i hate mieces to pieces!

Does anyone else get grief from mice? In my collection they seem to target the most precious of my brood ,biting chunks out of the tops. I've resorted to placing my prize plants in hanging baskets as the pests climb walls. Why are they doing this?, i know i shouldnt take it personally but its soooo annoying knowing it will take years to out grow the scarring. ive stopped making compost out of food scraps which i fear has been attracting them from the neighbourhood, and i have trapped heaps, but its like theve got a vendetta against me because of this and they know where to hit me where it hurts.

Bait them

the missus wont let me, and im also reluctant as we have ferrets which roam freely from time to time, but maybe if i place baits up high in secret hmmm...

Ferrets will kill mice.

^^ hehe. Get/borrow a cat......mice problem solved.

We had a cat, but i think there is a cat hater who traps and disposes of peoples cats as there are alot that go missing in my area. Yeah the mice werent so game when she was here, and so when she went missing we got some ferrets, but they sleep for 18 hours a day and are blind as bats, so theyre not too good for the wee little mice. I miss that cat but i dont miss the way she used to use my lettuces as a toilet ,.........funny thing *if you are able to look at my avatar picture closely, i believe the ghost of said cat {meow,meow} was her name ,can be seen to the left of the echinopsis in the background ,amongst the foliage ,in the exact area where she used to sit in the sun near the catmint...can anyone spot her face in the green? and that picture was taken soon after she disapeared.... {spooky?} thought id share that with yall.

Hmm... I'd suggest siccing the ferrets onto the mice anyway. Anything that has teeth like that has *got* to be good at exterminating vermin.

The little buggers did this to a kabuto and totally devoured a half dozen more. They also ate several thousand (I am not exagerating) seeds including chewing into unripe pods, in the same couple of nights. I have had them eat their way through dozens of lithops in a night and take a nibble on many different species in the past. A friend of mine discovered his Fouquieria purpusii had totally disappeared thanks to them recently and it was not a small plant. Now I am all for non-voilent conflict resolution but I found Talon to be a more efficient and satisfying solution. It's either that or collect non-edible(for a mouse that is) plants with sample nibbles on them.

Lachy wrote:

Hmm... I'd suggest siccing the ferrets onto the mice anyway. Anything that has teeth like that has *got* to be good at exterminating vermin.

Agreed! i'd say a ferret could potentially be a perfect vermin control device. even if not hungry it would very probably kill on instinct should the opportunity arise, much like a cat does. my friends' ferret ripped a poor dove to shreds! apparently crept up behind the bird whilst it was preoccupied with feeding and it was all over in a few seconds before he could intervene.
i mean if a rabbit (or bird) is no problem at all then what hope does a wee mouse have?! small rodents being one of the natural food items of ferrets et al. possibly even the scent/urine of a ferret could be used as a deterant?

It seems that astropytums and lithops are on their menu then,as they were among the genera of mine targeted,as well as T.bridgessi v.monstrosus, lobivia backbergii,L.diffusa etc...and even pereskiopsis growing tips. Ive even been hit indoors and lost superkabuto seedlings which were under flouros .But it makes me more determined to succeed and im glad im not the only one ! i would like to post some pics to show the horror but im still ironing out the upload bugs. The ferrets would definitly like to rip into a mouse ,and i was tempted when i caught one by the tail once but ferrets dont need much encourgment to become vicious. If i had a rabbit plague in the backyard it would be sorted though ,as nothing runs faster than a rabbit with a ferret up it's rear .

poor meow ,meow

Sorry I can't make out this pic. What is it?

blowng wrote:

poor meow ,meow

Its a bigfoot sighting...

noooooo it be the ghost of meow meow i tells ya ooooooooooooooooooohhh! hahahahahahahahahahahaz

sorry to hear about meow meow - I still can't see the ghost though, sorry.

find out who is trapping cats and tell RSPCA or someone similar. or if you prefer, leave a pickaxe in their front door with a polite note.

Well anyway i've been getting on top of the problem.Thanks for your advice on ''Talon'' cryptocarpa, works a treat! Unfortunately couldnt use in the house where the cheeky varmits get warm by my heating pad, and dance on my seedlings. So i have been patiently baiting the old fashioned type traps which week after week have just been providing a free feed ,until they eventually they gain enough weight to set off the trap. I have been putting their carcasses with my cacti as a warning to other mieces, and to give organic fertilizer when it breaks down..hehe...

lately almost everyday i come home to find several more nibbles, usually on tbm's and bridgesii's. no aborted growth yet but the missing chunks are getting bigger and theres seemingly more each day.
ive been thinking it was slugs or snails maybe.. there's plenty of earwigs around too. but no, its gotta be mice.
i'm off to get some 'Talon' then! i assume this is a poison, but hey mice: this is just not cool.

Blowng,

I don't think leaving the dead mice in your cacti pots is a good idea. I think it would encourage bacteria, bugs and pests ?

Best mouse trap I have ever used was a 'humane' trap I got from eBay, basically a long tube which tilts at the back when mousey runs in and the lid snaps shut. You can put a hole in the lid (I did) if you don't want to kill them.
Everyone told me they would come back because I let them out down the street, but they never did. I am sure being trapped in a dark box for hours would put them off.
Just a thought for anyone who doesn't like using poison.

Okay, weird thing happened.
I put down some snail pellets in greenhouse, came back the following morning.
All snailpellets gone.
mouse droppings everywhere.
For a second I thought maybe I got rid of another problem viz. mice,
my rationale being; metaldehyde can't be good for a tiny mammal, I remember watching RSPCA animal rescue and some dog consumed a whole box of snailbaits and died, and so a small rodent's body would therefore have a very low tolerance.
alas
quick Google:
''Rodents (rats and mice) eat slug baits and seem to have a high tolerance to metaldehyde [slug baits].'' so I'm feeding him lol.

I've been having issues with rats recently. They've taken chunks out of several Lithops, usually ending with them dying, as well as having eaten a whole Lithops. Also took a bite out of a Lophophora williamsii, but never went back. Had to get all my plants up high.

Anyway, I've had enough of them, both of them attacking my plants and eating making a mess throughout the house. It's war! I really don't want to resort to poison though, as it's a slow and painful death. I tried the trap Olga mentioned, but they didn't bother (probably because they're rats, not mice). Then I tried a snap trap. Got one large male, but not the little bastard that's been getting into the house. None of the others have fallen for it. So now I've got two humane cage traps off Ebay. Hopefully they'll work...

Try and find out what they like to eat mate (besides the cacti) Yeah the internal bleeding and slow horrible death thing bothers me.
Mine were in the house and they attacked the biscuits all the time, so we actually baited with chocolate. Worked really well. The traps I used were not rat-sized, those cage traps sound like the thing.
I am still finding it bizarre they would even want to eat cacti

Just in case anyone is interested this is the one I purchased on eBay, item number 140361520286.

Hellonasty wrote:

Blowng,

I don't think leaving the dead mice in your cacti pots is a good idea. I think it would encourage bacteria, bugs and pests ?

oh i didnt think of that, its a thing im used to doing with non cacti sorts which works well ,as long as not buried. i found dead snakes good coiled around my plant bases ,flies decompose it in no time , but thats me always been a bit odd lol...didnt seem to do my trich any harm ....shes had a snake and a baby guinea pig now ...hahhahah yes prolly shouldnt say no more

What original fertilisers you come up with blowng!
emus, snakes, mice, guinea pigs, what next? lol.
Definitely seems to work for you.