All my work comes to nothing

[pegkerr]

I am irate. Apparently, the mice in my basement have decided that the seed flats I'm starting down there are their own personal salad bar.

I came home to find that every single one of my broccoli plants had been eaten. And half the geraniums.

Now what???

Comments

[chance88088.livejournal.com]

eep. ok they may not be dead - but i'd move the whole project out of the basement - got a spare room to put them in?

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Alas, no.

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

Plant something poisonous in the seed flats?

Sticky traps...

[lsanderson.livejournal.com]

Or at least that's my best method for catching mice.

Re: Sticky traps...

[callunav.livejournal.com]

Yes, but...they're horrible.

There are some humane traps that actually work pretty well, though you'd probably need to remove alternate tempations like, say, fresh greens, before they'd go for the bait.

[huladavid.livejournal.com]

If mice = dwarves, then maybe you need some orcs?

No... _BAD_ idea, David. No doggie treat.

[lisajulie.livejournal.com]

Spend a little more money (not what you want to hear, I'm sure) and get some hardware cloth. In case they call it something else where you live, this is a metal square mesh with openings of about 1/4". You can build protective cages around the seed flats. Even mice can't get through that. Well, baby ones can, but adult ones can't.

Here's (http://www.homedepot.com/prel80/HDUS/EN_US/diy_main/pg_diy.jsp?CNTTYPE=PROD_META&CNTKEY=misc%2fsearchResults.jsp&BV_SessionID=@@@@0762218241.1110938791@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccecaddedlldigecgelceffdfgidgkk.0&MID=9876) an example from the Home Depot web site.

In addition, because you don't really want mice in your house, you can get some traps, either the snap kind or the live trap kind. Glue traps are just cruel. I baited my live traps with a raw almond and caught several mice. I then took the mice (in the trap) across the street, opened the trap, and gave the mouse a flying lesson. Terminal velocity for a mouse is low, but it seemed to discourage them. One of the mice refused to leave the trap with his half-eaten almond. It was cute.

Or maybe (serious sugestion)...

[huladavid.livejournal.com]

...steel wool? Look for any mouse sized holes, and stuff 'em full. I've the occasional mouse in my apartment, and have considered doing this (apparently they can't chew through it).

There was the mouse I found in the bathtub, and accidentally "slooshed" down the drain. The poor thing crawled back up, and I was able to catch & release the soggy bugger.

Then there was the bat. Ask Carol about the bat...

Re: Or maybe (serious sugestion)...

[lisajulie.livejournal.com]

Steel wool in all the obvious openings is an excellent idea.

Unfortunately, mice are extremely, well, compressible. They come in through slits and cracks that seem to be orders of magnitude too small for them.

The best luck I've had is with capturing them and transporting them (exile and transportation!) and eventually the word goes out through the mousy grapevine that a given place is unhospitable.

I did it with the live traps and flying mouse lessons. This house is both old enough and re-muddled enough that there are lots of places for mice to scamper and the reigning feline can't get to them.

In a previous house where the mice were much less able to hide in the walls, the reigning feline did the trick. She'd catch mice and carry them upstairs to play with. They got the news and then I got to hear my next-door neighbors complaining about their new mouse infestation.

Re: Or maybe (serious sugestion)...

[callunav.livejournal.com]

As far as making cages for the plants, you're probably okay with anything up to 1/2" - at least, my adult-but-runtish escape artist mouse couldn't get out of that, when I needed a termporary home for him.

[porphyrin.livejournal.com]

I second the idea of screened cages, sadly.

It was the only thing that stopped the rodents from decimating our broccoli and green peppers-- and ours were outside, so your poor seedlings will be in danger again once transplanted.

[blackholly.livejournal.com]

I say Hav-a-hart traps. Worked like a charm.

[jbru.livejournal.com]

Remember thost posts about non-allergenic cats? Looking like a better idea all the time.

[zephyrious.livejournal.com]

I used to use a huge screen cage with lighting hung from the inside of the cage.

Oddly, my cage was to keep the *cat* out. He likes digging in dirt as well as eating vegetation. At least he keeps the the rodent population down around here.