My mother sometimes has uninvited house guests....mice....and she was told that you can use toy snakes to scare them away. She bought a couple very convincing wooden snakes placing one in her garage and the other in the kitchen closet.
This Summer when mom was on vacation in Renfrew, I dropped by regularly to check on her home. One night I was greeted by a chubby little mouse, who was sitting smack dab in the middle of the kitchen floor and did not seem the least bit fazed by my presense or that of my vicious guard dog Timmi.
Before I left mom's place on this particular evening, I moved the toy snake from the closet to the middle of the kitchen floor. Perhaps when I was gone the mighty mouse would see the fake snake and flee from mom's home.
Unfortunately, I forgot one important fact. My mother had made arrangements with a neighbour. She would check mom's mail each day and leave it in the kitchen. When I awoke late the following day, there was a voice message waiting for me. It was mom's terrified neighbour and her message was "There's a snake in the kitchen, get it out of there or get the mail yourself" I immediately returned her call and explained the origin of the snake. The neighbour laughed but I'm pretty sure she had to change her pants when she had raced from mom's place earlier. And did the snake that scared the daylights out of the neighbour do the same for the mouse? Hardly!!. It was back the next night, boldly scooting into the dining room and right past Timmi. I eventually captured it in a bowl and tossed it outside, far from mom's house, pleading with the little critter to please stay away as he might not be so lucky next time.
As for those wooden snakes? I guess mice are smart enough to know that real snakes don't come with a Dollarama sticker and the words "Made in China". Now if we can only get mom's neighbour to figure that out.