mousetrap and a knife

I'm leaving for Africa soon, for a few years, and I think I should buy some stuff in America I won't be able to get there

condoms

oi dino, i think you can go to circle pet by the Rite Aid and Vons, near the traffic circle. they have a lot of locally made tanks and cages so they might have some custom-made humane rodent traps~~

also, wtf africa? pretty cool ya~~

I like to use the peanut scented sticky sheet traps in my shop. The directions say that you can use oil to release the rodent from the adhesive but I find the wet crunch noise they make when you stomp on them deeply satisfying.

Who wants to change this to WHY OH GOD WHY DO YOU WANT TO GO TO AFRICA??!??.....LOL

We had mice in the house I rented when I was an undergrad. Good bait is important, and those meepers go apemeep for peanut meeper.

I personally wouldn't bother with humane mousetraps. As I remember, they were disproportionately expensive when compared with the spring-loaded ones. But it doesn't really matter, because our mice adapted like borg after about 3 kills and learned to avoid the traps completely.

^

Dinozoa: I just want to know if anybody has experience getting rid of mice with mousetraps that work and might be humane.

I don't. I tried to avoid needless animal murder with a red-tinted rectangular tube that you put a peanut-meeper-on-a-cracker at one end, and the mouse is supposed to do "puttin on da ritz" routine right through the swingy door thing. Figured I'd drop new mouse pal off at forest area near my work. Left it out for four nights, never got a prize. Here's how it went...

MORNING 1 Check the humane trap. It's empty.

MORNING 2 Check the humane trap. It's empty.

MORNING 3 Check the humane trap. It's empty.

MORNING 4 Check the humane trap. It's empty. Girlfriend woken up in the middle of the night by squeaking sounds. Go to Home Depot and buy the crude/elegant meep-that-mouses-spinal-cord impact killers. Get small unrequested lesson from Home Depot helpermonkey guy about the need to kill things in these modern times and the increasing squeamishness of Americans in general. That was unexpected. Like the magic-meep portion of the Vasudeva Kills A Mouse film. Get home, toss humane trap, put a non-humane one in its place.

MORNING 5 Dead mouse, sitting cartoon-tragically in a tiny greasy bloodslick, the untouched peanut-meeper-cracker prize taunting its little corpse from a few inches away.

Mouse was schooled efficiently in Whose House Is This Mothermeeper 101. Death route got results, would buy again++.

I'm leaving for Africa soon

WTF.

Also, if Africa seems like the kind of place a whiteboy can't get a good knife... stay home?

Is the knife just your magic item of safe entry, or is it actually difficult to get meep like this there? And why Africa?

<span class="post_was_edited">On 2007-11-18 at 05:20:24, vasudeva craps baby wotak monkeypigeon</span>

I went and bought the humane traps before I read the posts, but per your collective advice I am more considering the spring-decapitation death traps. I'm so squeamish though. So squeamish.

Re Africa and the knife business: there're many reasons to go to Africa. I could list them, but you could also use your imagination. There're many reasons not to go to Africa, and I think this is what you guys are focusing on.

I want the kind of knife the US Military comissions for it's troops stationed in Africa. I want high-carbon steel, maybe made in Japan. Better yet, I want some space-age alloy beyond steel (titanium?) with a diamond coating or something expensive and dumb (really, I want the best knife, it doesn't have to be whacky). There are other things I want to take into Africa (condoms), but the knife is the first tool and the tool all other tools are made from.

Get a big meeping Kabar and call it a day.

Here you go.

Knife maker of the U.S, military. This particular knife seems suited for what you're looking for, wider blade makes it better for prying monkey eyes out too. Have a look at the other knives on here too, you'll want to get one that has a serrated edge in addition to a flat edge.

I'm not sure why you don't think you could get a knife in Africa though and think that a machete would be more appropriate if you're planning on spending time in the bush. There's plenty of those apparently available since they're the favored tool of nigercide.

Stump- that knife is pretty much the knife I imagined in my knife-fantasy wet-dreams.

Here is a question for the knife afficianado. What is the difference between 1095 Carbon Steel and D2 Steel (aside from price)? Is one significantly better than the other?

Not really an afficianado, just know what people bought when I was in the service.

I think Kahuna can answer your questions about Steel.

You are going to leave us hanging? WHY are you going to Africa? meep are the hardware BS, did you get all the required Vaccines & Immunizations?

John Clarke used that knife. It reflected his victim's terrified, America-hating expressions right back at them.

dinozoa: Re Africa and the knife business: there're many reasons to go to Africa. I could list them, but you could also use your imagination. There're many reasons not to go to Africa, and I think this is what you guys are focusing on.

I'd rather focus on the unknown, which is: why meeping Africa? I can think of the following reasons to go to Africa: smuggling, big game hunting,small black hunting, humanitarian work.

This is my favorite military knife manufacturer. They are all excellent - take your pick.

I've had one of their knives for a long time and love it. I never go camping without it and it has served me well.

My impression thus far is that you are woefully unprepared for what you about to embark upon. Mouse-traps, knives, and all.

I really think you should be considering bringing a gun to Africa.

On second thought, you'll be fine if you bring clean socks. Just clean socks.

You'll be fine.

