A Mouse in the House

I live in a 6 story complex, on the 5th floor (4th level if you are from here).  According to my Mom this means that I didn't see a mouse the other day.  But let me start from the beginning.

On Tues evening I was in the kitchen and out of the corner of my eye I saw a flash of grey and a swish of a tail before it disappeared under my fridge.  I wasn't convinced at what I saw.  I should add that I didn't jump or startle, but that's from working at Wild at Heart in the beginning when we had a mouse problem.  I'll save that story for another day.

In case I wasn't just seeing things I decided to build a homemade live trap.  It's a fairly simple concept.  You get a deep bucket (or something similarly shaped), a piece of wire that is long enough to hang over the edges of the bucket, a pop can or bottle and something to build a ramp out of.

You poke the wire through the pop bottle lengthwise and lay that over the top of the bucket.  Then build a ramp up to the edge of the bucket.  To bait it you simply put peanut butter on the bottle; I'm told that this is the best mouse bait.  Here's my set up:

Everything I have read and been told has stated that peanut butter is the best attractor for mice; after 3 days of having the trap set I was not convinced.  Now I was starting to wonder if I had imagined seeing it.


Last night I was sitting at my desk labeling photos of animal skulls for my anatomy workbook.  I usually have a TV show or movie playing on my computer as background noise but I was currently between videos.  Kaitee (my senegal parrot) was half sleeping on her cage when I heard a very quiet crunch.  I thought - I know that noise, that's a rodent chewing!  I stared at the cage watching Kaitee to make sure that it wasn't her that made the noise.

I heard it again!

I went over to the cage and pulled everything out from underneath it, searched through the box of toys I have underneath it, and...nothing.  Hmmmpft.  Now I'm starting to question my sanity, maybe I didn't see a mouse, maybe it was Kaitee grinding her beak that I heard.

But then I heard it again.  So I pulled everything out from under the cage and emptied the toy box.  Still nothing.  Then I heard it again, this time since I was standing so close I was certain it wasn't Kaitee.  Kaitee who at this point was actively watching me very closely.

I pulled the small drawer unit that is beside the cage out and...

in the corner of the room was a little grey mouse.  Now in case it isn't obvious the picture above is not a picture of the actual mouse.  I saw it long enough to get a description but not long enough to catch it before it ran out of the room.  It was facing the corner happily chewing a seed, unaware that I had just removed the drawer unit it was hiding behind.  It must have sense the change because it glanced over it's shoulder threw the seed down and took off.

So my trap remains set.  I added the sunflower seeds since this mouse seems to prefer them and I wait.