Me: one; mice: nothing!

So you remember my mouse rant the other day? It opened up a world of dialog, both on my blog and my email life, but also in my real life. I did buy some poison chunks and some of those sticky glue traps, and I put them in various spots, including in my closet where I hear the worst gnawing at night, when I'm lying in bed and everything else is quiet, and I'm trying to read "Wives and Daughters" by Elizabeth Gaskell on my IPod touch, and thinking about turning off the light to go to sleep, but I'm afraid to because I can hear that gnawing, and I just know that the instant I turn off my light, the mouse army will be up on my bed, running all over me, and......

Okay, I got a little carried away there. Anyway, I was discussing this whole mouse issue with my husband's aunt and cousin, and it turns out that Aunt Jenny just caught a mouse in her house in Green Bay last week, and she said that when she went to the hardware store to buy the traps, the people were just mobbed around the rodent ridding aisle, so it must be the year for the little guys. But I was telling Aunt Jenny & Leslie that even more alarming to me than the fact that I have mice and have to buy mouse poison and traps, is the fact that the packaging for the poison and traps all shows pictures of scorpions, in addition to mice. That just wigs me out, big time! I would rather deal with a little furry rodent than a huge stinging scorpion any day!

So then my cousin from Michigan weighs in on the issue by telling me about these electronic, plug-in ultrasonic high frequency rodent ridders that get rid of the mice by "blinding them with science...", oops, I mean by deafening and annoying them with ultrasonic high-frequency noises. My cousin says they are the bomb!  I mention this to my Father-in-law, who says that yes, he has some in his garage, and hasn't had any mice in his garage. So I'm thinking this is going to be the best thing since sliced bread and yesterday I picked one up at the hardware store two towns away. I texted Mr. Trucker about it, mainly because I thought he'd get a kick out of the name of the device: "The Pest-a-cator".  He texted me back telling me "if you got one of those electronic devices, you can take it right back". He says they don't work, plus they interfere with the radio frequency of other devices, such as radios and WiFi. Then he adds "I think they were invented by P.T. Barnum's grandson". Can you see why I love spending time with this man?  He is so fun! It was too late to return the item because I was already 20 miles away by this point, so I decided to at least give it a try despite his disparaging words. Last night when I went up to our "cottage" to go to bed, I plugged it in, then I checked the sticky trap in our closet, and lo and behold! There was a mouse in the trap! And no, I don't think the Pest-a-cator lured it into the trap that quickly. Anyway, I felt kinda bad for the little guy. I don't know if he died from fright at being stuck, or if he pooped himself to death, it appeared to be the latter. And do you know?  there was no gnawing and no noises last night. Now I just have to get up the guts to touch the trap to remove it from the closet. Or maybe my Father-in-law will take pity on me.