RMweb Premium PhilJ W Posted September 16, 2012 RMweb Premium Share Posted September 16, 2012 A mouse once ran over my bare foot, I stepped back in surprise and planted my other size 12 on the mouse. Exit one very flat mouse. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SRman Posted September 17, 2012 Share Posted September 17, 2012 We have a multitude of cats and this works every time, and yes, your missus was right, don't pick a mouse up with bare hands, they have extremely sharp teeth. Our previous cat, Lucy, was not a very adept hunter, having been abandoned as a young kitten and not had the benefit of playing with her siblings to learn the techniques. She caught two mice in her entire 17 year life and in each case had no idea what to do with the mouse once she had caught it. One she actually carried into the house by the tail, let it go and watched it run up our curtains and hide under the pelmet! She then 'asked' us to catch it and give it back to her! The other mouse we had to put out of its misery after she insisted on playing with it like a new toy for hours. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Gwiwer Posted September 17, 2012 RMweb Premium Share Posted September 17, 2012 There are always mice where humans live. Most of us may never see one. They keep out of our way by and large. But they are not solitary creatures and where one is a nest won't be far away. They also breed like .... errrrmmm ...... well - rabbits! We currently have one cat though had two until recently. He is a reluctant hunter and a house cat who has a secure run outside but he's rather too handy at bringing us skink tails as little gifts. The skink usually arrives later vomitted with the rest of his lunch as they don't seem to agree with him. He's never had a mouse. What's a skink? A small native lizard about 3 inches long. There are numerous roaming cats in the area who do a grand job of keeping the mice under control with the result that I have seen one only once in 8 years at this address. Even with grain and feed pellets kept for the chickens there are no mice to be seen around and no tell-tale little black poops either. By contrast the cats cause damage to the (outdoor) layout from time to time which mice never do. My top tip for trapping is bait with chocolate - it's far more effective than cheese. Peanut butter works but left on traps in this country it will attract possums at a rate of knots. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
coachmann Posted September 17, 2012 Share Posted September 17, 2012 My brother-in-Law is a plumber, up to his eyes in sh*t most days and not easily spooked. One very hot Sunday afternoon he was resting on the sofa after a skin full of ale when he heard a commotion in the kitchen. Before he could get to his feet, his cat Dandilion literally flew into the living room on the end of a seagull. The combo's attempt at vertical take off took them into windows and across the sideboard with ornaments and plates flying in all directions, but Dandilion was in no mood to let go his grip despite my brother-in-Law's colourful instructions to do otherwise. Exhausted and In no mood to mess about any further, he despatched Dandilion swiftly with a hefty kick, then the mortally wounded seagull was neatly folded it up and bundled onto the fire while the huge wings went into the bin. Unfortunately all attempts to discreetly cover as much of the carcass with coal as possible before the missus and kids came in from next door only served to draw their attention after the chimney caught fire. Gawd, I miss the 1960s! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horsetan Posted September 17, 2012 Share Posted September 17, 2012 As with The Mousetrap, this thread deserves to run and run! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
laurenceb Posted September 17, 2012 Share Posted September 17, 2012 As with The Mousetrap, this thread deserves to run and run! "Groan" Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SRman Posted September 17, 2012 Share Posted September 17, 2012 As with The Mousetrap, this thread deserves to run and run! "Groan" ... or should that be "This thread deserves to run and pun"?? I know, that's even more groanworthy! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Q Posted September 17, 2012 Share Posted September 17, 2012 Living in the country surounded by fields, every year we suffer an invasion of rats and mice into the garden when they have harvested and it starts getting cold thats about now!!! I'm still building the railway shed but we had rats chewing through the floor before I had the roof on! We always have a bucket of rat poison in the house and so a large amount was poored down the hole. I've now gone round the shed blocking all holes with concrete. Oh they tried to chew in to the poison bucket (while it as in the shed) as well but we unsuccessful (unfortunately) A real oddity we suffer from is during the annual invasion we get mice in the void between the floor and ceiling of the ground and first floor but I have never found where they get in. Whereas the rats tried chewing their way through the front door! We've also had a huge out break of rabbits this year but the local fox has finally noticed! I keep finding bits of rabbit in the garden! The Q An Owl has now started making noises out there so he migh help as well! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold SHMD Posted September 17, 2012 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted September 17, 2012 ^ WOW! ..and I was troubled by one opertunistic mouse! (I recommend lead spray for the rats.) Kev. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Welly Posted September 17, 2012 RMweb Premium Share Posted September 17, 2012 My father and his brother grew up on a dairy farm and the barn was always plagued by rats so they used to shoot them with air rifles. I think someone posted here many months ago a video of a lady using night sighting to despatch rats. Once I trapped a mouse unexpectedly by keeping used pie foils in a strong plastic bag for recycling; one day a mouse was attracted by the smell of grub and climbed into the bag but could not get out. I saw it jumping up and down frantically - silly blighter! Sadly I never had a cat so I had to chuck it well away from my house. Coachman - I loved the story of your brother especially the failed attempt to cremate the dead seagull!!! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southernman46 Posted September 18, 2012 Share Posted September 18, 2012 Just baited two traps in the garage - we have Rabbits, Guinea pigs and Quails - and there is an abundance of grub (at least our mice are harvest mice but they still make a bl**dy mess) !! GOTCHA !