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Mouse in the compost bin
There's a mouse living in my compost bin. I first saw it one evening the other week, when I added a fresh layer of tomato side shoots and yellowing leaves.
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Gardeners' World Web User
19/08/2011 at 13:24
arhhhhh,lovely little story and the pictures cute as well.... i have the larger species in my garden[rats] for ages i thought ohhh its sweet and a loner ....NOT now the cheeky chaps had babies....4 that i know of although lovely,sweet and playful...im just praying they will leave soon as i dont want to get the nasty people in to remove them plus my neighbours might not be happy...however there is a steady flow of food [birdnuts in feeders all around the garden] and if i take them down my birds will lose out.. any ideas people to move them away safely...
Gardeners' World Web User
19/08/2011 at 13:57
I have dormice, Kate. They make holes in the hazelnuts which are really plentiful this year. Poppy, your female rat and her offspring will soon have more. Make sure your building is rat proof before the winter, when they like to come in for warmth and can cause fires by chewing through electrical wiring.
Gardeners' World Web User
19/08/2011 at 13:59
I have woodmice they live under my shed and under my decking. They use to come out a great deal, we use to love watching them collect peanuts and sunflower seeds we put out for the birds, put cats have found their spot and now they seem to only come out early morning. So I have safeguarded a spot for them, with their own peanuts and sunflower seeds. They hve shared our space for four years now. Like the bumblebees have grown very found of them. Oh! and my leaf cutter insects.
Gardeners' World Web User
19/08/2011 at 23:03
I have field mice in the garden as we back onto open countryside, We are fortunate to have a high number of birds of prey which often hunt over the garden, along with the local cats they haven't become too much of a problem yet! So long as they stay outside I don't mind! http://higgysgardenproject.blogspot.com/ Higgy
Gardeners' World Web User
20/08/2011 at 08:16
I've had mice in my greenhouse, one year they ate all my sweet peas. I managed to catch them in humane traps and my husband took them and let them go on the common on his way to work (bless him). This year we have had a rat and it has been caught. Poppy, I think you will have to remove them, they breed so fast and I think the babies are ready to breed in about 5 weeks. I have read on google that a pair of rats and their offspring can produce 1500 in a year. Hope that helps, good luck.
Gardeners' World Web User
20/08/2011 at 10:32
oh dear i think im gonna have to get rid of them,happymarion and donutsmrs,i just dont want to kill them,as i feel awful doing that,ive been looking on line so i may buy a pest repellant that you plug in and put 1 in the shed although they are not in shed but just t cover myself [as i dont want a fire] and plug 1 in the garden as i have a power point on wall [just have to keep check of weather... any other ideas of getting rid of them kindly,my neighbour did say maybe the snake may of controlled them by eating them but that hasnt worked...plus i have a dog,hedghogs and im worried it will harm them....
Gardeners' World Web User
21/08/2011 at 07:48
I know how you feel about killing them Poppy, I let my husband deal with it as I didn't want to see it and it made me feel so sad that we had to do that. The trouble is I think they can carry a lot of disease. I know you can get humane rat traps like you can for mice but when you've caught them what do you do with them, so may be the plug in ultrasonic devices will work, keep us informed Poppy on how it goes.
Gardeners' World Web User
21/08/2011 at 09:41
Poppy, you may like to hear what i do to be safe from rats. They do like bare ground to did their holes (spherical tops) so I use ground cover a lot in my large garden, although "weeds"left to do there own thing will do it too, but I prefer the pretty ones like yellow archangel, acaena microphylla, perennial sweet peas, the poached egg plant, phacelia, etc. No sign of rat holes when the ground is covered! My resident fox is a great help too. If I ever see a bare patch I rush to plant something in it because I have never forgotten the stench from the dead rat I had once under the floor boards.
