Monday, March 17, 2008

007, round . . .10?

James Mouse is still winning.
UGH!

Live trap - cleaned of peanut butter every friggin' night but not sprung. (I think he's too light to trip it and I need to figure a way to get him to tug on something).
Poison - obviously he's too smart for that as it hasn't been touched.
Snap trap - licked clean as a whistle every morning and never snapped.

This smart, sneaky little son-of-a-you-know-what is driving us batty!
Last night he cleaned out my freshly germinated peppers. Every friggin' seed and sprout gone.
Grrr! I'm sure they could hear the swearing a mile away and the shocked look on my kids faces said it all. I was a ranting, raving, stomping, hair-pulling lunatic this morning.

I'm going to resort to the toilet paper roll and bucket trick tonight along with the rest of the arsenal.
I can't believe he's avoided being caught this long. I can't keep covering all my veg and flower sprouts every night. Besides, they're getting way too tall for the cover and my lettuce is suffering.

Maybe I'll switch (even though he obviously has a taste for PB) to bread dipped in syrup. Strange, the only thing he bothers with are the newly germinated seeds and sprouts. We've found no evidence of him anywhere else in the house.

Then again, maybe he'll be not too bright one of these nights. Cross your fingers for me before he cleans out every sprout and seed I have!

The battle continues...

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4 comments:

Robin Follette said...

Ugh! A little you-know-what ran rampant through my greenhouse making stashes of nice tender spinach and lettuce leaves. If the bucket doesn't work (it does for us in our cabin) you could try that sticky paper but then you have to dispose of them. Good luck!

Tina said...

hiya, Robin!
Thanks for dropping by.
So the bucket works?
Yes!
I rigged one up this afternoon. I guess we'll see what I get! Or how well I can engineer a better mouse trap. lol.

Precipice said...

I've been battling voles and mice in my greenhouse for years, and thought I had tried everything. But I recently read somewhere (sorry but can't remember where) that they are repelled by the smell of lavender! And maybe mint, too. Well, what a terrific solution! Just put a few drops of essential oil on some cotton balls, and scatter them in your beds.

And if it doesn't work--well, lavender is calming, so it will help you stay peaceful when confronted with all the destruction. (Oh, yeah?)

If anyone tries this, let us know if it works. I can't put anything in my greenhouse yet as it still freezes at night.

Rosemary,
Chilcotin, B.C.

Tina said...

Oh, my gosh! Thanks so much for stopping in, Rosemary!
I heard about the lavender somewhere too. I think it was GardenWeb, but not sure.
This thread (getting rid of mice) says to use peppermint oil, but someone further down said it didn't work for them, so I dunno.

Lol, peaceful with the destruction? I don't think mounds of lavender would have enough oomph to make me calm enough to overlook chewed plants. I don't even think valium would work...

If you try using one of these tricks and it works, please do let us know. And thanks again for stopping by.
:)