When last I wrote about my mouse issue, my house was being overrun with mice; the rodents getting so brazen as to run across the floor while we were standing there.

I had tried the ultrasonic rodent chaser, I bought fancy high tech mouse traps, I even contacted an exterminator (but they never called me back). It got so bad that one time my daughter opened a cabinet to get the dog a treat and a mouse literally fell out of the cabinet on to the floor. The dog gave chase but the mouse made it under the stove before she could snag it. I decided the mice were getting way too comfortable living in my house and that I needed to try something different. I was ready to turn it over to the professionals, but, as I mentioned, the exterminator never called me back.

I decided to go back to basics. I did something I hadn’t done in 15 years: I bought peanut butter (my youngest son has a severe peanut allergy). I also bought the simple, old-fashioned snap traps (4 for $1.97) and baited them with peanut butter. We had seen mice running from behind the television in the family room to they dryer in the adjacent utility room. I had also had a mouse run over my foot from underneath the dryer, so I assumed there was a nest there. I put one trap in between the washer and the dryer and one trap behind the TV. Keep in mind, the six traps I had set in the kitchen (a more complicated type) had netted me one dead mouse in over a month.

Monday morning: a dead mouse in each of the two new traps. Tuesday morning: one dead mouse in each trap. Wednesday morning: two more dead mice. This morning: both traps are empty. Now I have to ask myself: “Is that all the mice?” I am skeptical that there were only six mice, especially since I know they were in the pantry and the kitchen cabinets.

I guess my next move is to try the cheap traps in the kitchen so I can kill any stragglers. Oh, by the way, there was a hole behind the TV where some wires come in from the garage and we plugged that up. I don’t know if that is the only entry point they had, but at least one avenue has been closed. I’ll keep setting traps until I am convinced that all the mice are dead (which I guess is when i stop hearing them in the pantry).

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