Mousetrap

“ Set 9 mouse traps and 4 steel traps at dusk. Rito de los Frijoles Rito de los Frijoles, Saturday. Aug 6, 1910 August 6, 1910.
Up at 5:15. Perfectly clear morning. In nine mousetraps there were 4 deer mice Peromyscus and bait gone from 2. Put up mice in forenoon. Get archaeological map of Jemez Plateau, New Mexico, Forest Service, U.S. Dept. Agri., 1906. Went up creek in the afternoon and shot one each of the following: Brewer sparrow Spizella breweri, pygmy nuthatch Sitta pygmaea, w. ”

“ However, this is why Manton's trap was so effective. On Monday a plague of mice appears in an apartment. The master of the place goes out and rents one of the Better Mousetraps. He places it in his apartment and during the time it is there it hurls mice backward in time to create the plague! Naturally, the trap will be removed as soon as the mice stop—and because the trap will be removed in a few days, the trap itself stops the flow of mice. ”

“ Now if you take a standard, common, ordinary mouse trap and open a stand on Fifth Avenue and Broadway or on State and Madison Streets and advertise Hamilton Mouse Traps consistently, you will get the world to use them. But, believe me, if you retreat to a wood and spend twenty years in studying the weaknesses of mice and inventing an entirely new trap for their ensnarement, you will [Pg 60] stick in that same wood until travelers find your body devoured by the squirrels. Nobody will buy your better mouse trap. ”

“ Why even the stupid muskrat, who will go into people's cellars, and in fact most everywhere else he wants to, and who will walk into any sort of set so long as the trap be covered, will not step into a bare trap. Dozens of times have I had my dog follow the tracks one has made around my trap when it was left bare by falling water, but invariably the rat has left the bait rather than put his foot on the uncovered trap. It is absurd to think the thick-headed muskrat is sharper in any respect than wise Mr. Fox. ”

“ Traps are of little use in capturing these creatures; and if one is captured, that trap is for ever useless as regards ordinary rats and mice, which won’t approach it after being contaminated. ‘Muskies’ are omnivorous and very voracious. During the rains, the insect world is on the wing. If at this season you place a night-light on the ground near the beat of a musk-rat, you will be amused at watching its antics in trying to catch some of the buzzers round the light, or those crawling up the wall, and will be surprised at its agility. ”

“ The spring is thus held in the position seen in the drawing, and the loose ends of the sucker wire should then be passed downward through the small holes and arranged in nooses at both openings of the box. Our trap is now set, and the unlucky creature which attempts to move that bait from either approach, will bring its career to an untimely end. The bait stick may be so delicately adjusted as to need only the slightest touch to dislodge it. Such a fine setting is to be guarded against, however, being as likely to be sprung by a mouse as by a larger animal. ”

“ If the marsh is large, there will be more than one musk-rat colony. Having exhausted his traps on the first, the trapper lies in wait at the second. When the moon comes up over the water, there is a great splashing about the musk-rat nests; for autumn is the time for house-building and the musk-rats work at night. If the trapper is an Eastern man, he will wade in as they do in New Jersey; but if he is a type of the Western hunter, he lies on the log among the rushes, popping a shot at every head that appears in the moonlit water. ”

“ A WEASEL, inactive from age and infirmities, was not able to catch mice as he once did. He therefore rolled himself in flour and lay down in a dark corner. A Mouse, supposing him to be food, leaped upon him, and was instantly caught and squeezed to death. Another perished in a similar manner, and then a third, and still others after them. A very old Mouse, who had escaped many a trap and snare, observed from a safe distance the trick of his crafty foe and said, “Ah! you that lie there, may you prosper just in the same proportion as you are what you pretend to be!” ”

“ The mice looked back regretfully, but the Esquimaux boys were already out of sight. Southward and still southward we flew, the Winds striving with might and main to keep up with my swift beam. Over land and sea, mountain and valley, forest and meadow, till at last the great linden trees around the Mouse-trap were shaking their heads at us, and the tall chimneys pointed at us, and said, "look at those children! they have been out all night, which is shocking. That vagrant Moonman is teaching them the worst possible habits!" ”

