Ack. Mouse in my apartment AGAIN.
Last time, as some of you know, my landlady acted as if I was crazy and/or attracting the mouse with my slovenly ways. Then she grudgingly bought me some glue traps and eventually sent someone to plug up the hole.
I lay the glue traps only to watch the mouse land on it and free itself ten minutes later. I scattered cotton balls scented with peppermint oil because I read that the smell repels mice. I bought one of those electronic mouse traps, and I have no idea if it worked or not, because I was too afraid to approach it or open it and see if there was anything inside.
That was months ago. I hadn't seen or heard anything in a while, and thought I was free. Idiot girl!
Today I heard rustling in my kitchen and... well, I don't want to get into the details, but I spied the mouse with my very own eyes. At first it peeked out from inside a Trader Joe's paper bag that was folded up and stashed between my kitchen counter/island and the wall, but then when I looked later, I saw it underneath the bag, so it obviously didn't have a problem climbing in and out.
I pride myself on having boy-ish tastes about some things -- such as liking sports and drinking beer and hating shopping -- but in many ways I am the stereotypical girl. Rodents FREAK ME OUT. My friends and I used to joke that in New York, there are five no-fail topics of conversation: transportation (the subway, how do you get from X to Y), the weather, real estate (renting an apartment, neighborhoods), throwing up in a cab, and vermin.
Granted, I don't have the "throwing up in a cab" conversation much anymore (note: I have never actually thrown up in a cab), but the rest of the topics are still going strong. Particularly the vermin one. (Insects count, especially roaches.) Any one who's lived in New York for any amount of time will be able to tell you some harrowing story of getting a little too close to nature in the comfort of their own home.
This does not make me feel any better. The thing is in my kitchen! The most important room of the apartment! So much for cooking dinner tonight. Or sleeping.
I put on shoes. I threw some of the old glue traps in the area, and some peppermint cotton balls, and the electronic trap. The next time I looked in the kitchen, I saw the mouse nimbly scamper across the glue trap like it was Jesus walking on water. To be fair to the glue traps, they are at least six months old.
I read online about a trap you can make with a bucket and a wire hanger and a toilet-paper roll, but as it turns out, I don't have the right kind of bucket for that. (Can't decide how I feel about drowning the mouse, either.)
Then there's this one, which I'd heard about before: tall trash can, toilet paper roll balanced on the counter, bait. I'm a little skeptical since I don't love the thought of the mouse running around up onto my counter -- plus, if it doesn't work, I've pretty much given the mouse permission to stick around and use the counter as its playground. Or, it'll launch out into the middle of my kitchen floor, which sounds equally awesome.
And then, what if it does work, and I catch the mouse? I'll have to carry my hulking big trash can downstairs and down the block to release the mouse somewhere. No doubt someone will see me carrying my trash can down the street. I will look like a tidy homeless woman. And then, what would you think if someone released a mouse in front of your building? I'd chase after both the mouse and the releasor with a broom, is what I'd do.
So the trash-can trap has some drawbacks. Still, I'd run out of options, and this one didn't require my buying anything. So I set it up. It looks like this:
I then ran out of the room, ordered Thai food, and turned on the TV. Loud.
Will let you know what happens, if anything.
