A Better Mouse Trap

Build a Better Mouse Trap

There's an old saying that build a better mouse trap and the world will beat a path to your door. However, build a completely silly mouse trap and the only people who might beat a path to your door would be writers for TV situation comedies. The traps will end up in the clearance bin at the Dollar Store. The other day I found a pile of jibbled up Styrofoam and realized that a little furball with beady eyes had taken up residence in the garage. A quick trip to the local Dollar Store resulted in a pair of Victor mouse traps in a plastic bag for a buck.

I opened the package when I got home and couldn't believe that a company that had been making mouse traps for well over a hundred years could come up with something that was so totally silly. Instead of a neat trigger to hold the bait, it had a yellow piece of plastic with holes in it that's supposed to fool mice into thinking its cheese. Now, I doubt that you will find very many mice carrying MENSA cards in their wallets but the dumbest mouse alive wouldn't be fooled by fake plastic cheese any more than football fans would think those foam wedges worn by people from Green Bay is Wisconsin cheddar.

I read the instruction on the package: "This trap needs no messy baiting. Carefully set the trap and place it in a location where the mice like to play. When a mouse comes along and spots the 'cheese', it will stop to investigate it. When the mouse steps on the 'cheese' it will release the trap which will quickly and painlessly eliminate the mouse. Carefully pick up the trap without touching the mouse, place in the enclosed plastic bag, seal and dispose of it in the trash where household pets cannot find it. Wash your hands with soap and hot water after disposing of trap and mouse."

Messy or not, I smeared the "cheese" with peanut butter and set it near where the mouse had been building its nest. Next morning I had one very dead mouse with a mouth full of peanut butter. I dumped it in the trash and set the trap back where it had been just in case it has friends.

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