Worse mouse trap

Now that the weather has become spring-like, it’s time for Squeak the mouse to go. I’m planning to catch him in a live-release trap and transport him to Dow’s Lake.

Chris Glass’s blog – http://glass.typepad.com – has an ingenious home-made mouse trap. Here’s a picture from that blog:

As you can see, the little mousie goes into the tunnel (a toilet-paper tube) to get a bit of cracker and peanut butter. The tunnel tips over and drops the mouse into a bucket, and then I put the bucket on my bike and go for a ride.

Lots of people commented on that post on Chris Glass’s blog. Some of them say you should always kill the mice you catch so they won’t go live in somebody else’s house. Good point, but I don’t think that will happen at Dow’s Lake.

Others think you should always kill the mice you catch on the grounds that they are vermin and there is no shortage of mice in the world. I choose not to debate that point.

Other commenters suggested simpler versions of the basic trap. The simplest version involves just putting a ramp up to a baited bucket. The mouse jumps in to get the bait and then can’t get out.

I’m always for a simpler version. For my trap, I put a cracker and peanut butter in a bucket and made a simple ramp out of newspaper, which I taped to the rim of the bucket. Here is my trap:

I’m aware that there could be some problems with my trap. The bucket might not be deep enough. Mice are champion jumpers. But I know Squeak hasn’t been in and then jumped out because the bait is intact, and there isn’t any mouse poop in the bucket.

The bucket might be too smelly to be inviting to a mouse. It smells like pine-scented cleanser. Maybe it’s so smelly that Squeak doesn’t even know there’s a cracker in it. I might have to scrub away the cleanser smell. I guess I could scrub it with peanut butter.

Or the ramp might be too flimsy. It doesn’t look very strong, but Squeak is a very small mouse. Maybe Squeak spends all his waking hours trying to get up the courage to go up that shaky ramp and get the cracker.

Anyway, I didn’t catch him yet, and I’ve had my trap set up for two days.

Nancy gave me another trap. I think this is the atomic model. Oh no! Not Santa!

Don’t worry, I’m not going to set that trap. But I think I have to do something pretty soon before Squeak meets a cute girl mousie and pops the question. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Defence of winter

I knew when I said I’d had enough of winter I’d be hearing from people who like winter sports. Joanna sent some pictures to show me how beautiful it is to go skiing on a sunny day in Gatineau Park. This is at Taylor Lake.

Yup, it looks gorgeous. And here comes spring!

Pi day

I don’t really have anything to say about Pi day, except… Have a good one!