I could not believe my eyes when I saw what was stuck on the Sticky Cardboard Trap. By Wilfred A. Wilson

Week Two: Intros and Hooks

I have not seen mice in my house for years until July 2017, when I bounced into two of them while I was walking on the pathway that leads to my kitchen.

It was a great surprise indeed, both, on the part of the two mice and I, because neither they nor I expected that sort of encounter. As confused as they were, they scampered around and around to get out of my way and after my several attempts to stamp on them had failed, they managed to escape by running their several ways to hide. However, I knew they were in the house and I was determined to kill them, after all, I had zero tolerance for their secretive invasion.

It was not long, however, when I found out where they hung out, because the next morning I saw some packing, which serves to prevent heat from escaping from my stove, pulled out and was lying on the kitchen floor. Therefore I knew that they had dug deeply in the side/s of the stove. I let my oven, turned the knob up to the highest degree and left it on for about an hour, and every now and then, I hit the sides of it to create enough noise to scare them away from the sides of the stove. But they did not budge, no not one. As military men, they ought not to have budged at all, I agree.

Having lost round one of my plan to kill them: I tried to figure out how they got into the house in the first place: and at the same time, I thought it would be more fun for me if I observe the way they move around in the house in order to come up with a perfect strategy as to how to trap and kill them according to my findings.

In my determination to find the source of the intruders’ entry into my house, I checked all around it and eon very window and doorway, but found no physical signs on them, for example, nibbling at the edges of the windows and doors, or actual holes where they would have passed. After so other considerations, I quickly concluded that the intruders would have come in when the back door was left opened for hours the previous day when I was busy working in the yard. With that thought I felt my reasoning was justifiable and I moved on to find my second strategy.

My second strategy was to leave poisoned bait in two places, namely, near the stove in the kitchen, and in a corner just near the dining room. I had used “poisoned cheese” for my bait and when they ignored it, I tried a small portion of “poisoned chicken stew.” I was encouraged, however, with the “chicken stew bait” because it showed signs of decrease and I saw bits of the stew at the end of the cardboard it was on. That was how I knew that there was a visitor for dinner. However, for the next three days nothing troubled the bait and I had felt that that was it for them.

But surprisingly while I was studying at my desk at about 21:00 hrs. I saw when a mouse banked the corner of the sitting room and ran in a straight line towards the North of it and while still in the corner made a sharp left turn and ran along the wall that was adjacent to it: the mouse was now coming in my direction and I was prepared to give it a surprised stamp with my shoes on. So I raise my left foot at about one (1) foot or 30.5 cm high from the floor in anticipation to stop it in its tract. And when I had averaged that it was passing at a point I was focusing on, that was just before it had reached the long draping window curtain to take cover, I made quick stamp, but missed my target by about two centimeters; much to my amusement though. O, Boy, if you see how the little fellow turned back with no little haste and made his way toward the stove.  I was encouraged by that little excitement and I waited to see what would take place the next night, or when ever, so I could find a new strategy other than buying rat poison and have the trouble of looking for dead mice all over the place.

No Sooner had I sat myself down to study at about 21:00 hrs. than a mouse banked the corner of the sitting room in a similar fashion as the previous one the night before. And again, I was given another opportunity to stop it in its tract. I was ready to stamp the victim as part of doing my thing which I called Man verses Mouse.  So when I had averaged that the mouse had reached a certain spot I made two stamps, BLAM, BLAM with my shoes in the corner, and the sound echoed across the living room.  However, the mouse must have used its over drive gear because before I knew it, it had passed the draped curtain which was almost touching the ground, as a result I missed my target again, but I was wiser now.

By observation, I learnt that Mice make a path for themselves and use it constantly at about the same time every time. Perhaps it has to do with their body odor which they leave on the trail…. Also, that they are sensitive to traps especially if one of them dies on the trap because they would not touch or eat anything on it.Thus with this knowledge in mind, I came up with a third strategy. I bought two cards of the Sticky Mouse Trap.”

The Trap holds down the hair, feet and tail of the mouse, in actual fact, the entire body of the mouse, or insect that crosses its path because of the glue on it. Subsequently I put them along the path which the mouse used constantly, by that time I saw another mouse so there were three of them, but I was not surprised when they walk passed near to the Sticky Mouse Traps.”. Eventually, I zero in on my target and blocked all the spaces under the stove with ceramic tiles, but one, which was just as wide as the Sticky cardboard. And I put the Sticky Cardboard Trap in that space, and made sure that I had left about 15 centimeters of it on the outside of the stove’s frame, but nothing happened until the next week.

I was studying at my desk when I heard a faint cry which aroused my curiosity. So I got up and went everywhere within the house to hear directly where the sound was coming from. I passed the stove in the kitchen and even though the sound of the cry was clearer  yet I did not find the victim immediately, because I was not sure what was making that sound: and to be honest I did not at that time recall that I had left the Sticky Trap at the back of the stove. I heard the squealing sound again and when I peeped over to the back of the stove I saw the mouse trapped in the sticky glue. So I said, “Gat Yuh this time! One down and a few more to go!!!”

With that catch of the one mouse, the trap caught another, as the entrapped one kept on squealing. You see, another mouse went to its rescue and got itself in lots of trouble with the Stick Trap. So with two on the trap there was one more to go that I knew of. But that one had “goat instincts,” though. I said this because goats love lofty places in comparison to sheep and other animals. So at about 22: 00 hrs. I saw a mouse tumbling and rolling down on the left hand side of the stairway that leads to the rooms above. I watched with admiration, and I asked myself how on earth its instinct took it that far, and right there and then the fourth strategy came to mind. And the show down was finally fixed at 22:00 hrs. the next night at the Hot Spot Venue on the left hand side of my stairway.

After waiting for night to fall, alas! the time had come for the game to commence, and I set the “Sticky Card Mouse Trap” in its right position on the stairway, just where the clever mouse had rolled itself down from the seven (7) inches/16 centimeters drop, this is,  onto the 11 inches/27 centimeters wide step of the stairway.

It was about 21: 59 hrs. when I looked up from the paper I was writing on , but the mouse was nowhere to be seen. It, however, did not bother me a bit because I was sure that based on my observations it would show up for the Big Bout. So with that confidence I continue to write and suddenly I heard the characteristic sound of a mouse in distress, squeak! Squeeeeek! And as I look around I saw the mouse on the “Sticky Trap.” And I gave a mild shout and said, “Gat Yuh this time! The last one down and no more to go!!!”