Most mice emerge into your home through a tiny hole. I have such a space under my kitchen cabinets. You would have to locate this place or one of their many entry holes first.

Now, for the Mouse Ruffle. This is small metal device stacked with several ‘collars’. You secure this over the hole with the succession of collars pointed inwards towards the hole. As the mouse crawls back through the hole (after prancing around in your kitchen and stealing cat food), one collar dispenses around its neck. The dispensing mechanism triggers the expansion of a heavy, pleated collar that shoots out about 2” around the mouse’s neck. This will not allow the mouse to come back through that hole or any other mouse-size hole. That mouse is now reversed-trapped. He cannot get back in. He may die of humiliation, run away to join the circus, or possibly just get stuck somewhere in a mouse tunnel.

This is not animal cruelty. I am aware that some people have pet mice. My mice are just free loaders.
-- xandram, Jul 03 2007

But now the mousy can't lick his own ass!
-- Galbinus_Caeli, Jul 03 2007


Let's think this through:
Mouse enters hole, gets 'collared'.
Mouse gets a small distance further into cavity, then gets stuck (more than likely - most mousy places aren't known for their wide open expanses).
Mouse dies, begins to smell.
You try to remove the dead mouse, but can't, because of the collar.
This is a problem.

(Sorry if this comes across as a bit negative, but I'm in a practical frame of mind at the moment...)
-- neutrinos_shadow, Jul 04 2007


Using poison has the same drawback. This is why traps are the preferred tool.

I think there is a sleek, healthy, cat kibble eating mouse in my kitchen also.
-- normzone, Jul 04 2007


Perhaps, if such a place exists, you should send your cat off to a feline military school to be trained in covert ops, stealth tactics and claw-to-face combat. Domestication has proven these born killers to be quite tame upon a hunt. It's time that cat learned some of its history.
-- theleopard, Jul 04 2007


I think prehaps a trained gerbil with a minature shotgun would be more effective
-- S-note, Jul 04 2007


Well, my mice have a quick exit to the outside, as I live in the country and have a very old house. I see your reasons as being valid, though.
Actually, my 3 month old kitty caught one the other day, but it bit her, that's why I just wanted to humiliate them.
-- xandram, Jul 04 2007


I like the idea of a mouse in a ruffle. Perhaps a family of them all in ruffles helping themselves to cheese that you have previously strewn about your Victorian Dolls House.

As a deterrant, not so good, ala [neutrino]'s point. Train the kitty hard in the meantime. A 24 hour merciless killing machine capable of massacring an entire mousey village. With mud painted on her face and a distant wan gleam to her eyes, she'll invoke fear in even the most fearsome of the neighbours' tabbies. Train her to be the best. Then if ever we need any help, we'll know who to call.
-- theleopard, Jul 04 2007


She does have a wild face. Her name is Shoshone because she looks like a painted Indian horse.
Maybe I should request a *rodent humiliation* category. ;)
-- xandram, Jul 04 2007



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