bleedin' mice!

[Primrose]

A strange question but do mice or rats generate a smell of ammonia when they die and rot?

Yesterday we were driving somewhere in my car when after a few minutes a very strong smell of ammonia started to drift into the car, so much so that we had to wind the windows down for a while. On returning home we could find no trace of anything mechanically wrong but did find a few traces of thin peanut skins inside the bonnet. (We normally store peanuts for the birds in our garage in a plastic lidded box but some could have spilled out and possibly have been eaten by mice/rats).
Once previously I experienced mice nesting in my car ventilation system and I had to have the dashboard stripped out to repair the damage they did, which is why I'm very anxious to avoid an expensive repetition. But we could find no dead corpses of mice/rats under the bonnet or elsewhere in the car so cannot imagine what generated the smell of ammonia. Any suggestions?

[Johnboy]

Hi Primrose,
I regret to have to inform you that Rats and Mice are forever urinating and I suspect that this is what you are actually smelling.
JB.

[Johnboy]

It all changed today when I met a Rat in the middle of my kitchen! I do not know who was the most surprised.
I live in a very old stone house and I know that mice travel through the walls and I can put up with those but I am now going to have all my kitchen cabinets removed to find out how the rat actually got into the place. I will no doubt find a multitude of sins going on behind the cupboards. I have had to do this twice before for the same reason.
I cannot find anywhere where vermin can get into the walls from outside
but they seem to know more than I do just at present!
JB.

[Geoff]

Over the years before we bought this place we looked at a lot of properties and even paid for surveys on a few of them. One of my favourite quotes from a survey is "There were mouse traps in the kitchen and evidence of larger vermin at first floor level". We still put in an offer but couldn't agree on a deal.

[Johnboy]

I have had a builder friend in this morning and we removed the worktop from the outer wall cabinets and could see behind the sink area a hole damn near big enough to drive a bus in. This has been repaired and I trust that should be an end to the mice as well. The hole through and along the wall took over a two gallon bucket of mortar. No more surprises I hope. It is amazing how much debris there was underneath the cabinet.
I noticed that the cats have had two rats overnight so now feel fairly confident now.
JB.

[pongeroon]

Well at least you know where those pesky buses were coming from, JB

I don't suppose your builder is John Morgan? Or his lovely brother Andy? They are from your neck of the woods.

[Johnboy]

Hi Pongeroon,
Afraid not. My builders name is Gary and he is red hot at his job. I am afraid that I do not know these Morgan chaps at all. Strange because I know most of the tradesmen hereabouts.
JB.

[oldherbaceous]

I hope the rat didn't dig back through the mortar before it has set, Johnboy, i know they will do this.

Were there a lot of escaped peas under the cabinet from your pea podding event days.

[Johnboy]

Hi OH,
A very good morning to you!
I know what rats are capable of but the mortar was rammed more that a metre through the stonework and quick setting cement used. I suspect that a rat would run out of teeth before it got into my kitchen again.
I have left the skirt off the bottom of the sink cabinet with two rat traps baited just in case there is one still in the house trying to get out!
JB.

[oldherbaceous]

Morning Johnboy, sounds like a good job done then, especially since you used rapid setting cement.

Bet there's a rat around with toothache this morning.

[Geoff]

I found vermin getting in past the boiler flue. It was well sealed on the outside but not so well inside so they were obviously getting into the rubble fill of the stonewall elsewhere. Rammed in chicken wire then mortar.

[retropants]

goodness me! from stolen corms to rats in your kitchen!!

Well, I have an update, my mum and I found about 8 of the 200 corms I planted last Sunday, we turned the greenhouse upside down to no avail. There must be a stash somewhere, but it could be anywhere on our enormous plot. So, that's that. 200 corms down already, and only 3 weeks into the experiment.
I guess on the brightside, I still have 800 left (unless the mice find these too?)

Also on a positive note, I dug up 2 parsnips yesterday, and they are flipping massive. The biggest I have ever grown, and possibly ever seen!

[oldherbaceous]

Well this might make you feel a little better Retropants, when i went to dig a couple of Pasnips at the weekend they were completely hollow, just the outer skin left.

Is there anyway you could construct some suspended shelves at all, for your corms.

[retropants]

OH, so sorry to hear about the parsnips. Who ate the middles then?

As far as my flower corms go, it is all too late now. They are all planted in greenhouse borders, and a few at home in pots in my tiny greenhouse. Although the squirrel has managed to get in a steal a few of those too. Grrr.

The last planting date was last Sunday. I spread the planting over three weeks, to maximise my chances of actually getting some flowers at the right time!

Two plants are showing little green heads above the soil in earlier planted ones, so some are growing at least!

Thanks for your suggestions.
We live & learn!

[oldherbaceous]

Dear Retropants, i think the Parsnips were either eaten by voles or mice, not sure, but they have got to eat something i suppose.

I think once your plants have got a couple of inches high they should leave them alone, a lot like broad beans really.