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10:30 p.m. - 2005-04-23
Mouse in House!
Today R and I joined his friend AL for lunch at Market BBQ; highly recommended!

AL was taking us to her new condo in Loring Park. We were walking and shivering as cool winds buffeted our heads! All of a sudden I noticed a movement in some branches at the base of a wall. There was a mouse jumping into a hole! It was a very cute hole, and soon enough, the very cute mouse was peeking out at us!

Due to the unexpected leech sighting, this writeup on mice was postponed. For previous to today's sighting, a mouse was playing a significant role at the residence of R, T and M!

A week and a half ago, I was at R's house when M ran upstairs. "Wendell", he said, "There's something down there." I followed into the basement with hesitation, expecting to see a giant centipede! Then M continued, "I heard it crawling around in the ceiling!" It was a mouse!

Apparently the gentlemen had been finding "mouse leavin's" in the fluorescent light panels down there! R and I purchased some traps and placed them in the light panels...you could see the trap silhouettes through them! It was macabre, yet artistic. Also practical, I guess.

And the next morning, M reported to us all that a big mouse had been killed! But, this was not before T selflessly put in earplugs, placed over those his rifle headphones, plugged in his guitar, turned up the amp and wailed away, to kill the mouse aurally!

(Mice do have better hearing and smell than vision, so it might have worked! Undoubtedly the mouse was injured by the deafening yet artistic playing and the trap merely put it out of its misery.)

More mouse invasion stories to follow. Let's discuss the biology of mice. These creatures are members of Rodentia, the largest group of mammals. Two subgroups are Muridae, which includes 600 species of mice, rats and gerbils. Hamsters, voles and lemmings are part of the family Cricetidae.

There are many species of mice, many of which are divided into new world and old world groups. Most commonly encountered here are the house mouse (Mus muscelus), deer mice and wood mice.

The house mouse is the ancestor of the millions of labratory mice found worldwide.

Mice are considered "commensal" in that they move into human-built edifices in the winter, and outdoors in the summer. The expansion of humankind has helped out mice and rats (which are also commensal.)

Let's see. Mice are good climbers, diggers and excellent swimmers. They mostly eat grains, but will also eat nuts, meat, plants and nibble at everything. They destroy more foodstuff than they actually eat. Some mice hunt and eat grasshoppers and insectoids. Most mice don't drink, as they get enough moisture from their food. Mice can jump up to 40 cm and can fit through holes one half inch wide.

The greatest superpower of the mouse is its sex drive! Mice breed every 10 to 17 weeks, having 5 to 6 babies 19 to 22 days later. The babies have 10 nipples to choose from! If the mother mouse is breastfeeding when she becomes pregnant again, the gestation period will last longer.

After three weeks, the baby mice have hair and open eyes, and are starting to venture from the place of their birth. By five weeks they are weaned and ready to start the cycle once more!

Mice usually travel between 10 and 30 feet from their hole or nests, which look like loose balls of material. They memorize pathways and are not afraid of new things in their territory. Which is why they explore the mousetrap!

In my former apartment there were mice every winter. Blame this infestation not on filth, but on an old house, with downstairs neighbors who refused to trap them!

The first offenders were mice so tiny they could rob traps without setting them off! One day I caught one climbing up my toaster cord! My landlord loaned me a live trap, where I successfully caught two of them. Their entire body and legs could have fit on a quarter! I released those little guys down by the Mississippi.

More mice were trapped. Each time I took a photo of the kill. I wasn't sure why, but it seemed important. My former roommate, K, hated the mice. Conversely, I hated the centipedes. We made fun of each other.

As much as I like critters, mice are not supposed to roam your apartment, and I have no qualms about trapping them. It seems more humane than poisoning or those adhesive traps. Plus my Dad enjoyed hearing stories of my trapline!

I realized then what my mouse-snuff photos were for! Using scissors and tape, I assembled a photo montage of the dead mice, framed it, and mailed it to my Father for his birthday! And indeed, it adorns his trapping shed to this day. My current roommate D thought I was crazy.

I think that's the story of mice, my friends. It's a little black in content matter, but hey, mice are at the bottom of the food chain and don't live long in the wild, either. So, while I salute the Loring Park Mouse in his fashionable nest of branches, I must admonish house mice everywhere: Get out of people's houses! Lest you face a trap, or worse, the peals of a rodentcidal guitar!

Wendell

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