I was vacuuming out my car for a weekend trip to Missouri with Ginnie, when I saw shredded foil on the floor of the car. I thought it looked suspicious, but was in denial.
The next morning, as we loaded the car for our little excursion, there was more shredded foil from a package of almonds I had left in the car overnight. The evidence was overwhelming: I had a mouse in the car.
This had happened once before, years ago, with another car. A mouse had built a nest up under the dash, causing lots of problems. You see, I’m a salesman and carry lots of food in the car. I can survive in my car for three days. There is also a trash bag full of chicken bones and food wrappers, not to mention the crack between the driver’s seat and the console that is a magnet for dropped food.
I told Ginnie about the mouse. She freaked. “You mean,” she gasped, holding her hands up to her face, “a mouse will be riding in the car with us, to Missouri?”
“Yup.”
Once in Missouri, I cleaned any food out of the car real well, before locking it up over night. I thought about dropping by a Walmart for a mousetrap, but then remembered that a friend of ours had given us two of these newfangled mousetraps as a joke gift for our wedding. Since we live on a farm, she told us, we were going to need mousetraps. I tucked the traps away in a junk drawer and forgot about them.
Once home, I found the mousetraps. They’re wicked things, and I snapped my fingers in them a couple of times while figuring out how they worked. I got them loaded with peanut butter, and set the traps on the floor of the car. I’d get that mouse, by golly.
The next morning, as Ginnie was preparing to leave for her morning commute in her car, I checked the traps in mine. Yep, not one, but two dead mice. I held the traps-with-mice up to show Ginnie, like a cat proudly bringing home its prey. Ginnie freaked again, wringing her hands and doing a little yuck dance.
But, was this a momma and papa mouse? Was there a nest of baby mice up in a seat somewhere? This is spring, you know. I didn’t want to think about the possibilities and reset the traps.
The next morning, there was only one mouse in a trap. Progress? Ginnie just about threw up in her lunch sack.
I reset the traps with fresh peanut butter.
On the third and fourth mornings, the traps were mouse free. Whew. I have demoused the car!
But wait. On the fifth morning, another mouse in the trap. Aaarrgh!
Since Ginnie is commuting an hour one way to work each day, her car is starting to look like mine did before I cleaned it out. There are crackers, half-eaten bananas and dried up peanut butter sandwiches in baggies. She wants to be able to survive in her car in a snowstorm if she has to.
I told her to keep an eye out for any signs of mice. She cleaned her car out real fast.
Contact Curt Swarm at 319-217-0526
or curtswarm@yahoo.com