# A mouse crawled onto my arm. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 21, 2018, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-mouse-crawled-onto-my-arm/812835 "2018-04-21T00:49:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![kiz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7feea3/32.png) [@kiz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kiz)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2018, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-mouse-crawled-onto-my-arm/812835/21 "2018-04-21T11:11:25Z")
Found two dead meeces at different times in front of my boiler down in the basement. I suspect they were attempting to traverse the heating system and got an unexpected blast when the boiler went on. When we were having our kitchen floor ripped up/redone last winter the contractor found one of their escape hatches behind the fridge and another hole running underneath the broom closet which, he suspected, goes to the crawl space under our deck. Two months later there’s another mouse skittering between the two :headdesk: ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2018, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-mouse-crawled-onto-my-arm/812835/22 "2018-04-21T11:51:08Z")
Search for “mousetrap Monday” on YouTube. Shawn, a collector of mousetraps, discusses a new one each week, demonstrating their use in his rodent infested barn. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2018, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-mouse-crawled-onto-my-arm/812835/23 "2018-04-21T13:40:39Z")
You might have trouble sliding [this](https://goo.gl/images/1NtzS1) behind the fridge. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2018, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-mouse-crawled-onto-my-arm/812835/24 "2018-04-21T15:08:01Z")
I cannot stand vermin and have no qualms whatsoever about dispatching them. They are disgusting. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2018, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-mouse-crawled-onto-my-arm/812835/25 "2018-04-21T17:03:44Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Search for “mousetrap Monday” on YouTube. Shawn, a collector of mousetraps, discusses a new one each week, demonstrating their use in his rodent infested barn. Dude’s got a lotta rodents. Following one of his links I found a paper dismantling Creationist Michael Behe’s preposterous claim that modern snap traps are irreducibly complex and could not have evolved, Behe having never intelligently designed anything with the accompanying “that didn’t work so let’s try this” steps: > **[Exploring Mouse Trap History - Evolution: Education and Outreach](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12052-011-0315-8)** > > Since intelligent design (ID) advocates claimed the ubiquitous mouse trap as an example of systems that cannot have evolved, mouse trap history is doubly relevant to studying material culture. On the one hand, debunking ID claims about mouse traps... A snap trap design older than all creation: [https://youtu.be/S3rrdMKhUoI](https://youtu.be/S3rrdMKhUoI) ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2018, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-mouse-crawled-onto-my-arm/812835/26 "2018-04-22T17:30:31Z")
I remember my mom disinfecting spring traps for reuse by pouring a saucepan of boiling water on it. I n fact, I think that was how I learned the term ‘scald.’ > [@kayaker](#): > > Search for “mousetrap Monday” on YouTube. Shawn, a collector of mousetraps, discusses a new one each week, demonstrating their use in his rodent infested barn. I just saw the one with [vegetable oil in a bowl](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BxxFNkNf6q8) yesterday. Remarkable in simplicity, it’s almost enough for me to wish I had mice. Almost. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2018, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-mouse-crawled-onto-my-arm/812835/27 "2018-04-22T19:25:52Z")
Ammatella you what, these computer peripherals are getting entirely too bold ! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2018, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-mouse-crawled-onto-my-arm/812835/28 "2018-04-23T14:19:11Z")
> [@Mr.Bill](#): > > In my experience, a snap trap which has killed one mouse becomes more effective when re-used. I suspect this is because it now smells like mouse and is reassuring to other mice. No way to sugar coat this, house mice are notorious cannibals (no really, this is not just an Inigo yarn, they’re truly awful). Odds are pretty good the trap smells like yumyum to mice. > [@beowulff](#): > > [You might not want to become all buddy-buddy with your new buddy.](http://www.foxnews.com/health/2018/04/17/new-york-city-mice-carry-life-threatening-superbugs-viruses-study-finds.html) The wife and I used to downplay the dangers of wild mice until we started to manage an infestation. We live trapped the little rascals and started dropping them into a 50 gal aquarium (outfitted for mice, not fish). Cute as all get out they were. But once we had about 8-10 in there the horror started. We’d go to drop a newcomer in and find one of the previous residents missing. We know a thing or two about keeping rodents, and we knew nobody was escaping. Then we started noticing parts and blood stains in the litter. A couple times we caught them feasting on the adorable carcass of one of their cell mates. We had to abandon the project rather abruptly when the Mrs. came down with pneumonia (not sure if it was “plague” or not, but it’s not unheard of in this part of the country). ---
**Author:** ![TemporalFix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c6cbf5/32.png) [@TemporalFix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TemporalFix)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2018, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-mouse-crawled-onto-my-arm/812835/29 "2018-04-24T20:57:08Z")
I 've been using mousetraps for months now. I found my mice are much too smart from them. Now that I read on this thread about the “vegetable oil bowl trap” and tried it. In the first night I caught two mice. Amazing! Thanks kayaker and jnglmassiv. ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2018, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-mouse-crawled-onto-my-arm/812835/30 "2018-04-24T22:52:49Z")
> [@jnglmassiv](#): > > . . . I just saw the one with [vegetable oil in a bowl](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BxxFNkNf6q8) yesterday. Remarkable in simplicity, it’s almost enough for me to wish I had mice. Almost. I saw it yesterday, too. Extremely simple and effective, but then you have to kill all the oily mice. It was nice of him to give them a wash and a place to rest up before releasing them, though. Note: it was peanut oil, the scent of which brought the mice running. ---
