I have heard of revenge, but this story beats all. It just goes to show that if you must light mice afire, you had better do it a LONG way from your house.

I never did like mice much, and this one proved that they can be dangerous for other reasons than just carting hanta virus and Lymes disease around. However, John Deere's magazine The Furrow published an article in the January issue saying that they do a lot of good out in the crop fields by eating weed seeds. Seems scientists placed sticky cards covered with seeds of noxious weeds, like giant fox tail and velvet leaf, out in fields. Mice removed one third of the seeds in 48 hours. Crickets do much the same, according to the article. (Those are a bit more popular with me, as I like to hear their cheerful chirping late in the summer.) Iowa State University researchers call the small creatures, "Little Hammers" in the fight against pests in the fields. I guess we need all the little hammers we can get as long as they stay out of the house, whether aflame or not.