an itty bitty mouse

This winter we have been battling mice in our house. I have nothing against mice in general, except when they are in my kitchen. Kyle has been so sweet to bait and set several different kind of traps to get rid of the mice. He has successfully caught 7 mice over the last couple of months. It seems like as soon as we get rid of them a few weeks goes by, and they are back. I live in constant fear when entering my kitchen that one of the mice are going to run over and bite my toes or attack me in some sort of manner. I know logically that this fear is irrational, but for some reason I always use extreme caution when going into the kitchen. Right now we are dealing with one highly intelligent brown mouse. We have had traps set for at least 5days and he has not taken the bait. He goes about his nightly routine of scurrying in my kitchen, while I sit in the family room thinking of how I can avoid going into the kitchen until morning. This makes laundry difficult because my washer and dryer are in the kitchen. This is pretty convenient for me because anyone who knows me knows that I don't care for doing laundry at all. However, I would much rather be able to do my laundry than live in fear of this little rodent. It's only a matter of time before the ultra-smart mouse is no more. Even though I feel extremely cruel killing these small little animals, I cannot wait until they are gone.