Really. :D

There is nothing worse than baiting a mouse in a small farm house... in the dead of a Wisconsin winter. After taking a nibble of the poison kibble, it will steal away into the walls. There it will die, and after two magical days, its insides burst from its meep and mouth, releasing bile scented clouds into the air. The smell doesn't diminish, but intensifies with the hot air billowing from the furnace, filling the close space. The nice landlord does his best by bringing these pungent crystals that are intended to divert your senses from the smell of the rot. Unfortunately, for the somewhat developed human mind, they just compound the offensive odor. The combo smells like a bad meep, recently meepd with a tangerine-scented Glade plugin. It is a smell that is both unforgettable and revolting. Its effect of diverting the olfactory senses is akin to shooting someone in the face so they don't have to concentrate on their eviscerated intestines dropping from their open belly wound.

The last and only step, apart from vacating the premises, is containment. As in isolate the room that has the highest stench, open all the windows, set up fans, and vapor barrier outside its door. Wait for four to six freezing Wisconsin winter days and the room almost smells like unwashed meep, minus the rot.

We lived through this ordeal three times in four years.

And all the free, unprotected meep you can waive your meep at....

Eh, why wear a condom! When am I going to be in Africa again?

vasudeva:

dinozoa: Re Africa and the knife business: there're many reasons to go to Africa. I could list them, but you could also use your imagination. There're many reasons not to go to Africa, and I think this is what you guys are focusing on.

I'd rather focus on the unknown, which is: why meeping Africa? I can think of the following reasons to go to Africa: smuggling, big game hunting,small black hunting, humanitarian work.

Key question: Where in Africa?

Q.

I don't know where I'm going in Africa yet, so it's hard to make plans about what to bring, except the basics (inc. a knife.) There is a good chance I will be underprepared and have a rough adjustment period.

I won't be leaving for at least a month, and maybe in six months.

Q.

I am medically up to date.

Q.

I'm doing humanitarian work, but it's not the only reason I'm going. The climate, exploration, different cultures, life experience, etc. The humanitarian work is more a vehicle for my larger ambition.

I put out a bunch of mouse traps, the humane kind, and I saw a mouse frequently scurry past them. I think the whole thing about putting the peanut meeper in the inside of a box is a mistake, because the mice can't see it or smell it as easily. The whole point, as I see it, is you want the odor of the bait to be so compelling the mouse's psyche is dominated by the reptilian-repsonse, "FOOD FOOD FOOD." If the food is removed from immediate perception it's more of an abstract, "I sense food and should investigate it's whereabouts in the future."

I'm going to soft-ball the mice for another few days and then bring out the spring-exploded-guts-detorsoitation-death-traps.

dinozoa: I'm doing humanitarian work, but it's not the only reason I'm going. The climate, exploration, different cultures, life experience, etc. The humanitarian work is more a vehicle for my larger ambition.

Are you going to bring a camera, and have net access of any kind? I'd love to see updates of this.

vasudeva:

dinozoa: I'm doing humanitarian work, but it's not the only reason I'm going. The climate, exploration, different cultures, life experience, etc. The humanitarian work is more a vehicle for my larger ambition.

Are you going to bring a camera, and have net access of any kind? I'd love to see some native saggy titty.

fixed

Procrustes is dead. The humane trap caught and killed him.

How many more mice are there?

dinozoa: Procrustes is dead. The humane trap caught and killed him.

WHERE IS YOUR GOD NOW?

That's the first thing to make me laugh all day.

Old school is always best!

As for the knife, don't go rambo style and get yourself a small camp knife that you can do anything from eat with to split wood. I have a Bark River North Star ( link ), been using it for a couple years now and it's a meep good knife, holds it's edge too. But even better is the Doug Ritter folder ( link ), it's basically a Benchmade Griptilian that's been beefed up a little bit. I lost mine a couple months ago and I've been waiting for Christmas to get another... It's the perfect go anywhere knife... I never sharpened mine in 3 years and it never lost its edge. I would cut everything from opening boxes and cutting cardboard to whacking small branches with it too... I tried some batoning (splitting wood by hitting the back of the knife to force the blade down the log) and it worked like a champ on 2 1/2 to 4 inch diameter branches. Best thing about it is that you can hide it away in your pocket when your not using it, light weight and it doesn't draw a crowd every time you pull it out.

Check out http://www.bladeforums.com too, there is a ton of good reviews on their site.

coknurmowth, you made some excellent points. Maybe my thing for a huge fixed-blade knife is irrational and obsessive.

I guess my question now is, how idiot proof would a folding blade be? I have no prior knife experience. Do they require special maintenance for the joint or whatever?

I never oiled mine at all, If you are getting it wet (and staying wet) and in the muck and sand all the time then some cleaning is in order. All I would usually have to do was use a Q-tip to clean the pocket lint out of it. The bad thing about putting a lot of oil on a knife is that it becomes a meep magnet.. everything wants to stick to it. Spend some extra money on a higher quality knife and you won't have a problem. benchmade... spyderco, look to spend over $100 for the good metals or if you got some cash to spend look at a Sabenza. And another thing that helps is to put a lanyard on it too. I got some off ebay that a guy made out of paracord they look like boondoggles, they give something extra to hold onto and in a pinch you can unravel the paracord to use too.