I decided this afternoon that I was not going to continue feeding this mouse. Polie was out with me so I peeked behind the full compost bin to see if the mouse was active. No sign of it, but it was hard to see in the narrow space between the back of the bin and the wall. I pulled the empty bin away from the wall and rocked the full one to see if I could disturb the mouse enough for it to run out into Polie's field of view. No such luck.
Then I started rocking the full bin forward, trying to work it away from the wall far enough for me to poke through the debris behind it. After some time, I got it out far enough to poke the pitchfork behind it and out ran a young mouse.
Snap.
Polie got it. Another one ran out and hid under a piece of cardboard. With some direction, Polie found it. I continued to work the bin away from the wall, periodically poking through the debris, finally yielding one more mouse - an adult this time.
By this time, it had dawned on me that keeping the bins away from the wall and separated from each other might make it easier to discourage the mice.
I repositioned the empty one and moved the full one a little further out. Polie can't quite get behind them (see him at the back?), but he can get to the edges and I can poke through the debris regularly.
He can get between the two bins, though, which will definitely keep any mice on their toes.With all the loose neighborhood cats that use our yard as their toilet, I'm disappointed they aren't at least helping deal with our pest problem. Nor are the local coyotes taking up the slack. C'mon, predators, do your job already! Does my dog have to do everything?
Good ol' Polie.
ReplyDeleteGood Boy,
ReplyDeleteI didn't think that mouse was going to get away from him more than once.
Kind Regards
Belinda
Talented Polie!
ReplyDeleteWhen I get a big run of mice I put together a 5 gallon bucket, make a drum lid for it from wax paper, cut an X about five inces wide in the middle of the drum head with a sharp knife, hang a bit of peanut butter on string about eight inches above the middle of the X, and make a 1"X4"X4' ramp (along the wall) onto the drumhead, and go away. All the mice currently active will run up, go to the middle to try for the dangling peanut butter, and fall through the X.
What you do with them once you've got them all bucketed is your call ...
Risa - LOL! I'll see if I can talk my sweetie out of one of the buckets. He's co-opted most of them for his hydroponics.
ReplyDeleteAh, Risa, you beat me to the punch!
ReplyDeleteThe mouse trap we would use is a five gallon bucket with an inch of grain in the bottom and a ramp leading to the lip of the bucket. Mice run in, can't jump out. The end.
What size bucket do I need for human pests? Someone ran through our (locked) yard last night - right by the compost bins. 55 gallon barrel with a Snickers bar on a string above it? How do I keep them from getting back out of the barrel?
ReplyDeleteMice can be a real problem.
ReplyDeleteWe had them in our old house in Melbourne. After catching a few in the "humane" mouse trap we bought, I had to get poison to deal with them, as they were getting so numerous and eating all my linen. The last straw was seeing my baby son eating mouse poo (or something that looked like it) off the floor!
We had a cat; she was useless. I can see why mousing cats were prized. I remember reading that the black death in Europe was exacerbated by the killing of cats in the Witch Hunts. Might be true. I can believe it.
Anyway, get rid of those mice. They need to go!
Holistic suggestion for ridding thyself of mice and other rodentia:
ReplyDeletePeppermint oil (not peppermint extract). Place a couple of drops on a cotton ball and place in areas where you have seen the mice. Guaranteed to work!
P.S. Does not keep out snakes tho, we currently have a wonderful bull snake who helps with the rodent problem in our yard. Bless the beasts and bull snakes too!
We've had other mouse problems in the past - in the glovebox of a car chewing through the wiring and one in our RV when we lived out on the land. The snap traps always worked. The problem I see with the live traps is that releasing the mice elsewhere just makes them someone else's problem.
ReplyDeleteIf released remotely, relocation also means putting a critter in an unfamiliar habitat where it may starve before figuring out where the food is and/or may displace the resident critters. A friend who studied rattlesnakes found that most that were relocated in his area starved to death...
SunShine - I'd have to douse the entire compost pile with peppermint oil! However, that might work indoors.
Ah, mice in the car! We had that recently, a mother decided to have her three babies in our car. We were able to get her and one baby out, but the other two, we couldn't find. We bought a lot of air fresheners.
ReplyDelete