Having spent part of Monday and a good part of a cold and wet Tuesday sorting out the loft to be able to tackle the problem of catching the mouse I was well pleased when I got back from my second trip of the day to the tip and saw that I had actually cleared about 20% of the floor area.  A good start and an incentive to carry on and see the job through.

In the process I lifted the loose boards around the edges of  central floored area of the loft and found the mice had made corridors and nests, even loos, a veritable community infrastructure.  Why is it that I spend a day laying fibreglass loft insulation for my in-laws, breathing in the microfibres and damaging my lungs in the process (glass-fibre particles are the same configuration and size as asbestos dust), and mice not only live in it but tunnel through it.

However, I was pleased that I had not allowed myself to be distracted by any of the alternatives on offer, like buying a new microwave to replace the one which now crackles and flashes with electric sparks until I stopped it shorting with an appropriately placed piece of Duck Tape.

Marvellous stuff Duck Tape.  I also used it to tape the bits of metal coat hanger which I used to repair the mouse trap when the mice started eating their way out of it when we had them in the kitchen cupboard 10 years or more ago.

At 19.00 having seen enough of the inside of the loft for one day I returned to the colourful, warm, clean world of the nether regions of the house. But not before I set the mouse trap again.

The mice had not been enticed by a healthy diet of sunflower seeds so I thought I would try something a bit more cartoon-conventional if somewhat higher in cholesterol, cheese and biscuit.  I baited the trap with a slice of extra mature cheddar and plain chocolate-coated digestive biscuit.   The cheese was a new Welsh variety matured down a coal mine.  I kid you not, that is how it is marketed and there is even a picture of a miner in his helmet and pit-dirt on the packet.  I thought it was a cheese which was suited to the inky blackness of the loft.

Wednesday morning 07.30 having completed the necessary first offices of the day, I got out the stepladder, opened the hatch and went into the roof to check on the trap.  Whatever the pros and cons of using luxury food to trap mice ….. it worked!  Unfortunately the mouse had then proceeded eat its way out of the end of the trap, the bit not protected by wire coat hanger and Duck Tape.

Fatal flaw in the design - the mouse ate its way out of the end of the trap.

What is the point of manufacturing mousetraps which the mouse can eat!?  All I really succeeded in doing was feeding the mouse a main course and sweet with an edible mousetrap to follow.

So that’s enough for now.  It’s back to the drawing board and workbench to try to find a way to make the mousetrap, well, trap mice.