When I was a kid, I used to play Mouse Trap, I thought it was a lot of fun. Most kids do. Not only was Mousetrap a wonderful board game, but it also has some cute props. My favorite part was the end. Actually watching the toy mouse trap spring was always fun to watch. Working with real mouse traps, however, is a another story. During my teenage years, we never had a rodent problem, but as soon as I moved out that all changed. The first house I lived in was in New York, and rodents were definitely a headache. Not just mice, but big rats as well. Finding means of rodent control was of paramount importance of all.
Good Old-Fashioned Mouse Traps
It has always been said that the best way to fight rodents is with a good cat. Unfortunately, pets are not allowed in the building I was living in. We had to manage ourselves with good old-fashioned mousetraps. We began by putting them all along the baseboards, but we had a few successes. Apparently, we had not puzzled out where the mice were coming from. We thought about calling an exterminator when one of my house mates finally figured out. He saw a small hole in the wall, evidently burrowed out by mice. We examined the area and found a few more on the other side of the room. Now that we knew how the mice were getting in, exterminating them will be easier.
Modern Mouse Traps
We had endless debate about what type of mouse trap to get. Some of us thought of getting one of the classical snap traps that are designed to break the backs of mice. On the other end, one of my roommates suggested a no-kill trap, arguing that it was more humane. We debated about whether or not a no kill mouse trap was a good idea. Some of us pointed that they were every bit as good as killing the mice, without the cruelty. Others claimed that, if you wont kill them, they would get right back into the house. Finally, we decided on a pretty high tech solution. We bought an electric powered trap that would zap mice or rats quickly and painlessly.
The mouse traps worked like magic. We had taken care of the mice within a few of weeks, and the rats a bit after that. We even had a party to celebrate our success and now all we had to worry about was the cockroaches!
