The following is an excerpt from my blog describing my close encounter of the mouse kind.
The full post can be found at
https://jeepliving.xyz/posts/post002_2022-01-06.html
Then came the siege of the mice.
On October 30th I pulled into Quartzsite, Arizona. I had intended on staying put there for at least a few weeks but quickly got the sense that it was not a great place for my needs. It was somewhat crowded but I knew to expect that as the weeks went on it would become
really crowded. So I settled in for the night (sleeping in the car) figuring on driving down toward Yuma, Arizona to check out the Imperial Dam long-term camp area. Just as I was at the point of turning off the light and going to sleep, I caught a quick glimpse of a horrid little face popping up from some clutter I had on the desk on my passenger seat. Just a glimpse, but I jumped out of my door and then set about gingerly clearing everything out of the front of the car. No signs of life and I had just about convinced myself that it had only been a trick of the light and it was probably okay, when I looked in the back and clearly saw a rather large mouse standing over my stuff, bold as you please. It wasn't exactly gloating, but it demonstrated no concern about leaving either.
I commenced to set up the tent in the dark. Since I was planning on heading out in the morning, I hadn't any intention of pitching a tent, especially considering I was always more comfortable sleeping in the cozy Jeep. That night it was the tent for me. I then spent an hour or two at first light removing
everything from the car. No sign of the furry rogue during this. Then I sprayed all the nooks and crannies with DeepWoods Off, left one door open and made my breakfast. Then I had to thoroughly inspect everything before I repacked it and just hope the little varmint had scampered off. Once packed, I headed back South down route 95 toward Yuma and registered myself in to the Imperial Dam Long Term Visitor Area. I located a nice site and started doing a preliminary set-up. I wanted to try the spot for a day or two before doing the whole camp build. I made some dinner, and had a peaceful night's sleep in the Jeep, confident that the mouse was still in Quartzsite sizing up its next victim.
Obviously, the mouse was
not in Quartzsite. It was still with me.
The little creep kept a low profile for one night, lulling me into a false sense of accomplishment. At the first glint of dawn, I was off to Yuma to go to Home Depot and pick up some good old-fashioned mouse traps. I'd learned from a lifetime of dealing with the occasional mouse infiltration that none of the fancy new inventions worked nearly as well as the old spring trap baited with peanut butter. My go-to solution. I emptied everything out of the car again and stored most of it in the tent. In the evening, I carefully set two traps, one on the front passenger side floor and the other way in the back. These were two places I had spotted the mouse. I settled in for the night but couldn't fall asleep. First, I was waiting for the sound of the trap snapping shut, and second, I was anticipating feeling four fuzzy little feet crawl across my own feet.
For simplicity's sake, here is a timeline for the entire battle.
- Saturday 10/30: A mouse is spotted moving about in the car.
- Sunday 10/31: No sign of the mouse. I think it left.
- Monday 11/1: Of course it didn't. Buy and set two traps baited with peanut butter
- Tuesday 11/2 Morning: The trap was unsprung but the peanut butter was completely gon
- Tuesday 11/2 Night: Got 'em. I switched from peanut butter to cheddar cheese wedged tightly into the bait clamp on the trap. It was caught in the trap in the back of the car. I unsprung the trap up front but left it in place having nowhere else better to put it for the night.
- Wednesday 11/3 Late night: I woke up to see a second mouse licking the cheese off the trap up front. The concern now is that two mice are very rare. One mouse, maybe. But seeing two mice usually means there are thirty. I crammed another piece of cheese into the trap up front. I also left two very small pieces of saltines nearby just to make it feel secure.
- Thursday 11/4 Morning: The crackers were gone but the cheese was untouched. Clever bugger.
- Thursday 11/4 Night: I found a pack of honey roasted peanuts and crammed one into the trap. About ten minutes after turning off the lights, I heard the welcome sound of metal snapping on wood. I didn't yell in triumph or pump the air with my fist. I calmly got out of the car, walked around to the passenger side, opened the door, picked up the laden trap and tossed it aside. Then I went back in the car and fell asleep.
- Friday 11/5 Morning: Before I went to sleep the night before, I left two more small pieces of cracker on the floor in order to determine whether or not there were more than two critters living in the Jeep. When I awoke, they were both still there. And the next day and the next day and the next.
I've determined to leave two pieces of cracker on the floor from now on to serve as an early warning system in the event of another incursion.
