It's getting tough out there. Feeling the pinch?

newlywed

YoungBlueEyes said:

That reminds me of when we last stayed in Dublin….. 

I’m about to make an actual money saving suggestion! A helpful contribution! Not just chatter! Whodathunkit! 

We stayed in a youth hostel. It was marvellous! Cheap, clean, central, good position for doing stuff. 

How d’ya like them apples 😃

Hmmm not like the hostel we stayed in just south of Dublin some years back…. It was grimy, long black stands of hair everywhere like the floor had never been swept …. And not sure the pillows had ever been washed either 

and we had booked a private room….

YoungBlueEyes

Jeez that’s awful!  Did you complain?

newlywed

No, the place was pretty much empty and we were only there for a couple of nights. It was quiet… Just not clean.

-taff

They are a lot different to what they used to be now, you can book an individual room if you want to now.

Slinky

Woolsery said:

Slinky said:

VintageHistorian said:

Slinky said:

Didn't get anything in the traps last night. Will re-bait with chocolate as well as peanut butter and move them to different positions tonight. The mouse we caught yesterday was on the shelf right where the food source had been removed from.

We thought we had a rodent problem in the loft a few years ago (thankfully it was actually a bird). The man that came out to put down traps told me that mice are much easier to catch than rats. Mice are stupid and go straight for anything that looks like food. Rats have better memories and are smarter, so they recognise when things have been moved or when something new has been put down, and therefore avoid it.

Hopefully it is just mice, in which case it should be quicker and easier to catch them, but if there's quite a few of them then it might take a week or two. If it something bigger than you may need to leave the traps in place for longer in order to succeed in catching them.

Unfortunately I think there's rats as well as mice given the size of the blooming great big hole that's been gnawed in the bird food box. Plus there's rat sized poo as well as lots of mouse sized poo. Nothing caught last night.

With rats, you must be consistent and patient. Put the traps in the right places and they still won't be caught straight away. They need time to adjust to the change in their environment and gain confidence. Once they decide the trap is non-threatening, success should follow.

How long? Not sure, but weeks, probably!

Blimey, not looking forward to weeks of it!  We've dragged out lots of the contents of the garage, there's mice and rat poo everywhere. Loads of it, mostly hard and dry so they've obviously been in there for several weeks.  We've swept the shelves of the racking units and floors down, thrown some stuff out, and hired a small storage unit to put vulnerable items in away from gnawing teeth, until we can get rid of them. By cleaning the shelves we're hoping to be able to see when we're getting fresh deposits. There's about 20% of the garage still to do, hopefully get to that tomorrow.  Thanks goodness it was dry and we could drag stuff out onto the drive.  We haven't actually seen any of them.

Separately, the builders found a dead mouse under the washing machine, but I think that's likely to be down to the cat as it's in the room her cat flap is in.

Blackcats

@Florenceem has inspired me to make a donation to SA.  She and her colleagues work so hard.  My donation might not help D but I hope will make a small difference to someone.  It certainly is getting tough out there - I'm in my house, well fed, quite warm and safe - makes me appreciate how fortunate I am.

Florenceem

Blackcats - thank you.
No news on Dan - it is difficult as hospital's deal with next of kin - not sure where his are.
Had a self employed child minder asking for food bank help today - she is not getting enough work.
Been sorting out goods for tomorrow's sale which is 10-1 but we will be there at 7am to set up. Have to be cleared and ready for a memorial service in the afternoon.

JIL

Slinky said:

Woolsery said:

Slinky said:

VintageHistorian said:

Slinky said:

Didn't get anything in the traps last night. Will re-bait with chocolate as well as peanut butter and move them to different positions tonight. The mouse we caught yesterday was on the shelf right where the food source had been removed from.

We thought we had a rodent problem in the loft a few years ago (thankfully it was actually a bird). The man that came out to put down traps told me that mice are much easier to catch than rats. Mice are stupid and go straight for anything that looks like food. Rats have better memories and are smarter, so they recognise when things have been moved or when something new has been put down, and therefore avoid it.

Hopefully it is just mice, in which case it should be quicker and easier to catch them, but if there's quite a few of them then it might take a week or two. If it something bigger than you may need to leave the traps in place for longer in order to succeed in catching them.

Unfortunately I think there's rats as well as mice given the size of the blooming great big hole that's been gnawed in the bird food box. Plus there's rat sized poo as well as lots of mouse sized poo. Nothing caught last night.

With rats, you must be consistent and patient. Put the traps in the right places and they still won't be caught straight away. They need time to adjust to the change in their environment and gain confidence. Once they decide the trap is non-threatening, success should follow.

How long? Not sure, but weeks, probably!

Blimey, not looking forward to weeks of it!  We've dragged out lots of the contents of the garage, there's mice and rat poo everywhere. Loads of it, mostly hard and dry so they've obviously been in there for several weeks.  We've swept the shelves of the racking units and floors down, thrown some stuff out, and hired a small storage unit to put vulnerable items in away from gnawing teeth, until we can get rid of them. By cleaning the shelves we're hoping to be able to see when we're getting fresh deposits. There's about 20% of the garage still to do, hopefully get to that tomorrow.  Thanks goodness it was dry and we could drag stuff out onto the drive.  We haven't actually seen any of them.

Separately, the builders found a dead mouse under the washing machine, but I think that's likely to be down to the cat as it's in the room her cat flap is in.

Rats are awful creatures, I understood that rats and mice are rarely found in the same place.

We had rats in our old house many years ago and the only way we stopped them was closing up their entry point.
I also invested in an electric terminator. This was placed in a tunnel along where they ran, caught a few that way and no poison. 
I also read that rats hate catnip, I bought a few bottles from the pet shop and sprayed it everywhere they had been (the loft)

Good luck with getting rid.

Longwalker

A few years ago we were over run by mice, seriously would be sat there eating dinner and the wee beggars would be running about the top of the kitchen cupboards

It was a very wet year

We had traps everywhere and would be disposing of 4/5 a day, and still we found them

Finally found where they were getting in. We have an oil boiler - in the garage - and they were working theirselves through the pipes ( well not in the pips, but the space for the pipes ) and popping out in the hot press. Once we found that route, we finally eliminated them, filled the spaces with wire wall and cemented over 

A mouse can get through any space that a 50p can get through, so hunt carefully 

YoungBlueEyes

Jeez I haven't heard anybody else say hot press in years