23.10.1999
"droppings"

 

Ever since I moved into my basement, in the morning when I woke up, or coming home in the evening there were these tiny black droppings around the sink, near damaged parts of the skirting boards and sometimes on the kitchen table. Sure sign that I am not alone... It didn't bother me much, though, just swept the stuff away, not giving it a second thought. Until recently, when I started to hear nervous tripping and high squeaking, at daytime when I sat quietly writing or reading, waking me up at night. And this morning I discovered that the vernim had been nibbling away at a piece of cheddar that I had forgotten to put back into the fridge.
Enough is enough.
I took a cardboard shoe box, and in the middle of the lid I cut out the three sides of a large square. Glued a small piece of wood onto the bottom of the box, on top of which I attached a perfect little spring that I found among my tools. The other end of the spring I fixed through a little hole in the middle of the square, which thus became a genuine trap door: anything about the weight of the average mouse placed upon the square will cause the spring to contract, and the thing to glide into the box; after which - tricky, tricky! - the spring will put the square back into place...
As a finishing touch I glued a small piece of cheddar onto the square.

I put my trap on the kitchenfloor, between the sink and the table, with some smaller boxes, tins and jam pots around, for easy access.

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