Fetchez La Cottonball!

Very quiet week. No kills, no false positives, nothing. So I just dropped a moist cottonball into the Zapper. Science marches on.

Moist Cottonballs?

A faithful reader (now there are two!) sent this tip: moist cottonballs as bait.

Worth a try. Of course we'll have to define the protocol, set up a control group, get some NIH funding...stay tuned.

Repeated False Positives Yesterday

The missus tracked it down to a piece of kibble that had lodged in the trigger mechanism.

False Positive Saturday Night

Yesterday, we moved the Zapper back to the old location.

No News Is No News

No action. The Zapper is still in the new location. The missus reports a couple of mouse sightings. We're talking about moving the Zapper back where it was. It's a lazy, disjointed conversation.

Taking The War To The Evildoers

We've been keeping the Zapper in the northwest corner of our backyard. We moved it a few times, but always within the same small area.

Yesterday evening, the missus saw a mouse in the southeast corner of the yard. So we moved the Zapper over there. No action yet.

False Positive

Research!

Gotta love the web. I googled "rat mouse" and the first result was this quiz. I scored 8 out of 12 right! That gets me a doctorate at a state school, no?

The tips link is helpful, too. I think we're facing the dread young rat-adult mouse conundrum.

And how cool is it that ratbehavior.org is out there, waiting for nutjobs like me to find it?

Death In The Afternoon

Okay, it was evening. But what's a blog without the occasional gratuitous literary reference?

Kill #5. Once again, it was either a big mouse or a modest rat. (I'm really going to have to spend five minutes on research one of these days.) A little trouble shaking the body into the plastic bag, but it hit the ground with a satisfying thump when it finally came loose. Freaked out the missus, big time.

False Positive

Up And Running

The RZ is back online. No more immediate false positive. The game is afoot.

I Got Mad Skillz

Drenching rain last night, and another false positive. So I decided to clean the RZ this morning. Skilled technician that I am, it's now shorting out constantly - flashing a red false positive as soon as I turn it on, every time I turn it on.

I've taken the RZ out of action for now. I dumped the bait, and the RZ is standing on end, under shelter, so that it can drain and dry thoroughly.

False Positive

Another one. It rained hard last night - maybe that's why. Or maybe it's time to clean the RZ again, oh joy.

Still no critter sightings lately. But we don't spend much time in the garden during the week. This weekend will be a good test.

False Positive

Did We Win?

Nothing at all for a few days now. No kills, no false positives, no rodent sightings.

Just to keep my edge, I knocked a mourning dove nest off the windowsill last night. Relax! There were no eggs in it. And it's a whole lot less cute when you see the shit they leave behind.

Quiet Time

No kills or false positives lately.

I find myself wondering if we're seeing less action because we've already made a dent in the local rodent population, or if it's just one of those random things. To be continued, I guess.

The Surge Is Working

Yesterday was quiet - no kill, no false positive. This morning, the red kill light was flashing, and we had a dead mouse.

False Positive

Cleaning Your RZ

I noticed another false positive this morning. I reset the RZ, and got another false positive right away.

According to the docs, this means it's time to clean the RZ. The docs detail a 6-step cleaning procedure, including an hour of soaking time, scrubbing with a brush, flushing with "a gentle stream of fresh water..."

Sounds idyllic. I opted to just scrape the hardened turds out of the death chamber (latex gloves, paper towels). Seemed to work: no more immediate false positive when I turned the RZ back on.

False Positive

Yesterday evening. Surprising. No rain recently - seemed like ideal dry conditions.

That's 5 false positives to 3 kills. The kills are great, but the frequent false positives are a nuisance.