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When you have mice everywhere, running like waves in the shed and expected to arrive soonish in your pantry, it’s no comfort to know that these little four legged blighters have been a problem since early after European settlement. The mouse plagues arrived along with good rains and temperate weather.
Inventor Arnold Wesley Standfield from Kyogle, NSW knew he had to make mousetraps to solve the problem. Although Wes, as he was known, had no formal training in construction, he did have a great imagination. In 1942, he built an amazing machine to make the mousetraps. He had spent two years collecting scraps of second-hand machinery, because WW2 materials and machine parts were in demand for war-related manufacturing. Built almost entirely from scrap metal, the Supreme Mousetrap Machine was in use for 56 years. It is a wonderful piece of Australian ingenuity and improvisation and a good example of making do with what you have. With such a colourful collection of components, he was able to make traps that do just about everything, except provide the bait to tempt the mouse into the trap, or dispose of the body. The Supreme Mousetrap Machine put together each trap in just 1.5 seconds, with 1000 mousetraps rolling off the conveyor belt each hour.
Wes rarely changed his production of 1000 traps per hour despite varying demand. Instead, he stockpiled traps to meet the predictable surges in demand as rodent populations boomed in favourable conditions. The Supreme Mousetrap Machine has found a very salubrious home at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney.
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Mouse facts today
Rodents’ biology and habits can make them hard to control, and they present a serious menace to your home and livelihood. If you’re in need of rodent control services, here’s what you should know about these pests.
Mice are warm-blooded mammals who, just like humans, want to be warm and have a nice comfy home for their family.
Prevention methods should be in place as they reproduce rapidly to become full-blown infestations.
Keep all possible food sources away from them, such as grains and cereals. Even cardboard objects are attractive to mice as they tend to chew them up for use in their nests.
While you can try to mouse proof your house by working out how they are getting in and sealing entry points, homemade solutions to mice problems are rarely as effective as calling in the pest control experts.