Modest Mouse
Last night we went to see Collateral. The plan was to see Napoleon Dynamite, but I couldn't convince Kevan that it was better than all the bad reviews imply. I will find someone to see it with me one of these days.
Collateral was actually pretty great for a shoot-'em-up thriller (directed by Michael Mann, the same guy who did The Insider). Music was cool too. The heavily-featured Chris Cornell tune I couldn't identify during the film turns out to be Audioslave's "Shadow on the Sun." Even better, though, was a pivotal scene about Miles Davis featuring a cut from his landmark Bitches Brew. More on that in a minute.
When we got home from the movies, Kevan saw a mouse run under our refrigerator. He prompty took off and EJ and I went to Duane Reade at 1AM to pick up mouse traps and peanut butter (that's what it says to use as bait). Those traps are tricky, and as I got more and more frustrated setting them up, we became convinced there was more than one mouse. Mice! Sucks.
Eventually we retreated to the bedroom where I stayed up watching Ken Burns Jazz on PBS until 4AM, listening for the mouse traps to snap. We still haven't caught any.
So thanks to Michael Mann and the mice that kept me up last night watching Ken Burns, I broke out Bitches Brew this morning. It's regarded as one of the most important albums in jazz: the birth of fusion and a testament to Miles' avant-garde genius.
This is the song featured in Collateral.
Miles Davis - "Spanish Key"
Buy the album here.
And if you have any advice about catching mice, please share your knowledge with the group!
* * *
Oh, and Kevan insists "Inconsiderate Cell Phone Man" (in the Cingular Wireless PSAs they show before movie trailers) was in Bowling For Columbine in the scene about cops busting white collar criminals. Fun fact!
Posted at 3:32 PM
Tags: Miles Davis
my wife and i have had mouse problems in two separate houses. the trap that finally worked at the first place was the same trap we used at the second place...the problem was solved literally overnight.
they're sorta like humanitarian traps, no springs, no poison, but they worked better for us than anything else. they're rectangular plastic boxes--ours were grey--that operate sorta like see-saws (a little plastic tab on the bottom acts as a fulcrum). you place them on the ground so that the front end is touching the floor and the back end slightly raised off the floor. a trap door on the front can be propped open, but when a mouse comes 'round to investigate the peanut butter cracker you've placed in the back of the box and they step inside past the fulcrum, their weight brings the back of the trap to the ground and the door snaps shut. the mouse is trapped, you take the box to the street, open the door, and let it go.
sounds fanciful, i know...but we've captured no less than five mice with ours, and there has never been a mouse we've encountered that couldn't be caught with it. i think we got a pair of these traps for under five bucks at home depot. good luck!
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ND bad? NEVER!
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ND is still in threatres? I wonder if this is true for Canada. I'd see it, the guy had me at "liger." Also, I went to his website. I loved it. Graphically appealing.
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It's a cliché, but get a cat. The cat really will kill your mice.
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yes, a cat is the answer! or a dog. a daschund, perhaps. or a siberian husky.
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"Inconsiderate Cell Phone Man" was indeed in BFC in that role that Kevan said. He's Rob Huebel, a comedian featured on VH1's "A2Z," who plays regularly at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater with the troupe Respecto Montalban (also featuring BWE's Paul Scheer).
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I agree with the cat idea... borrow one for a week, let the mice smell its scent, and you'll def notice a difference!
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An indoor cat is bad news unless you like the smell of cat pee and litter boxes. I like my cats and dog outside where they belong. I think the humane mice traps mentioned are cool but what also works are these sticky traps. Mice like to scurry along the baseboards and this is where you place these sticky cardboard things- it has a cover on them and yes, they basically get stuck and starve to death so these are not for the squeamish but they do work. I think mice and rats are cool, at least the ones at pet store, they make great pets but those mice that run around out in cities can harbor diseases so they gotta go. good luck. And, hey, I am gonna see Collateral tommorrow so it is nice to hear another positive review.
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Davy is right! Those cheapie Home Depot gray plastic boxes work wonders in mouse catching.
Also, don't get the poison tabs. Not only are they dangerous, but once the mice eat it, they go to die somewhere in your house/apartment, swell up from the poison, and stink like shit. And lots of times you won't be able to find the rotting rat...ratting rot...either or.
Those spring mechanism mouse traps have never worked even with peanut butter or cheese on them, and many times, the mice will actually eat what is left for them and the spring will never "activate" based on how tiny and light they are. They are probably cheap for a reason.
I hear there are sticky mouse traps as well. Kind of like fly paper, but larger, I assume.
Good luck!
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> He's Rob Huebel, a comedian featured on
> VH1's "A2Z," who plays regularly at the
> Upright Citizens Brigade Theater
OH YEAH! That's why he looks so familiar. I saw him in CULTURE VULTURES at UCB and at Bonnaroo w/ Respecto. Funny guy.
