Unwelcome shipmate

[RLWP]

So now the little bugger has invited his mates over too. They were having a ceiling void party last night.

 

This has all the ingredients of a forum epic. I await future developments with interest

 

<sets up deckchair, which promptly collapses as Richard sits down>

 

Richard

[gazza]

Friend of mine caught them on those stick pad things like this http://www.gluetraps.co.uk/mouse-glue-trap-boards-1-c.asp

 

 

We had these at Carlsberg, I stamped on a rodent stuck on one to put it out of its misery, my workmate was horrified and called me a cruel bugger. i didn't fancy trying to peel it from it sticky prison and skin it alive!

 

here is the humane society's take on them http://www.humanesociety.org/animals/resources/facts/glue_boards.html?referrer=https://www.google.co.uk/

[ditchcrawler]

So now the little bugger has invited his mates over too. They were having a ceiling void party last night.

It was probably a pregnant female you had up there.

[Guest]

I'm a bit bemused by these houses where plastic pipes are seen as a problem, but rats are not

 

Richard

Rats are a problem, I would have thought that went without saying! I caught one that had taken up residence in our loft about 38 years ago, poisoned him and found him dead in our airing cupboard. I ended up feeling quite sorry for it. None since to the best of my knowledge, but I have been amazed at the amount of rats present (or more correctly evidence thereof) in some residential buildings in which I have worked. Also as a result of living next to a canal and river, we get lots of rats in our garden. Also the foam lagging off our (copper) pipes has long since been eaten by (I'll guess) mice.

Unfortunately rats/mice/rodents are inevitable, whilst (luckily) plastic pipes aren't. After what I saw recently, I won't be using them again. Others will disagree.

Edited to add:

Forgot to say, We had pet rats for some time, and they used to demolish plastic in minutes if we gave it to them, pipe or not. My son believes they could gnaw through copper given time, but I know of no incidents (yet).

Another edit: I seem to recall a member had the plastic pipework on the boat chewed through by their dog?

Edited March 24, 2016 by Guest

[Ssscrudddy]

I once found a dead field mouse in my toaster. Yuck. Bought a new toaster.

[Murflynn]

I worked in a newly renovated office building in new Delhi.

The new tenants had arranged for all the rooms to be lined with fancy plywood to cover up the uneven walls.

Guess what? Over the next few months we had to abandon several rooms because of the nauseating stink. It turned out that there were dead rats all over the place, behind the linings, because 'Security' was putting rat poison down at the weekends.

[Loafer]

 

We owned a house in Looe harbour a few years ago. The house next door was a holiday home and was left unattended one winter when there was a big freeze. A week or so after the thaw we popped down to our house for a couple of days off which is what we bought the house for as we lived on our boat, anyway I saw water running out from under the front door. I got hold of the owner who I had met briefly and he attended some four hours later. The house was three storeys like ours and the pipe had burst in the centre of his roof space. The entire interior of the house was destroyed and had to be completely gutted and refurbished. Lecktrickery can kill but gnawed through pipes can destroy your home.

 

Tim

 

Tim.

 

Was it YOUR front door where the water was coming from, or next door? Was your house damaged? Not sure from your description but I HAVE been at the pop all day.

Edited April 9, 2016 by Theo
Remove rude word

[BWM]

So now the little bugger has invited his mates over too. They were having a ceiling void party last night.

Are you sure that the mice are in the cavity, or could they be running around on the outside of the roof? Its not unusual in some areas for rats to get onto boats at night.

[OldPeculier]

Are you sure that the mice are in the cavity, or could they be running around on the outside of the roof? Its not unusual in some areas for rats to get onto boats at night.

 

Oh yes. I was having a cup of tea in bed Friday morning and one of them was sitting on the mesh under the mushroom vent looking at me.

[haggis]

 

Oh yes. I was having a cup of tea in bed Friday morning and one of them was sitting on the mesh under the mushroom vent looking at me.

I hate mice and rats! If that had happened to me, I would have abandoned ship :-)

 

haggis

[Chalky]

If you do use poison use one containing something like difenacoum. Unlike warfarin it's persistent in the liver so the mouse can eat small amounts over several weeks and it'll still be fatal. You need to be careful handling it since it can be absorbed through the skin.

[OldPeculier]

The poison (donated by the pest control contractor from work) I pushed up unto the roof space via a mushroom vent has not been touched. Last night I melted some of my easter egg into it to try and make it more appealing. So not only do they keep me awake at night, eat my boat from the inside out, but now I an sharing my chocolate with them.

