Three storage steps back...

[grenfell]

Oh the irony , loaned my wonderful trap to a customer who caught one a day for almost a fortnight , then lent it out again to another customer who still has it and guess what, I've got some getting in the house so had to go out and get some traps

[ukpreppergrrl]

Commiserations Grenfell. Hope whatever blighter is coming in will soon be beating a hasty retreat. I fear it is that time of year...the spiders come in, the ladybirds try to come in, the rodents come in. Hope you're charging your customers

[Decaff]

Not seen so many spiders this year (now I have jinxed myself and will be finding them everywhere) ladybirds alwasy come and stay over winter in the brick air vents in my kitchen wall, then they all try to get out at once and the mogsplosh has a field day chasing them around...

Does anyone know if the conkers placed in each corner of the room do actually keep the spiders away?? Not tried it but have heard about it working, so has anyone tried it?

[grenfell]

Conkers and spiders! After some moans in our house about the spiders we put down the conkers. The interweb seems to be undecided as to how efficient it is but we do seem to have had less spiders since. However , one indication of the furry vermin was to find the conkers chewed up so I'm starting to think the spiders can be tolerated with . To make it slightly worse looking at some droppings I've found it's possibly a rat , a little large for a mouse so I'm thinking a young rat. It would be consistent as I know there is a nest in next doors chicken run and I've seen and caught them on my own garden. Backing on to farmland probably doesn't help either

[Decaff]

Thanks Grenfell, I will give them a try if I can find any decent ones!!

[grenfell]

Therein lies the problem. I'm betting it is the same mouse! You need to take them a significant distance away (I'm talking a least a mile) they have inbuilt satnav which brings them back to their place of origin. A friend of mine (just to be extra sure) drops hers off (or rather her OH does!) on his way to work six miles from their home.


Pesky varmits.....................

I'd set traps and put poison down but to be sure my wife called in pest control. Didn't cost us anything as the house insurance covers it but I told the story of the humane trap to him and mentioned it could be the same mouse. Yes ,he said , they need to be driven off somewhere in the car to be sure and asked me if I let the ones I'd caught go. No I said , I drown them. Not that humane and not strictly speaking legal but ho hum.

[Decaff]

We don't get mice, living on second floor but we do get squirrels in the roof that just love to climb down the inside walls where the pipes run and appear under the bath... Mr D sat in wait for one for a day with a head torch and a pellet gun... Blighter rampaged round the bathroom when it eventually came out from under the bath, it got netted under a huge bath towel and taken to the woods near us for release but we ended up with so many of them we had to get pest control in. They set traps and you could hear them going off all the time, one was not caught properly and it made the most terrible screeching noises that I sent OH up to put it out of its misery. Had them a couple of years running but now their entrance has been blocked up so not seen them since. They were so loud up there and t sounded like they were unscrewing things as you would hear things dropped and then roll across the ceiling....

[Yorkshire Andy]

We don't get mice, living on second floor but we do get squirrels in the roof that just love to climb down the inside walls where the pipes run and appear under the bath... Mr D sat in wait for one for a day with a head torch and a pellet gun... Blighter rampaged round the bathroom when it eventually came out from under the bath, it got netted under a huge bath towel and taken to the woods near us for release but we ended up with so many of them we had to get pest control in. They set traps and you could hear them going off all the time, one was not caught properly and it made the most terrible screeching noises that I sent OH up to put it out of its misery. Had them a couple of years running but now their entrance has been blocked up so not seen them since. They were so loud up there and t sounded like they were unscrewing things as you would hear things dropped and then roll across the ceiling....

They are hard to kill humanely even with a 11.5 ft lb air rifle....

Releasing is illegal as they are vermin....


I found mk4 fenn traps are ideal loaded with peanut butter
And left unset several times to encourage them to become used to it / feeding from it...


Covered with a plant trough with holes at each end to get them onto the trap properly for a clean kill

[Decaff]

I know, I know but I just couldn't let him kill it..... it was bad enough hearing them get squished in the traps.

[Yorkshire Andy]

ive found them very clever and able to avoid getting caught so i do this:


over the space of about a week i put the trap down with the safety catch on and unset the treddle for a couple of days let the tree rat get used to eating the sunpat goodness.....

next i did the same with the box over.......

then i set the treddle and left the safety on so it CLICKS loudly when it goes to it i jumped out at first but soon went back....

then the same with a bit of polythene carrier bag taped over the hole (to keep cats / birds out as i dont want to catch something im not trying to kill... )

next day i just set it without the safety use a brick or tent pegs to hold the box down and got one within 1 hour of rebating

not going to post the pic here as no doubt some wont like it but with patience they work well