Mice, a word of warning

[Amo]

As we've had the extension built, the roof has been partially lifted to accommodate the cat-slide roof over it. Whilst up there the builders discovered lots of activity from mice in the rafters. The electrician has found partially chewed wires and he knows it's recent, he renewed the wiring in 2006!

One of the builders, bless him forever, has been up there setting traps for us trying to catch them and has found a couple of huge stashes of bird seed from the feeder. We can only surmise that they have been climbing the ivy that covered part of the front of the house to gain access to the roof. We've heard lots of scrabbling as it's all been uncovered and I'm quite relieved it's all being plastered now!

I will not in future allow any plant to grow so high that they reach the gutters again although I do intend to grow up the walls. The builders have put in fillers and trays with the guttering but mice are pretty resourceful. I'm very much aware I live in the country and they are all part of what happens out here but it's the damage they have done to the wiring that has worried me rather than their presence, and the fact that they are being an absolute pain to catch!! I won't use poisons, I have the cats and dogs to think of and I don't want a dead body smelling the place up either!!

If you have climbers, check how high they go before you have lodgers in the roof space too.

[owdboggy]

We had this in our previous house, and that was in the middle of the town and we had no climbers on the house at all. Strangely enough the mice we eventaully caught were not house mice but field ones, so heaven knows where they had come from and how they had got into the loft.

So lets have a funny story now about them. I was sat on the toilet one evening when there was an incredibly loud squeal from the boxed in pipes alongside. It did not half make me jump I can tell you. A mouse must have been running along the hot water pipe and had stepped off the insulation on to the bare metal! Dunno who was most shocked!

[Tig]

With all that stash of birdfood Amo you would have thought they'd have left the wiring alone What a nightmare!

Thanks for the giggle OB (Is that how you got your name ) ;D

x Tig

[Amo]

;D ;D ;D ;D

I've had rats half way up the curtains but I know the cats brought them in

[owdboggy]

Kids always reckoned after that you could hear "Pitter patter, puff puff" from the boxing in. (The sound of the mouse running along the pipes then blowing on its paws ok!!!)

All rodents have teeth which continue to grow throughout their lives. They have to gnaw at things to keep the teeth worn down down.

The rats which come into our sheds after harvest time hace chewed their way through 2 inches of concrete to make their nests under the shed floor.

[jean]

We've got small visitors too, the house was a barn years ago and there are lots of places for them to hide I've seen rats outside but thankfully they have stayed there. We've put poison down as there are no animals at home to worry about. It a bit unnerving to catch sight of something scurrying along the skirting boards

[Barbara]

We had mice in the airing cupboard in our last house, we didn't have any plants growing up the walls, I think they could scale the eiger if they wanted to.

[Plocket]

Oh Amo I sympathise! While they have a right to live like you I don't want them living in my house! I hope the traps work, but bear in mind you might have to keep re-setting them for qutie a while

Oh OB that's funny! ;D

[Chuckles]

Crikey Amo sounds like you had a lucky escape there with the wiring, hope you soon get rid of them all. That story about the hot footed mouse was great OB, reminded me of the time I opened the airing cupboard door to get a towel out and came face to face with a rat, I don't know who was more shocked, me or the rat ;D

It really is amazing how our furry friends get into some places, they do easily scale walls though as long as the surface isn't totally smooth and they also seem to be able to flatten their body to slip into the smallest crack or crevice.

[oldmoleskins]

We've got something of an invasion in the holiday cottage we look after - I guess they are simply finding snug winter quarters, but they will leave their calling cards everywhere. Not quite what you want in the Hospitality Industry.

So, I've been putting down a couple of traps - the plastic type with a little cup for bait. I find peanut butter works well, and have been removing a couple every other day.

Now they've turned cannibal - the last two had been partially eaten while in the trap (well, obviously while in the trap - you'd hardly stand still and let yourself be eaten, then stumble off to commit suicide in a trap or think that putting a mutilated body in a trap would somehow divert attention away from you as a mouse-deviant).

I just hope there isn't a vast reserve of them waiting to frolic over sleeping New Year guests seeking their staple diet of peanut butter. Mice, that is, not Guests. Guests can hardly look for peanut butter while asleep, that would be silly.

OM.

[Cheerypeabrain]

Reminded me of the time one of our old cats once left a mouse' head on my pillow....just like in 'The Godfather'... nasty....

[Amo]

It must have been an anti Izzy CPB. He leaves headless bodies everywhere.

We have found that peanut butter is the best too Moley. We think we have the last out of the loft. And guests in this house tend to look for all sorts at ay time of the day! ;D

[Chuckles]

Mmmm cannibals, not nice Could it possibly be a case of them having done this to themselves to try and get free from the trap, I've heard of this before but not with mice

fancy finding just a head on your pillow CPB

I once had a mate coming to stay and had been finding droppings in the spare room. Traps were set and we caught quite a few over the next few days. To my shock and horror after turning down the bed to air it on the day of her arrival I found droppings in the bed For a while I'd been finding a few dried peas around the place upstairs and then it dawned on me, I'd got a large bag of them stored in a cupboard in the spare room.

[oldmoleskins]

Dec 20, 2008 23:24:09 GMT Chuckles said:

Mmmm cannibals, not nice Could it possibly be a case of them having done this to themselves to try and get free from the trap, I've heard of this before but not with mice
om.

noooooo, not very likely - the favourite starting point is the top of the scull. If I ever find fava beans, I'll know it's a Tony Hopkins fan.

OM.

[Deleted]

This is the first year in 5 we havent seen any so far, fingers crossed