Well it is that time of year when all the mice head for utopia (read our house), and I put on my Pied Piper hat and kill the *(&^%$#@. Autumn and winter are the seasons when they appear in even the cleanest and newest of houses. I am pretty tolerant, however when they start copulating on the lounge floor I see red, and bring out and assess the armament. This year I have extended and replaced my weapons of choice, and I now have six traps at my disposal. I hate baits with a passion and this is what the hairiest Sweetie uses, so I have to do something before he comes out with his poison. The count today so far is three, and the bait I use is peanut butter. Sultanas work well, however they do dislodge off the traps and although I have been known to secure the sultanas with thread, those days are gone and the bottom line is to kill as many of the tackers as possible. I have thought of using a humane trap, and I did borrow one from a friend, and came to the conclusion that relocation doesn't work, they either are back at your place before you are, or they go to some else's house and breed with their mice and then come to your house, in bigger numbers.

Years ago I read a very interesting book on a bloke that documented his year when he lived with and observed wolves. He decided that he would eat what they did, and through dissecting their scat and noticing their skittish behaviour, concluded that the time had come and he had to eat mice. He did, and came to the conclusion that although mice were full of protein, they were in reality only a subsistence diet as he and the wolves lost weight. As I said a very interesting book. We aren't at that stage yet.