Gardeners' World Web User
21/08/2011 at 17:34
I recently had a field mouse that found its way from the garden to my sitting room. I purchased a humane mouse trap in my local pet shop (Caterham, Surrey), I put a few pieces of chocolate inside and it worked within minutes. As soon as I heard the mousetrap close, I took it back to the field and released the mouse!.I purchased 3 humane mouse traps, in case there was more than one mouse in my house/garden. Each costs under £4. I believe that a field mouse is harmless, but if in doubt, you can throw away the humane mousetrap after use. You'll get a good feeling about saving the mouse's life!
Gardeners' World Web User
21/08/2011 at 20:20
Are you all mad? Unfortunately rats are vermin, carry disease and breed prolifically, you must destroy them or be overrun. I put rat poison into sealed bags laced with peanut butter and put near ratruns( a farmer told me they can't resist it and only rats and mice will chew through plastic) No wonder farmers laugh at us backyard gardeners, pussyfooting about!
Gardeners' World Web User
21/08/2011 at 21:49
hi happymarion,well thats confused me as my garden is full of plants [hardly any bare patches anywhere] what i think the main problem is ..my garden backs onto farm/woods and im not sure they are even any rat-nests as i cant even find any holes,they just come through the fences....however have today got a plug in rat repellant so fingers crossed......
Gardeners' World Web User
21/08/2011 at 21:51
as about ...forgot to say happymarion, i also have a fox family... so again...confused
Gardeners' World Web User
22/08/2011 at 07:26
Poppy, your situation is so different from mine. I live in a big city where you are never more than a few yards from rats and where the foxes are scavengers of the rubbish bins where rats abound. I do hope the deterrent works. In the absence of the natural predators of rats whom we have over the centuries eliminated, we have to protect ourselves from their ravages, not just the threat to our houses but from the disease they can cause.
Gardeners' World Web User
22/08/2011 at 09:34
I didn't mind the mice, but the rats had to go. I was on tenterhooks as I slowly emptied the compost bins, keeping my heavy spade to hand ready to administer capital rodenticide. But they had been given a tip. The box was empty. The rest of my family was greatly relieved not to see either scurrying rats or me chasing after them.
Gardeners' World Web User
22/08/2011 at 10:10
Poppy - sorry to hear about your rat. My mum always jokes that despite all my efforts to make her garden a wildlife haven, all she's ever had are wasps and rats. One year she had a rat hibernating in her compost bins. She made me go out with a spade to 'evict' it. I turned the bins over and, thankfully, the rat ran off, never to be seen again. Good luck with your deterrent, fingers crossed it works. Happymarion - I am so jealous of your dormice! Kate
Gardeners' World Web User
22/08/2011 at 12:14
Kate, it's coming to the time of year when I catch glimpses of my dormice, when I am out at dusk having bramble bonfires, as they sleep for six months of the year and are nocturnal. But they like to eat lots of nuts to put on fat for the winter and I can be sure to hear them scurrying up through the ivy in my pear tree which has lots of hiding places to stop and nibble and is near my spinney of nut trees. I look forward to the pleasure of their company each year in the autumn.
Gardeners' World Web User
22/08/2011 at 15:37
I love mice but so do my two cats, nothing lives long in my garden unless its quicker than the cats.
Gardeners' World Web User
22/08/2011 at 17:13
well ... update..... detterent has not worked [well so i think anyway],rats are still around not as busy looking for food though but that might just be that its a warm day....so now it means nasty food time,im gonna have to buy some of the you know what..... i counted 7 in my garden this morning...im dreading putting the food down but im just gonna have to do it. although just had another idea,do rats go from the nest once there big enough???? as if they do maybe i dont need to put nasty food down....
Gardeners' World Web User
22/08/2011 at 19:10
hiya people,sorry but this hasnt got anything to do with mice, if i was to put weedkiller on my lawn to kill all the weeds would it kill the grass??? if so whats the best method to rid the weeds from my lawn... thank you.
Gardeners' World Web User
23/08/2011 at 15:48
Rats only there for food. Get rid of the food. Birds can survive without scraps this time of year.
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