Not a creature was stirring, not even a...

Last year I heard some scratching upstairs behind the wall at night, up under the roofline.
It turned out to be a mouse...or two. I had access to that space because of a little door my contractor Tim had put in years ago. It created a crawlspace he called a "cold storage" where I could store things. I put a couple of old fashioned mousetraps in there with a little peanut butter and--snap!--I caught the little buggers. They were small, only field mice. It was kinda sad, they're almost like Stuart Little. But still, I wasn't going to have them partying in my house.

Stuart Little, you're not welcome here.

When I put in the home office with the built-in shelves up in that bedroom, it necessitated getting rid of the little door. I no longer had access to that space...and guess who returned? Yep, my little friends.
So last week I had Tim create another little door to that space in the other bedroom across the hall.
I think it came out nice, although I'm thinking I'll paint the stripes on the door to match the walls so it blends in more to the surroundings.

The new 'mouse door' to the crawlspace under the roofline upstairs

Christmas Eve Eve I put two snap traps in there plus a glue trap. On Boxing Day I went to check on things...I got Stuart Little! But here's the weird thing: the other snap trap had NO peanut butter on it and had not snapped shut! Somehow it had been licked clean. And to add to the mystery, the glue trap was gone! I can just picture another little guy stuck to that thing somewhere in the space and I can't get to him, and he starts to, ahem, ripen. Gross. I should aim a flashlight in there next week to see if I can spot anything. In any event, at least the 'mouse door' was worth it. I put more peanut butter on the remaining trap and let's see if I catch Stuart's friend..stay tuned.

You can't improve on the classic snap trap, gets 'em every time