UPDATE! We caught a mouse! Maustraap V2 was a success. (I will get pictures up soon.) Sometime between 7pm and 10pm our mouse decided to try again for a little peanut butter and cracker dinner. This time, it was not able to escape. The new version was deeper (about 20 inches total) and I built a lip around the top so it had a much smaller entrance/exit. I'd like to believe that made it more difficult/impossible to escape. It is possible that I caught it soon after it fell into the trap, for the peanut butter was still in the tube. But, there was its tail sticking out of the tube. Pretty big (four inch tail maybe). I took the whole trap to the nature trail near our house and release the thing. The tube (with mouse aboard) rolled onto the path, and with a little prodding the BIG mouse (3-4inch + tail) took off like a flash. No wonder the first version didn't work. It was probably able to leap out of the other trap.
I plan on setting up the trap again tonight, just in case we had more than one. Hopefully, we will find it empty tomorrow.
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So we have a Mouse (or Meeses) in our Garage. It appears to be surviving on the crumbs left in strollers and whatever it can find clinging to the recycling.
We don't really want to kill it, for a variety of reasons, both humane and practical (do we want the kids to find a dead mouse, or have it be poisoned and die in some corner stinking up the garage?).
So I did a quick check on the internets and discovered a fairly simple DIY mousetrap. It used a 2 gallon soda bottle, but lacking those, I tried the same idea with a cooler.
As a GM practiced in the art of imagining traps for intelligent players, I should be good at this.
So here was attempt 1.
Ramp leads to tube balanced precariously on the edge of the cooler. In tube is bit of peanut butter and a cracker. Mouse goes in the tube. Tube tips over into the cooler, mouse is trapped.
Well... It was a partial success. The trap was sprung. There were mouse dropping in the cooler, and the bait was gone. This suggested the mouse did go into the cooler. But I guess mice are better climbers than I gave them credit for.
Attempt 2 will have a deeper trap, and a lip around the top of the trap to prevent it from climbing out. More later...
