Karmacat: To Infinity And Beyond!

Karmacat

Cheery - thats quite a lot! And thats exactly what I used to do with ordinary ones, but when they start giving birth around the house, its really not good. As gardeners, we must kill all sorts of stuff to get our gardens the way we like, I consider stuff that happens in the house in the same light.

Speaking of which, a labourer and the electrician have both told me I have mice in the loft, including bare wires where they've chewed through the insulation :eek: I really, really don't want to kill them, but I certainly want to encourage them onwards, so to speak. Anyone got any ideas?

EssexHebridean

ROFL @ Daff's spider community!!

KC - you do sound a lot better this morning. Re your mice, I know you can get a "thing" that emits a pitch of noise they simply can't stand and they apparently just "leave" - problem is, if they are in the loft they are presumably coming through from somewhere else (next door?) so unless you can work out where they are coming from, and block that access, they will return when the noise stops. :mad: You must sort it out though if they are chewing wires - that's a massive risk to you plus of course will increase the costs needed to get the house ship-shape. Good luck. How about investigating the possibility of something that mice can't abide the smell of? That might at least buy you some time to block their access path etc.

Karmacat

Thats a good idea, EH - thats the first thing on my list when I get well ...

se999

Karmacat wrote: »

Trouble is, there's nowhere really pleasant to rest yet - my bedroom is the best room in the house for relaxation, but that has lots of quilts in underbed boxes scattered about the room, the big bookcase from the office in there to be out the way of the building work, the blinds still haven't been fully cleaned since I moved in, and the joints in the ceiling panels need sealing (the surveyor commented on this) - from my point of view, they need it because spiders can waft down from the loft, which 2 have already done. And the carpet smells. Of dog I like dogs, just not eau de dog parfum.

:kisses3:

KC Sorry to hear you're not well. One thing I learned from frequent house moves is as soon as possible try to make one room OK to relax in. When you're busy sorting out the rest of the house it's nice to escape to just one room, even if it means the other rooms are messier longer. So maybe something to up on the priority when you're feeling better.

Sorry to hear about the mice in the loft, could it be squirrels not mice, they like cables too. Either way if you're connected to another house the neighbours are likely to have the same problem, so a joint attack is probably the best way forwards.

Karmacat

I know its true, se, I know. I did shove most of the quilts into the newly-doored airing cupboard yesterday (much more accessible storage space in there now, cos of the new door) and that helped. I can do a little bit of other, temporary stuff in here, actually, that will help till next week. To Infinity And Beyond!





EDIT - I just made a withdrawal of £140 from T AB.... we'll see what happens in the next few days.

Wol2

Karmacat wrote: »

Speaking of which, a labourer and the electrician have both told me I have mice in the loft, including bare wires where they've chewed through the insulation :eek: I really, really don't want to kill them, but I certainly want to encourage them onwards, so to speak. Anyone got any ideas?

I have had a self-perpetuating colony of mice for years in both my loft and in the first floor joists :eek: (presumably descended from the loft level via the cavity walls). Although replacing chewed wiring in the roof is relatively easy, if they start chewing at the next level down - it could be a really expensive problem to deal with.When I was facing the prospect (and expense/disruption) of having to rip up all my first floor floorboards the other month because we thought they had chewed through the ground floor ceiling light circuits..:eek:.it was then I realised that, as pleasant as it has been living with them over the last 10 years.......without a shadow of a doubt, they now HAVE to go .

I have over time managed to catch a few with humane traps and let them go in the graveyard opposite (which I now understand is too close to home apparently). However I never seemed to actually remove all the little blighters and soon after each "victory", the scurrying of tiny feet and gnawing was heard again. I thought I had finally got rid of them all when the house was fogged after the flooding :Dbut guess what - they are still in the roof...(.and recently something sounding "much larger" :eek: has started rustling around at first floor level in my study ceiling _pale_ ...and I need to summon up the courage to take up the floorboards in the cupboard under the eaves to find out what )

The only way to "encourage them on" is to make life unpleasant (i.e. get a cat!)..or you could try the sonic things (I might have one somewhere you can try - I will look it out this weekend - I bought it for the shed but never used it in the end because of the piggies.....)

Ultimately however, if they have done a large amount of damage and are clearly quite an established colony - you might feel the need to get in the pest control people via the council's environmental health department..or put your own bait down..hopefully yours are still restricted purely to the loft..

xxxx

redsquirrel80

Hi Karma

Glad you are feeling a bit better. And I hope you make time for your CD today

The sonic things are apparently pretty good for deterring mice. Alternatively borrow a cat! Or set the big spiders on them... errrm perhaps not!

We have lots of big spiders too at the moment - the cat tried to chase one last night but it curled up and played dead which really confused her! She has also taken a great interest in a gap in the floorboards in the dining room.. we have no idea what's down there!

Kittikins

Hi KC, we had slightly larder f"urry friends" recently and the council man came round quite quickly and dealt with them.......I hated the thought of killing them but I hate the thought of chewed and dangerous electrical cables and germs in the kitchen more.

I'm so glad I always wash the tops of food tins before opening them, I do it even more vigorously now!

MrsMoo2U

Morning KC - oops its afternoon sorry.

Mice, I had a lovely colony of them in my previous house. One used to sit in my hole in the wall fire washing his face whilst I was on the sofa - cheeky blighter . I started to catch them in humane traps but eventually they worked out how to get in and get the goodies without being caught. So one day a colleague suggested that I use a plastic litter bin. the idea was that I should grease the inside, lay it on its edge with something to create a tilt and put some chocolate in the bottom of the bin. I did this and the following morning came down to 2 little mice in there. They were so cute. Now I was told that I had been releasing them too close to home and they probably kept coming back so I decided to take them in my car to the office and release them in the fields there. Well, you can imagine the palaver I had taking them. I had to put the bin on the passenger seat and put the seatbelt around it so that it didnt fall over. I chatted to the little mice all the way there and explained to them what was happening and why it was important that they moved on in their life. I also promised to collect their mates and bring them along later. I did cause some strange looks when I got to the car park and took the bin out, wandered to the fence and emptied out two mice. It took several weeks of these kind of trips before I was sure that I had them all. I then got a sonic plug in from Wilkinsons and I never saw another mouse.
Hope you are feeling better. I have come down with something today.

Cheery_Daff

:rotfl: cherisong :rotfl: That's exactly what I would have done with the mice, told them I was very sorry but it wasn't working out them sharing my house, and that I hoped they'd enjoy their new adventure :rotfl: Sounds like it worked, perhaps because you were so respectful?