Monday 8 August 2011

Waxing lyrical

After two years in our house, the local mice (the bane of our lives in London) have finally cottoned on to the fact that we have two very messy children who spill food all over the floor, and we have started to have the odd rodent visitor.

Last week's encounter ended up in farcical fashion. I saw a mouse in the hallway and we were trying to shoo it out the door, but what with the overexcited Littleboys chasing it and me hysterically shouting, the poor thing was terrified and crawled into Littleboy 2's Croc. Cue much shouting of 'Eeeuw' from all except The Doctor, who manfully carried him outside and deposited him under the nearest tree.

To prevent any more such episodes, I had purchased a couple of glue mouse traps which I found at the supermarket. These are little trays of very, very sticky glue, which renders the mouse immobile if he is unfortunate enough to step in it. Not the most humane mouse trap, but effective (and I really, really don't want a mouse infestation here). But it goes without saying that if you put your own hand in the thing, you also get stuck in very, very sticky glue....

Anyway, I had stuck the glue traps on top of a cupboard, out of human way (or so I thought). Until last night The Doctor managed somehow to stick the back of his arm into one of them. He first had to rip it off, and the glue is now still wedged into the hairs on his arm, causing much complaining.

Of course, I was the sweetly sympathetic wife. "Ah. Now you know what a bikini wax feels like," I told him. (There is some history to this. Last week I went off for a bikini wax on a Saturday morning, and asked him to look after the boys - he had made a semi-sarcastic comment about how he never gets to go and do things on his own at the weekend, to which I replied; "You think a bikini wax is fun?").

Needless to say, he was not amused.

10 comments:

About Last Weekend said...

I am way too familiar with those sticky traps and now can suggest a new use to my husband, my pain is his pain type thing...

Lynn said...

Next time: vegetable oil.

Unknown said...

Ha ha...if only they KNEW what we go through! At least he has some idea...perhaps he can tell my husband we don't actually do it for fun...

Nota Bene said...

Just cummuppance all round!

Tanya (Bump2Basics) said...

Funny image the lot of you trying to shoo out that mouse! The stars must have been in alignment for you to prove your point to NVD.

nappy valley girl said...

ALW - I don't think men have any idea....

Lynn - I'll tell him. I think it came off in the shower eventually.

KM - I know! (I can't believe some men actually do wax).

NB - for the mice as well?

Tanya - it was rather hilarious, I was half convulsed with laughter and half shrieking at the time...

Conuly said...

The problem with effectiveness isn't the type of trap (and glue traps are really incredibly cruel), but how many you have out.

Most people don't put nearly enough traps out, and so they don't have much success. Mice rarely venture more than 10, 15 feet out to get food, and you should put your traps about that far apart.

You should also put your traps out for a few days baited but not set, so the mice feel comfortable approaching them.

And if you want to have any success, you need to crawl around your house blocking up the access points with steel wool and caulk. Find out where the mice got in, and then you'll never have a problem again. Don't, and you'll have to constantly put out traps.

And yes, vegetable oil works. I've used it to rescue mice, actually.

Iota said...

I think the Doctor got off lightly. He had the glue on his arm, whereas a bikini wax is located, well, elsewhere. Maybe for the full empathetic experience, you should give him another trap, for his bikini area.

I can't believe I just wrote that.

nappy valley girl said...

Conuly - the problem with our house is that it's rented, and it's very old, and to block up all the holes would be major work. Having tried with all kinds of traps, and poison, in London, I have to say the glue traps do seem to work far better than anything else. But maybe we'll have to try the vegetable oil rescue option.

Iota - I can't believe you wrote that either, you naughty girl!

Conuly said...

to block up all the holes would be major work

I can believe it. But basically that means you're always going to have a rodent problem. You can mitigate it with traps, but so long as they can keep coming in....

And I don't know about LI, but NYC has been in the throes of a rodent increase over the past few years. Situation's not getting better.

(Well, you could also be very very good about putting your trash out every day and never having any food out ever for any reason, but with two small children that seems even harder than blocking up holes!)