Midnight raids by invading mice have lately been making a mess of stuff on our balcony. Every morning we have to find time to clean up the droppings left behind after their overnight jaunts. Fed up, finally, I brought a rodent trap and the next evening, we placed it at a vantage corner with a piece of burnt coconut kernel as the bait.
The next morning, I was woken up by a stirring call from my younger son, who, otherwise, is not an early riser. “Papa, come quickly, we have got him.” There it was, trapped and prostrating. Although the little creature, a mid-size mouse, now looked too scared to move, we were surprised by the fact that it had devoured the kernel, even after getting incarcerated inside. Now it is time, after the early thrill of a successful trapper and detailed examinations, to decide how to get rid of the rodent.
My wife suggested drowning was the easiest way. The boy started searching the Internet and said, “We can simply place the metal trap in the hot sun and the mouse will die in a few hours.” Then who would actually don the role of the executioner? No one volunteered for the job, and I decided to wait around for some fresh ideas to form. The mouse seems to have accepted its fate and with its round, shining eyes, looked at me innocuously. I left for the office, leaving the trap in the balcony. At lunch break, I brought up the subject for discussion to find if there is a humane way to dispose of trapped rodents. Most of my colleagues agreed that killing a rat is indeed hard, and that is the exact reason they do not usually place a trap. A mouse when caught looks too harmless and peaceful to bump off easily.
I came back in the evening without a definite clue. When darkness descended, I silently took the trap out and released the mouse in the bush. The creature looked numbed for a while and then ran away. After a few days, we started noticing droppings again in the balcony. My wife had warned that rodents are territorial animals and they would return to their place of choice very soon. For the second time, I set a trap and the next morning we again found a trapped mouse inside. Unlike we humans, mice look incredibly similar and it was really difficult to ascertain if it was the same or a different one, although my son was quite sure that this one was smaller in size. I followed up with the punishment of detaining and scaring it for a day before setting it free. Alas, it worked! The visitations have now been stopped completely. It seems that mice are intelligent mammals who don’t easily forget their agony. If not, some sort of Stockholm Syndrome could work on them and they become empathetic to their captor, not to give further troubles.
harichitrakootam@yahoo.com
