Techno-fail

[flemmings]

Those who follow me on Facebook know I've been coping with mice this week, or possibly just with mouse. I set my tip-trap at night and there's always a mouse in it shortly thereafter. Same trap I used, fruitlessly, in 2010. This, by the way, is what a tip trap looks like. You stick bait to the non-arachnid end, mouse goes in to eat it, trap tips with its weight and hinged jaw shuts.

I always found it very hard to get the mouse out of the trap, which I put down to trauma. It took until this morning for me to realize you have to prise off the square end, not just open up the jaws, because the mouse can't turn around in the trap to get out the way it came in. Of course, prising off the end puts you in immediate contact with a traumatized mouse, so I may just go on opening the jaws and shaking the critter out.

Comments

[mvrdrk.livejournal.com]

In theory the mouse can't reach you when you prise off the square end, if it could, they'd get complaints from customers about being bitten. Personally, I'd be screaming and dropping the trap, so the mouse would probably run over my feet and get stomped. Too much trauma for my tastes.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

But the square end is where the bait is, so it has to have its head there to eat it. And then, if it's a plump mouse, it's kind of stuck there. Certainly when I took the end off yesterday, there the mouse was.

[mvrdrk.livejournal.com]

Even worse, that would warrant a scream and a fling of the entire device far away from me. LOL!