“ The white-footed mouse is much more common along the fences and in the woods than one would suspect. One winter day I set a mouse-trap—the kind known as the delusion trap—beneath some ledges in the edge of the woods, to determine what species of mouse was most active at this season. The snow fell so deeply that I did not visit my trap for two or three weeks. ”

“ Have we got one?"
"Godfather Drosselmeier can make them best," said Fred, "for he invented them."
All laughed; and, when the mother said that there was no mouse-trap in the house, the Counsellor assured her that he had a number in his possession, and immediately sent for one. In a short time it was brought, and a very excellent mouse-trap it seemed to be. The story of the Hard Nut now came vividly to the minds of the children. As the cook toasted the fat, Maria shook and trembled. ”

“ His dog is not part of the equipment: it is fellow-hunter and companion.
From the moose must come the heavy filling for the snow-shoes; but the snow-shoes will not be needed for a month, and there is no haste about shooting an unfound moose while mink and musk-rat and otter and beaver are waiting to be trapped. With the dog showing his wisdom by sitting motionless as an Indian bowman, the trapper steps into his canoe and pushes out.
Eye and ear alert for sign of game or feeding-place, where traps would be effective, the man paddles silently on. ”

“ But our seven little friends have no liking for such rough bear-play, and they are waiting outside, with a carriage-cloud which will hold you all. So jump up, and call Nibble and Brighteyes. But first, I must know why my Fluff has been crying. You must have cried yourself to sleep, my mouse, and that will never do. Tell your old Moonman what has happened, for I have been watching a battle in Zululand all day, and have seen neither mice nor mouse-trap. ”

“ War must be waged against rats and mice, or they will multiply and loot everything. If you have no mouse-traps, put a newspaper over a pail of water, break a hole slightly in the center in the form of a star, and place a bit of herring or cheese on the center tips of star to entice the mouse. Let the paper reach to the floor, not too upright, for the mouse to climb up. Try putting broken camphor into their holes; they dislike the smell. Fly and wasp traps are made by tying paper over a tumbler half-filled with water and beer or treacle. ”

“ One famous trapper says, "any fool knows enough to catch a muskrat." I doubt whether this man himself, knows how to trap them successfully. Of course, everyone knows that muskrats should be trapped along streams or swails where you find their works. For bait use carrots, cabbage or sweet apples. I like sweet apples best, and so do the muskrats. Set the trap in about two inches of water, fasten the chain at full length to a sunken limb, drive a stake on either side of the chain near where it is fastened and you need not fear that the rat will "foot" himself. ”

“ The washes under banks and the undermined roots of trees at the water's edge, created by the ceaseless toil of the elements, afford good places to set traps, as every passing 'rat will visit such places. Traps should be set and covered very carefully, as a place of this nature is often investigated by the elusive mink and inquisitive raccoon. As a consequence, the trapper has a fine opportunity of catching a more valuable animal. ”

“ Small mammals generally, including bats, are good hosts; Rodents and Insectivora afford usually the most fruitful captures. In trapping mice and voles only those traps should be used in which the animals are caught alive, or the fleas will have left their hosts before they can be secured and examined. Field-mice caught in the ordinary small penny mouse-trap are often found dead in the morning. The best traps are made on the principle of the ordinary mouse-trap, but larger. A piece of bacon-rind on the hook is a good bait for almost all small mammals. ”

“ Thus was one unique distinction stolen from the harvest mouse. But to this day the harvest mouse shrugs his furry shoulders and says, that there are plenty of dwarfs with abnormal teeth in his own family, if the museum men want them.
He can afford to be superior, for he has yet another unique distinction left, and that is not likely to be taken from him.
[Pg 120] Of all the four-footed creatures in Great Britain and Ireland, he, and he only, has a prehensile tail. The middle of it he can bend through half a circle, the last half-inch he can wrap completely round a cornstalk. ”