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Q Posted September 18, 2012 Share Posted September 18, 2012 Looks out window, before settling to tonights hour on't net , Pheasant runs one way, Rabbit runs the other , squirel runs towards hazelnut tree, It'l be lucky it's mates have already had all the nuts and they aren't even ripe yet, none for me again this year!! The Q Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold SHMD Posted September 18, 2012 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted September 18, 2012 GOTCHA !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That mouse trap looks like something the Borg has made - no wonder it worked! Kev. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bbishop Posted September 19, 2012 Share Posted September 19, 2012 Many moons ago, when I was a kid, during breakfast the dog started making a racket in a corner of the kitchen. The cat sat in the middle of the room. Nothing we could do or say would quieten the dog, until a mouse shot out and made a run for the back door, straight past the cat. Timmy didn't move, except a paw shot out. Easiest kill ever? Bill Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium jbqfc Posted September 19, 2012 RMweb Premium Share Posted September 19, 2012 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southernman46 Posted September 19, 2012 Share Posted September 19, 2012 That mouse trap looks like something the Borg has made - no wonder it worked! Kev. Aye - that'll be Mrs SM46 - only the finest ! Set phasers to "thwaaak" Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horsetan Posted September 20, 2012 Share Posted September 20, 2012 And now for some music by Deadmau5... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Gwiwer Posted September 20, 2012 RMweb Premium Share Posted September 20, 2012 I see my favourite murine thread is alive and well. Even if some of the subjects under discussion no longer are Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horsetan Posted September 20, 2012 Share Posted September 20, 2012 .... mortally wounded seagull was neatly folded it up and bundled onto the fire ........ Gawd, I miss the 1960s! There were some pretty serious things being smoked in the 1960s, but I'm not sure that seagull would have been classed as a legal "high" Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
graeme3300 Posted September 21, 2012 Share Posted September 21, 2012 Just to take the topic to another extreme . . . !!! With the right climatic conditions and good crops, sometimes the farmers just cannot win no matter what. Graeme Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Gwiwer Posted September 21, 2012 RMweb Premium Share Posted September 21, 2012 Ah - the good old Aussie mouse plague. Mostly happens in country towns and rural properties but can occur in the bigger cities. Hundreds of thousands of them are absolutely everywhere. It's a natural population explosion phenomenon. Same as the ladybird plague which hit the south east of England in the 1970s (1976?) when for days the air was thick with them and some food shops and cafes had to close. Then they all died leaving a carpet of carapaces underfoot which crunched as you walked (and you couldn't avoid them) and stank something awful. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DDolfelin Posted September 21, 2012 Share Posted September 21, 2012 I've been to food shops like that, Rick. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Posted September 23, 2012 Share Posted September 23, 2012 A wee bit more about MICE.. In the 1990's I was domiciled in a largely unknown part of the USA - Voluntown in the empty quarter of Connecticut...A mini Bermuda triangle all of its own. "We built a house atop a hill and if it weren't for the mice, we'd be livin' thar still..." Naively we built it bang in the middle of a Native American cemetary - not a good idea if you are sensitive to such matters. A fact that that was pointed out to us by a realtor when we went to sell it... Quite soon after moving in the odd mouse decided to join us. Which I felt, at the time, was rather charming. Of course, share your house with the native inhabitants, its their land, you are the intruder, why not...? The problem not forseen at that time, is that mice have a very vigorous breeding cycle and it was not long before they began appearing everywhere. And very destructive they are too. So after intense discussions with SWBO we turned our hand to becoming amateur pest exterminators. First we set traps, but it seemed no matter how many we set the abundance of mice increased exponentially.. So phase two - all manner of poison baits were obtained and set. This was very effective. Downside - You just have to live with the smell of rotting mouse carcassess in the walls for a couple of months. (The makers claim that the stuff makes them thirsty and they quit the house looking for water, but saw little if no evidence of that.) In fact they had taken up residence in the guestbedroom in the innards of the sleeper-sofa (A fact hat only came to light when we moved...) Having dealt with the mice, tribes of ringsnakes and milksnakes both took a fancy to our newly vacated basement and decided to make it their winter denning site... I was forever shooing them out of the garage which was their favourite point of entry. To add to this riot of natural harmony - One of the many old oak trees also served as the tribal gathering place for the largest colony of NA Crows I have ever seen - and house or no house they used it at certain times of the years for their various extremely noisy at all hours pow-wows. After fighting uselessly with the deer eating everything we planted, stumbling over grumpy copperheads who too, all of a sudden, seemed to find our grounds to their liking (who I was reliably told would never live where we did...), and living in the shadow of the turkey vultures who perpetually flocked overhead... We sold up and beat a hasty retreat down the road closer to civilization.. It all might or might not have something to do with a native american curse upon those who would - even unwittingly - desecrate hallowed ground. We hoped that the next owners would find it all as entertaining as we did! P.S. It was however a fantastic place for bird watching, growing peonies, and staring off into glorious sunsets... which was probably why it was chosen as a sacred burial site in the first place. They had shaped their graves like canoes and in the centre of each placed a large rock of white quartz,. each canoe pointing in the direction of the setting sun. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horsetan Posted September 23, 2012 Share Posted September 23, 2012 ....We sold up and beat a hasty retreat down the road closer to civilization.. .....We hoped that the next owners would find it all as entertaining as we did!.... I am suddenly reminded of a film called The Moneypit. I think Tom Hanks starred in it...... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Williams Posted September 23, 2012 Share Posted September 23, 2012 ROTFLMAO It took me a minute! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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