super--who is also afraid of rodents.
I think the glue trap and Anal Retentive Chef methods are the best way to go. Just don't forget to fold over the top of the paper bag, and then scotch tape it. "And now you're ready for the trash."
TM
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