Mouse in the House

[Lazy Gardener]

They will eat their kin. I hate them even outside. B/C I have a garden, and they eat and poop on the food I am growing for my own sustenance. If I am fast enough, any mouse that I see quickly becomes a flat mouse. I remember when I was a kid... I was in the shop while my dad was working. He always wore a full "coverall". One day, he disturbed a mouse. During the ensuing chase, the mouse ran up his pant leg. I didn't know my dad was such a dancer! I've had a mouse run up my pant leg before when I was doing the mouse stomp dance.

And, they are a host to the deer tick which carries lime disease.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

Supposedly, "they say" that a mouse has a range of about 50'. So, I do put traps out in the garden when I see evidence of mice. They can decimate any root crop if you don't get them first. The best time to control populations IMO is when their food supply is limited. That way, the bait is more inviting.

 

[Mini Horses]

CATS --mine are semi-feral and great mousers. No inside cats, although I have considered one. My little min-pin used to catch mice! I've had some come in and she was on them, big time. Now, no inside pets. Have 2 adult and 3 young cats (7 mo old). The kittens are doing a lot more hunting now. Mom cat is GREAT and teaches them. While I do feed them every day, they still hunt. Not a 24/7 availability feed -- but, always enough -- I want them to hunt!!! That's their job.

Inside, I do have traps to use and an occasional mouse gets past the guard squad. I don't use poisons for fear a mouse will consume and get back out to be caught by a cat. PB & ritz bait inside, with a swirly swim once caught.

 

[baymule]

Weiner dogs are great for mice and rats. And they are wonderful pets too!

 

[Hinotori]

Rats: Observations on the History & Habitat of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants by Robert Sullivan is a good book. I like reading nonfic like that.

 

[wyoDreamer]

We had another bat in the house on Sunday. We cannot figure out where they are getting into the house. They should be hibernating for goodness sake! We are going to have a thaw this weekend, I guess I will need to see if I can find where they are getting into the house.

 

[wyoDreamer]

I did some research and what we have are probably Big Brown Bats. They are a "cave bat" that has adapted to hibernating in houses; finding home attics to be the proper temperature for hibernating ... great. They live in colonies, and when hibernating they will wake up every couple of weeks or so and move around a little bit. Hence, every 2 weeks we have a bat in the house - or so it seems. Colony means that there are probably a number of bats hiding somewhere... Yippee.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

OH Geeze - sorry you're dealing with that! Bats are something I've not had in the house - at least not yet. We've had snakes and mice and spiders and lizards... you know - all the usual. But not bats! Yay!

 

[NH Homesteader]

We had chipmunks in our insulation under our old trailer. The chewing was awful! My DH and one of our dogs took out most of the population the following year. The quiet the next winter was appreciated.

 

[flowerbug]

We had chipmunks in our insulation under our old trailer. The chewing was awful! My DH and one of our dogs took out most of the population the following year. The quiet the next winter was appreciated.

we can have chipmunk population explosions here with all the rocks we have and other places to hide. about 5 years ago we had so many running around that i trapped over 50 of them in a few weeks time. normally the snakes and the semi-feral kitties were keeping them under control well enough, but i still hunt a few because Mom has conniptions when she sees any creature around she doesn't want. i only get after the groundhogs but prefer to have a good fence for those instead of having to hunt them.

i'm working on a project this past fall and next spring that gets rid of a lot of hiding space for creatures so that will help a lot.

i don't think this is a chipmunk nest (chipmunks have a different activity pattern).