This holiday season, my house was visited by mice. There had been a suspicion that mice were afoot -- the birdseed was raided in the basement, little poop granules were found in various places. But, the rodential incursion that provoked a human response was the absolute demolishment of my children's Halloween candy on top of the refrigerator!
My kids and I devised a Duplo staircase system leading to a glass jar which went through a few prototypes, none of them successful. The first employed cheerios placed on the staircase leading up to a glass jar. There was a prized Reeses peanut butter cup inside the jar. The idea was that the mouse would jump down, eat the candy, and be trapped.
The morning after the first prototype was deployed was like coming downstairs on Christmas morning -- tiny-footed activity occurred during the night! Like magic, the cheerios had vanished from the staircase. However, the candy was left in the glass jar; the mouse was too clever to be caught.
A second prototype had Reeses peanut butter cups taped to the edges of the jar, in hopes that the mouse would venture out to eat them, and clumsily fall in. Alas, though the following morning was accompanied with the same magical disappearance of the staircase cheerios, the candy remained.
The third prototype, shown here in the photograph, employed the staircase cheerios and a Kleenex with cheerios placed atop it. The idea was that the mouse would be overcome with temptation, scamper to the Kleenex, and fall in. Alas, it was not to be successful. The following morning after deploying this system, the mouse had indeed eaten the staircase cheerios, but seemed to have leaped away after feeling the Kleenex crumple, for the staircase was shoved away from the glass jar. Almost!
That day, I went to Home Depot, purchased a humane mouse trap (with an ingenious ramp and door flap system to keep the critter inside), and caught the lil mouse that night. He was released into the woods.
However, just days later, the tea drawer was raided. And a day after that, the bread bags nibbled to smithereens. The saga continues...