Twitter and Facebook helped me build a better mousetrap

Followers of my Twitter and Facebook profiles are intimately familiar with my escapades with an uninvited house guest last week. For those of you though not familiar with the story, please allow my quick indulgence.

The uninvited guest I speak of was a teeny, tiny mouse that was sneaking into our pantry in the middle of the night. As since neither my wife nor I were pleased with these nightly visits (me in particular since he was feasting on my favorite pancake mix) and the fact that he was gutsy enough to make a live appearance scurrying across our living room floor and into the fireplace later that night, we decided our little visitor had to go.

Social networking meets mouse trapping

But before I did anything I decided to have a little fun and post about our nightly visitor on Twitter and Facebook. I received a bunch of comments on both. Some with advice. Some with consolation. Some with recipes for mouse stu.

When it was time to get busy, I decided to start with conventional traps with conventional bait (cheese). I set the trap and figured the whole thing would be over in one night.

Wrong.

Score one for the mouse

The next morning, the trap was still set but the cheese was gone. Score one for the mouse.

I posted another update on Twitter and Facebook and once again, received a bunch of comments. A couple people suggested I try peanut butter so I decided to give it a try.

On to the second night when I set the same trap but this time with a big glob of peanut butter. As I was sliding the trap across the floor, I accidentally set it off because it was so sensitive. I reset it and remember feeling bad for the mouse as this was probably the night he would breathe his last breath.

Wrong again.

Cheering for the mouse?

The next morning, the trap was still set and the peanut butter was licked clean.

I could almost hear cheers for the mouse at this point from my Twitter and Facebook followers as they listened to my tale of how the mouse had defeated me once again.

Luckily, there were still a few followers remaining that were willing to give me some helpful advice. One such piece of advice was to get a Victor electronic trap. I had never heard of these so I set out to my local Menards to see if I could find one. Sure enough, they had one.

The Victor electronic trap works by luring the mouse into a black box with metal plates on the bottom. With the help of 4 AA batteries, the mouse receives a lethal shock and the whole thing is over in 5 seconds.

If you feel bad reading that last paragraph, you know the same feeling I had buying the trap. I truly believed that technology was on my side this time and that my little house guest wouldn't have a prayer.

This time I was right. My little house guest was no more.

In the end, I spent a bunch of time and a bunch of money to catch one little mouse (none of his friends or family have shown up since). Like I said on Twitter and Facebook, I'm not really sure who won in the end.