**Author:** ![nelliebly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nelliebly/32/5422_2.png) [@nelliebly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nelliebly)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2018, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-mouse-crawled-onto-my-arm/812835/31 "2018-04-24T23:27:37Z")
I wish I’d known some of these tips years ago, when I lived with my two kids in a house next to a barley field. You’d think the mice would have preferred the all-you-can-eat buffet next door, but no, they preferred my kitchen. I’m a peaceable soul, but finding their little droppings in my cupboards turned me into the Jack Torrance of mice. In an area with deer mice (which carry the hantavirus), and a toddler, I couldn’t be too careful, so I’d haul every dish out of the cupboard, sanitize it, sanitize the cupboard, and curse mice in two languages. We reused mousetraps. We used new mousetraps. (No difference, by the way.) We used various recommended food lures. Sticky traps. Stuffed the tiniest cracks with steel wool and cayenne. The mice just snickered. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2018, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-mouse-crawled-onto-my-arm/812835/32 "2018-04-24T23:54:45Z")
I had a bed in my yard planted with garlic. The green tops were beautiful. I was thrilled with ideal of long garlic rope hanging in my kitchen. Nope. Went to unearth the bulbs, no garlic bulbs. We put out a live trap thinking it was a rabbit or a squirrel. We caught a huge rat. Decidedly not a cute mousey. We named him Luigi. He was an Italian rat. Loved his garlic. We took him a long way and set him loose. I haven’t tried to grow garlic since. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Bill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mr.Bill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Bill)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2018, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-mouse-crawled-onto-my-arm/812835/33 "2018-04-25T00:35:52Z")
> [@Inigo\_Montoya](#): > > No way to sugar coat this, house mice are notorious cannibals (no really, this is not just an Inigo yarn, they’re truly awful). Odds are pretty good the trap smells like yumyum to mice. > . I knew this was true for rats, but for some reason didn’t think it was true for mice. I’ve seen rats caught in a trap that had been eaten by other rats. I’ve never seen that with mice. Is it possible dumping a bunch of them in a small tank caused a change from the natural behavior? Or has mouse cannibalism been documented in the wild? ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Bill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mr.Bill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Bill)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2018, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-mouse-crawled-onto-my-arm/812835/34 "2018-04-25T00:36:55Z")
> [@TemporalFix](#): > > I 've been using mousetraps for months now. I found my mice are much too smart from them. Now that I read on this thread about the “vegetable oil bowl trap” and tried it. In the first night I caught two mice. Amazing! Thanks kayaker and jnglmassiv. How did you then kill the mice? Seems likely to get messy and nasty. ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2018, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-mouse-crawled-onto-my-arm/812835/35 "2018-04-25T01:45:09Z")
> [@Mr.Bill](#): > > I knew this was true for rats, but for some reason didn’t think it was true for mice. I’ve seen rats caught in a trap that had been eaten by other rats. I’ve never seen that with mice. > > Is it possible dumping a bunch of them in a small tank caused a change from the natural behavior? Or has mouse cannibalism been documented in the wild? I see this regularly with our mousetraps whenever they get into our garage. Lovely little bastards. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2018, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-mouse-crawled-onto-my-arm/812835/36 "2018-04-25T02:08:45Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **Beckdawrek** : > > I have actually seen a mouse go all Chuck Norris on a cat. Was this after some liquor was spilled on the bar-room floor? ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2018, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-mouse-crawled-onto-my-arm/812835/37 "2018-04-25T02:56:31Z")
> [@teela\_brown](#): > > I saw it yesterday, too. Extremely simple and effective, but then you have to kill all the oily mice. It was nice of him to give them a wash and a place to rest up before releasing them, though. > > Note: it was peanut oil, the scent of which brought the mice running. The washup was not needed. They’ll clean themselves and eat the yummy peanut oil. ---
**Author:** ![TemporalFix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c6cbf5/32.png) [@TemporalFix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TemporalFix)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2018, 9:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-mouse-crawled-onto-my-arm/812835/38 "2018-04-25T09:36:08Z")
> [@Mr.Bill](#): > > How did you then kill the mice? Seems likely to get messy and nasty. The mice were alive but very passive, perhaps exhausted and hypothermic. I dumped them outside, still alive. A crow took interest, I didn’t watch the proceedings. Of course with releasing them close there is a risk they survive and get back in the house; I didn’t avoid this risk. In the past I did kill a mouse by putting it in the freezer. It might be better ‘animal welfare’ wise. It is surely not messy or nasty. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2018, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-mouse-crawled-onto-my-arm/812835/39 "2018-04-25T12:41:14Z")
> [@TemporalFix](#): > > In the past I did kill a mouse by putting it in the freezer. It might be better ‘animal welfare’ wise. It is surely not messy or nasty. Sounds slow and nasty and more than a bit inhumane. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2018, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-mouse-crawled-onto-my-arm/812835/40 "2018-04-25T13:39:13Z")
> [@Mr.Bill](#): > > Is it possible dumping a bunch of them in a small tank caused a change from the natural behavior? Or has mouse cannibalism been documented in the wild? Maybe it’s just me wanting an easy conscience, but I don’t think they were particularly overcrowded. There was lots of stuff for them to do, plenty of nummy food and water… I think they just have no compunction about chowing down on one of their own who may not be able to prevent their doing it. And then there was the occasional mouse foot in the pantry. Nasty (if adorably cute) little bastidos. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-mouse-crawled-onto-my-arm/812835.md?page=1)