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Thanks for everyone's mice advice! Still no luck. I bought one of those ultrasonic devices that you plug into the wall so maybe that scared them away? Doesn't anyone like Miles Davis?!
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Re: mice
If you're going to use the deadly spring-loaded ones, make sure you put some sort of drop cloth under it, like a laid-out plastic grocery bag. Sometimes they make a horrid bloody mess, and with the bag under it, you can just pick the bag up by the handles and not have to touch anything.
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Inconsiderate Cell Phone Man is Rob Huebel from the Upright Citizen's Brigade (on the team Respecto)...I think he used to work with Michael Moore on his Bravo show
Link!
http://www.ucbtheatre.com/performer/performerprofile.php?PerformerID=900
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When I lived in Boston, our apartment was infested with about five mice. Boston U. mice were pretty smart and knew to avoid the commonly put down glue traps. We used the snap kind and killed all five and went the rest of the year without any mice. The biggest thing to do is find the hole where they're coming from. Get an exterminator to come in and fill that shit up. The BU guys used to fill it up with some kind of wire (barbed?) to make it more than just a spackle filled hole.
Oh...
I fucking LOVE Miles Davis. I highly recommend In A Silent Way. Brilliant.
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I had a major mice problem when i moved in the hood...
1. I used glue traps and caught 3 mice
2. I also bought the ultrasonic device you plug on the wall, it kinda worked, but i still had one mouse running around
3. I filled up all the holes in the wall with steel wool, it sorta helped
4. One day, the exterminator finally came and all mice disappeared... I've been mice free since then.
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Steel wool! That's it.
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Peapod will destroy those mice.
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u should use ishtar's secret mouse trap invention. complicated but has worked every time. take a garbage pail and tape a piece of newspaper over the top. then but slits in the middle so a small piece of newspaper, roughly 3 inches square is barely hanging on, so almost any weight will force it to fall. then place an amount of peanut butter on top of the slitted newspaper. give the mouse a ramp to climb up, like a piece of wood. the mouse goes for the pb, falls b/c of the newspaper and is then stuck on the bottom of the garbage until you get home. then calmly deposit the mouse on the street.
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ishtar, you are so smart and kind. you should convince scott to let me get a pet.
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Cheese. It seems like a myth, but it really did work for us.
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I grew up listening to "Bitches Brew." My dad thinks Miles Davis is the coolest musician on Earth.
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I would have thought that playing godawful jazz fusion at all hours of the night would have done the trick...
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when we had a mouse problem, i tried those grey humane traps but they didn't work worth a damn. i eventually bought a bread box and a garbage can with a lid. no food source, no problem. unfortunately, if your neighbors are dirty asses, then you should look for how the mice could be getting into your place and follow the steel wool advice.
also, every mouse that has ever made it into my home or garden has been christened Modesto. of course, it's much harder to declare war on vermin once you've named them.
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Kind of gross, but true:
Those glue traps can work, but I've heard more than a few stories about mice getting stuck, then chewing off their leg(s) to get off, then you've got a crippled mouse crawling somewhere(probably a dark corner) to die and make a huge, disgusting mess. It happened to my parents, and a couple of friends.
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James, you can save your incisive British wit for the Del Amitri message board.
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> Those glue traps can work, but I've heard more > than a few stories about mice getting stuck,
> then chewing off their leg(s) to get off
Yeah I heard that too. No glue traps!
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It doesn't have the best name ever...but a Rat Zapper http://www.agrizap.com/ is well worth the investment. Mice go in, but they don't come out! You don't ever have to see or touch a dead mouse.
Also, find the holes (which is hard because they are not always in accessible places) and fill them with steel wool and then spray a filler over that. You can find the spray filler at any hardware store.
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Any movie that features "Spanish Key" I have to see.
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My thanks to you for including this mp3 link. I hadn't heard "Spanish Keys" in years. A great pleasure.
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We have a mouse in our house, even though we have two cats. It's a baby mouse. The one cat caught it and dragged it around by the tail. She sat it down to play with it and BOOM it was gone. They chased it but I don't think they've caught it yet.
(It was a baby. It was so cute. I named him Whiskers. ;) No one else seemed to care for my appreciation, however.)
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Another piece of advice...regardless of the trap you use, do your best to use gloves while setting it (as soon as youtake it out of the box). They can smell your scent on the trap and will avoid it. I set some traps (spring load w/ peanut butter)without gloves and no luck. When I set new ones with gloves in the same place, we got'em within days.
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The music was really nice. I just picked up my apartment to it. But, I still have to laugh at James' comment.
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it's funny because in the song you can hear a fender rhodes keyboard. but, in the film when they are performing it there is only a trupet, guitar, bass, and drums. no keys.
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Thank you for the mp3, Scott. Loved it! :)
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Rob Huebel is also the canidate zero guy.I hope he's not married. He's totally hot!
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