Another thread reminded me of this story a friend told to me.
A friend of mine with whome I lost contact years ago had a friend (yeah, I know: a “FOAF” story!) who was very fastideous. He always kept his apartment very clean. But there was an intruding mouse. This would not do! And no trap he set would catch his little roommate.
The guy also happened to be an engineering student. One day he put a grid or screen on the floor of his kitchen. He hung a wire from the overhead with a bit of bait (I think it was cheese) at the end of it. The other end of the wire was connected to a very heavy-duty capacitor. This in turn was charged with a 12-volt battery and the other end was connected to the grid.
During the night he heard a “pop”. He went back to sleep. In the morning he discovered his trap had worked. Too well. The mouse had stepped on the grid and reached up to grab the bait. This completed the circuit and the mouse blew up. There was mouse all over the kitchen. Mr. Clean Guy had quite a job ahead of him. But he got rid of the mouse.
No way to verify this story, but the friend said his friend actually did it.
You might want to get a capacitor that kills the mouse, but doesn’t blow it up. Unless you set up a video camera with night-vision… Uh, what am I saying??? :eek:
Interesting, and very guy. Why go with a simple but effective spring trap when an elaborate Rube Goldberg contraption can spray rodent stew all over the house?
Actually, it’s an interesting concept; bummer about about the explosion thing. Especially since dead mice reek. That’s why you never want to use poison. If ya gotta kill 'em, do it on the spot. If they crawl off and die in the woodwork somewhere you’ll burn your own house to the ground to get rid of the smell.
BTW, Johnny, was this contraption exactly drunk-friendly? It doesn’t sound like something to have around when stumbling around in the dark, seeking a drink of water.
I didn’t know the individual, so I don’t know if he drank. Not the sort of thing I’d want to walk into though. But I guess it’d be safe enough as long as you didn’t complete the circuit.
As far as it being a “guy” thing, my former co-worker said that his friend tried using spring traps; but that the mouse would just take the bait, leaving the traps unsprung. I guess Mr. Clean decided he’d try something that couldn’t be finessed by a mouse.
This is truly frightening, Johnny. I’m glad you don’t know this person, because gawd knows what he’d do with, say, a food processor.
Spring traps, by nature, are sensitive enough that they smash shut from gentle air currents. Yes, I’ve had my share of bruised fingers and purple nails trying to set the &%$#* things.
Ah, you sophisticated cosmopolitans out on the coast! (Thanks for the laugh, btw. I’m still imagining scrubbing rodent mousse off the walls.)
I gotta try this! Ill just get a 1 farad cap from work, and an old 12 volt, or better yet, a 12 volt power supply, like a battery charger. Maybe put the whole thing under a plexiglass dome to catch all the stew.
Too bad I dont have a mouse problem… Maybe a trip to the pet store for some “feeder mice”
Ewwww, bug stew all over my kitchen? I dont like green. Red mouse viscera is So much more tastefull. But if i never cleaned it up, then I would have plenty of flys, and meat bees for my handy dandy Binford 5000 industrial bug zapper.
I figure something the size of or a little bigger than the capacitor powering the flash in a one-time-use camera would be sufficient. Those little thing pack a helluva zap (AMHIK :mad: :))
I heard of an office where the method of choice was to put a ruler hanging off of the end of the desk over a half-full pail of water. A piece of cheese was then balanced on the end over the pail.
