Mouse Alert

[The Mouse]

It's obvious from people's comments that mice (and rats) are making a nuisance of themselves quite early this year.

I just want to warn anyone who's invested in things like enviromesh or protective fleece to be careful where they store it - the mice will eat it!

I learned the hard way several years ago, when I left my first ever piece of enviromesh in the lottie shed over winter. When I got it out to use in spring, it was full of holes.

Nowadays, I store all my nets, fleece etc inside an empty waterbutt in the shed (with the lid on, obviously), and so far this has kept them safe.

There - you've been warned!

[alan refail]

mouse.jpg (3.73 KiB) Viewed 5196 times

Well. there you have it - from the mouse's mouth

[The Mouse]

mouse.jpg

Well. there you have it - from the mouse's mouth

[arthur e]

Just a little warning about handling "dead" mice and voles. I was bitten by a "dead" Vole 2 weeks ago and have just come out of hospital after suffering Leptospirosis, nearly had to go on Dialysis but I'm getting over it.
Arthur

[Arnie]

Hi Arthur,

That sounds serious and I do not want to make light of this but how do you get bitten by a DEAD vole
Lets hope your recovery is a swift one


Kind Regards


Kevin

[The Mouse]

Yeeks, that sounds nasty, Arthur.
I was handling a dead one myself at the weekend when I was cleaning out the garden shed, but I'm pretty certain that one really was dead - it looked well past its sell-by date.
But I'll certainly double-check next time before I pick one up.

[oldherbaceous]

Dear arther e, i wish you the speediest of recoveries.

[Primrose]

That sounds really nasty and a reminder to wear protective gloves whenever picking up a dead corpse.
Yes, mice will shred anything fibrous which comes to hand. We left a roll of plastic plastic bin bags and a pile of old magazines in a corner of our garage temporarily. When we came to move them they had been shredded to bits for nest making. Also seed packets should be kept secure in a lidded box too otherwise the packets will be torn and the seeds nibbled. Last year they even nibbled through one of the very thick skins of a Crown Prince to get at the seeds inside.

[arthur e]

Thanks for your concern everyone but it was my fault. The Mrs screamed in the kitchen that the cat had brought a mouse in so when I got there the Vole was lying at the cats feet looking quite dead so I reached down to pick it up and it sunk its teeth into the knuckle joint of my left index finger, my did it bleed but I just sucked it like you do then got a glove and chucked it back into the field where I suppose it came from.4 days later,a Sunday, the bite scene became very red and sore and I started to feel feverish and had very little appetite. Saw my doctor on the Friday but he said I had a chest infection. Saturday morning I went to see the experts at my local chemist and the the lassy who makes up the prescriptions said go home and I'll get NHS24 to phone you, got home 5 mins later NHS rang and told to go to my local hospital where they checked my water and straight away sent me to Aberdeen hospital so spent a week with all sorts of tubes in me.It took them 5 days to come up with an answer, At least it wasn't an ordinary disease, apparently there's only been 7 cases in Scotland in the last 10 years, hows that for brownie points.
Arthur

[oldherbaceous]

Glad your making good progress arther e, and well done for keeping your sense of humour up too.

I should think it was quite scary for all involved.

[ken]

My sympathies to Arthur as well. I'd just like to report that 10 years or so I was given a great length of really top quality wool carpet that was being thrown out of an old house. It made great insulating covers for my compost heaps but sadly over the years the mice have made great holes in the carpet, nicking the wool pile to line their nests. It's time to find some replacements. Also, just today, we found that about a third of a really good buttercup squash had been eaten away by mice in the garage. Most of the rest of the squash are safely in boxes.

[Primrose]

These creatures may be small but they can certainly inflict damage. I recently (for the second time) had to have my car's ventilation system stripped and cleaned out because it was full of mice nesting material.

And this is despite continually putting mouse bait down in the garage to clear them out. I suspect the cold weather and a nice warm car engine makes it an ideal environment for them.

[Geoff]

They seem to have been eating onion seeds, would hardly have thought they were worth the bother. They were probably just germinating so perhaps onion sprouts are a tasty morsel.

[Geoff]

Felt almost sorry for the healthy looking Long Tail Field Mouse I took out of the trap this morning - Onion Sprouts must be good for them.