“ Well, if he in the night kills the smallest mouse that ever squeaked, what a clatter he does kick up! He keeps my wife and me awake for hours; and sometimes—now this is so like Whig—to catch a [Pg 3] mouse not worth a fardin’, he’ll bring down a row of plates or a teapot or a punch-bowl worth half-a-guinea. And in the morning when he shows us the measly little mouse, doesn’t he put up his back and purr as loud as a bagpipe, and walk in and out my legs, for all the world as if the mouse was a dead rhinoceros. ”

“ So he thanked the Mouse, and went down to the village, and bought him a beautiful piece of meat. After this the Mouse every day brought the Farmer a golden sovereign, and every day the Farmer gave him a big chunk of meat. Thus in a few weeks Mousie grew quite fat.
But the Farmer had a big black cat that used to prowl about watching for mice. It used never to notice the Farmer’s own favourite Mouse while the Mouse was thin; but when he grew sleek and fat and shiny, Grimalkin (which was the Cat’s name) lay in wait for him one day and pounced upon him. Poor little Mousie was terrified. ”

“ Mrs. Mouse put her babies in the bottle, and they grew up into fine big mice, nearly as big as their father. But these young mice were very noisy; they tore about, and squeaked even in broad daylight, so that the cross maid looked crosser, and at last told her mistress.
"Them mice are not to be borne, mum, and I'll set a trap."
The old lady said she would not have a trap set, and the dear little things killed, so for some days the mice continued to squeak and scamper as much as ever. ”

“ The hateful Mouse-King sat upon her shoulder. He opened his seven blood-red mouths, and, grating and snapping his teeth, he squeaked and hissed in her ear: "Wise mouse—wise mouse—goes not into the house—goes not to the feast—likes sugar things best—craft set at naught—will not be caught—give, give all—new frock—picture books—all the best—or shall have no rest.—I will tear and bite—Nutcracker at night—hi, hi—que, que!" Maria was full of sorrow and anxiety. ”

“ During the period between July 29 and August 28 a total of one hundred and seventy mouse traps set in the flood-plain forests along the Galien River took for the first nights' trapping, twenty-two northern white-footed mice and one house mouse. Short-tailed shrews, more white-footed mice, pine voles, and a jumping mouse [Pg 8] were secured on nights after the first. Larger traps took during the whole period one raccoon, one New York weasel, and two woodchucks. Several other woodchucks and a number of red squirrels were seen. ”

“ The head is short and narrow, with small ears, like those of a rat; the eyes are black, piercing, and very bright. Their chief food is rats, mice, young chickens, little birds, and eggs. They frequent mole-hills, and are often caught in the traps set for the moles; they are destroyed by ferrets and dogs. These mousehunts live, for the most part, in holes beneath the roots of trees, or in old buildings."
The above description of the Mousehunt is given in The History of a Field-mouse by Miss Black. ”

“ He peeped under the bank of the brook. He even stared into the water. And then—if he saw nobody that was fiercer than Paddy Muskrat—only then would he venture to skip to the water's edge and plunge in.
To tell the truth, Master Meadow Mouse always felt safer when one of the [103] Muskrat family happened to be taking a swim at the same time. For the Muskrats all had a warning signal that told everybody when there was danger. When one of them caught sight of Peter Mink he never failed—if he was in the water—to give a loud slap upon the surface with his tail. ”

“ I know an old trapper that has trapped for forty years and all he uses for muskrat is a No. 0 Newhouse trap."
"A rat does not gnaw the foot off as many trappers will tell you, but the forefoot is very tender and as a rat always struggles very hard when caught, it does not take very long to twist the foot off if the trap is not set so the rat will drown. Different trappers have different ways of fastening the traps when trapping for rats."
"I use a No. 1 Newhouse trap for mink and a No. 1 1/2 for skunk. I notice that the Newhouse people have a new trap called the "Webbed Jaw Trap". ”