Northern Lass - you're absolutely right - no such thing as 'one' mouse. We set traps every night for quite a while when they were getting into the electrics cupboard - it would have been impossible to block up every point of entry in that house anyway. Since the previous owners weren't exactly good housekeepers, the mice had made themselves very much at home. I had to 'muck out' that cupboard
Removing easy to reach food sources helps a lot - they're opportunists. A nice cosy house is a better bet for security than the big bad outdoor world too.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Cleared out under the kitchen sink this morning and found...a large box of unopened mouse poison that the mice had half eaten! But I know they are still alive as I heard one blundering around in there at 5.30 this morning. The Jack Russell would not go into the cupboard even after I had vacuumed up everything, she just put her ears flat and refused to go in.
Went and got new poison already in containers, put 2 in there. All cloths and dusters have been boiled and will now go into plastic boxes for protection. (I don't look after my jewelry this well!) I can guess where they are getting in; around the pipework, but that is a difficult area to block off, though will try with some MDF I've got.
If you use the right sort, it's supposed to set pretty hard, but of course, there's no accounting for tastes or teeth! It's what the builders use nowadays to fill around replacement windows and pipework, so it ought to be pretty tough.
I've read a tip on the internet which says to stop rodents put wire wool inside the hole before filling with the expanding foam.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
We put wire wool round a boxed-in pipe in the electrics cupboard and also the expanding foam, but it was impossible to block everywhere with foam because of the limited access inside the cupboard - pipes ran right down in one corner and we simply couldn't get to it all. We just had to set traps because they still got in and also nibbled it....
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
How big is the snail? What might the mouse-like thing be, if not a mouse? Not big & beefy enough for a rat, even a baby I think (our cat used to bring in baby rats so I've seen a few). Bank voles have short tails. Looks a bit like a field mouse to me...
Since 2019 I've lived in east Clare, in the west of Ireland.
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Northern Lass - you're absolutely right - no such thing as 'one' mouse. We set traps every night for quite a while when they were getting into the electrics cupboard - it would have been impossible to block up every point of entry in that house anyway. Since the previous owners weren't exactly good housekeepers, the mice had made themselves very much at home. I had to 'muck out' that cupboard
Removing easy to reach food sources helps a lot - they're opportunists. A nice cosy house is a better bet for security than the big bad outdoor world too.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Cleared out under the kitchen sink this morning and found...a large box of unopened mouse poison that the mice had half eaten! But I know they are still alive as I heard one blundering around in there at 5.30 this morning. The Jack Russell would not go into the cupboard even after I had vacuumed up everything, she just put her ears flat and refused to go in.
Went and got new poison already in containers, put 2 in there. All cloths and dusters have been boiled and will now go into plastic boxes for protection. (I don't look after my jewelry this well!) I can guess where they are getting in; around the pipework, but that is a difficult area to block off, though will try with some MDF I've got.
Artjak - try the expanding foam stuff to fill in around the pipework - B&Q etc have it
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Dove, thank you for that suggestion; do you think they would munch their way through it?
If you use the right sort, it's supposed to set pretty hard, but of course, there's no accounting for tastes or teeth! It's what the builders use nowadays to fill around replacement windows and pipework, so it ought to be pretty tough.
I've read a tip on the internet which says to stop rodents put wire wool inside the hole before filling with the expanding foam.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
We put wire wool round a boxed-in pipe in the electrics cupboard and also the expanding foam, but it was impossible to block everywhere with foam because of the limited access inside the cupboard - pipes ran right down in one corner and we simply couldn't get to it all. We just had to set traps because they still got in and also nibbled it....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
The Jack Russell has just caught this, right outside the house, 1 metre from the undersink cupboard
I don't think it is a mouse. I put the snail there for an idea of scale.
Bumping this in hope of an identification.
How big is the snail? What might the mouse-like thing be, if not a mouse? Not big & beefy enough for a rat, even a baby I think (our cat used to bring in baby rats so I've seen a few). Bank voles have short tails. Looks a bit like a field mouse to me...
I thought field mice were tiny; just been out to measure this creature and it is 16/17 cm nose to tail.