Tam the bam

... what am I gonna do?

Well not quite, but whilst my daughter was eating her dinner she shouted 'Dad a mouse just ran under the decking' I replied 'don't be silly Lisa it was probably a leaf or something getting blown by the wind' Anyhoo I sat down at the table and she was right enough, we watched it running about the garden picking up the seeds which fell from the bird feeder and then running back under the decking.

So do I leave it to get on with it's life or try to trap it? will I get overrun with them and will it and family gnaw the struts of the decking allowing moisture in causing the wood to rot?

Thoughts please

john_s

iTrader: (1)

As it's outside, leave it be.

Presuming your decking is vacuum treated timber, it won't taste very nice for Mr Mouse, and he did eat it, the treatment chemicals probably won't do much for his continued health.

Tam the bam

Kinda what I thought, I'll leave him be The decking isn't next to the house (it's up in the corner of the garden where the sun stays longer in summer) so he'll no be able to get in the house I put some bird seed on the slab to tease him out, but the resident Robin appeared and ate it He'll have to be a fast mouse if he's gonna stay though as I have a Border collie, next door have two and the lass over the fence has three cats!

Scoobychick

iTrader: (1)

We live next door to a beck and from time to time get rats living nearby. We had one who lived in the opposite bank and we used to spend hours watching him or her swimming across the beck to get some of our duck food, then swimming back to the nest with it.

Occasionally we'd see 'Roland' disappear under our log store next to the house but we weren't too bothered and found him or her rather cute

Then one evening we were laying in bed reading and heard a scratching in the partition wall behind the bed. This went on for a few nights and was definitely the sound of a small rodent trying to munch it's way into the bedroom

We hoped that it was a mouse but after much reading on the internet (that means it was definitely true ) it would appear that rats are becoming very skilled at shimmying up the inside of drainpipes to get into the roof space Hmm, mouse or rat? Make of this what you will but one thing was for sure...

Roland had to go!! We put some poison down inside and out and after a day or so the scratching stopped and Roland was never to be seen again

Jamie

resident Robin/'Roland'

Dream Weaver

You'd be amazed at how and when they get in your house. We had a lot around a shed in the middle of the garden that used to eat the bird food - I left them as I quite like them, but after a while they started coming into the house and I have no idea how they got in.

Mrs wasn't happy so they had to go, bird feeders went as well

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

Mice are everywhere, especially since the advent of the recycler bins.

If you want a REAL shock, try being upstairs reading, when your youngest, then 11, shouts upstairs: "Dad!! Squirrel in the house!!"

I rushed downstairs thinking OMG, how the fek do you catch a squirrel and do they bite, only to find that it was the comatose HEDGEHOG I'd rescued from the neighbour's cat, and put in the porch in a box to await the RSPCA!. It "came back to life" in the warmth, and the kid, arriving home from his mate's, was so shocked at seeing a wild animal in the hall, that he forgot what it was. He's not lived it down yet, and is now 18.

Stupid kid! Also, stupid hedgehog, as I had to go round after him killing ticks and fleas!

Alcazar

shaunywrx

Get shot of it now QUICKLY, i bet it's a rat rather than a mouse, especially if you've got decking and bird feeders out, before you know it, you'll be over run with the bloody things.

GC8WRX

Burn it