[RLWP]

This is developing nicely. Man vs mouse rarely fails to entertain

 

I have the benefit of being able to laugh knowing I've been on the losing end of one of those contests in the past

 

Carry on that man

 

When you resort to mousetraps, mice like chocolate with raisins in it

 

Richard

[patty-ann]

This is developing nicely. Man vs mouse rarely fails to entertain

 

I have the benefit of being able to laugh knowing I've been on the losing end of one of those contests in the past

 

Carry on that man

 

When you resort to mousetraps, mice like chocolate with raisins in it

 

Richard

And the mouse friendly traps that you catch and release are waste of space.

I used to own a retriever dog and my cats would bring in live mice let them go to "play" dog would join in and if she caught them they would be swallowed alive whole..yomp.......all very revolting..of course the odd one goy away and i remember lying down using a stick to try and scare a mouse out from under a unit flanked by 1 dog and 2 cats...mouse escaped.

My dad once sat with an air rifle waiting for mouse to appear...it didn't..

So crack on think your in for a long haul..

[RLWP]

dog would join in and if she caught them they would be swallowed alive whole..yomp

 

Mmmm - wriggly!

 

Richard

[Athy]

When I was teaching in a Surrey prep school, I lived in a lodge which was surrounded by fields and, not surprisingly, mice were frequent visitors to my house. I bought a humane mouse trap from a firm called (really) Hamelin House; the mouse would go inside in search of the food bait and a door would snap shut behind it. Each time I caught one, I'd take the trap along the lane to the school in the morning and release the mouse, as the kids enjoyed watching it scampering away - until the day that I opened the door, the mouse ran out, squeaked once and fell stone dead. That did rather put the kids off watching any repeat performances.

[haggis]

That reminds me of when a few posh houses were built near us on a bit of ground previously occupied by lots of wild life. The residents were mostly not "country folk" and when chatting to them they proudly told us how they were using humane traps to catch field mice etc which they then let go in the wood across the (quiet) road. The locals had a wee laugh at this as we reckoned that the wild life would just make its way back across the road to where it had belonged. Then they would be caught, returned to the wood, go back across the road, get caught again etc.

We didn't have the heart to tell these folk who were doing their best to adopt country ways what was probably happening :-)

 

haggis

[RLWP]

A free meal and shelter for the night. Perfect - what field mouse wouldn't go for that

 

Richard

[Athy]

A free meal and shelter for the night. Perfect - what field mouse wouldn't go for that

 

Richard

...and, once, a harvest mouse, tiny thing - the only one I've ever knowingly seen. That wasn't the one which perished, by the way.

[OldPeculier]

I would have no hesitation about using a trap but there is only about an inch of head room up there above the ceiling - not room enough for a trap.

 

The only place I could put one would be directly below a mushroom vent. Picture me kneeling on the roof trying to lower a 'loaded' trap onto the hole, past the bit where the mushroom screws in and resting it on the mesh at the bottom. Goodbye fingers.

[S and K]

I would have no hesitation about using a trap but there is only about an inch of head room up there above the ceiling - not room enough for a trap.

 

The only place I could put one would be directly below a mushroom vent. Picture me kneeling on the roof trying to lower a 'loaded' trap onto the hole, past the bit where the mushroom screws in and resting it on the mesh at the bottom. Goodbye fingers.

You could try sliding a glue trap into the gap.

[RLWP]

I would have no hesitation about using a trap but there is only about an inch of head room up there above the ceiling - not room enough for a trap.

 

The only place I could put one would be directly below a mushroom vent. Picture me kneeling on the roof trying to lower a 'loaded' trap onto the hole, past the bit where the mushroom screws in and resting it on the mesh at the bottom. Goodbye fingers.

 

Put one on the roof next to a mushroom and cover it with a bucket. If you put a bit of wood under the edge of the bucket to leave a small gap, a mouse is likely to investigate.

 

Richard

[twbm]

 

Why do rodents like insulated cables?

 

Richard

 

They taste of currents.

 

They remind them of Ohm.

[treddieafloat]

Mice like peanut butter, don't know why it makes me very ill, humane traps on the roof next to your vents. Insulation etc makes good nest but not very nutritional poor mouse must be hungry by know. Live n let live. Killing creates bad karma for you better to be kind.

[Loafer]

Mice like peanut butter, don't know why it makes me very ill, humane traps on the roof next to your vents. Insulation etc makes good nest but not very nutritional poor mouse must be hungry by know. Live n let live. Killing creates bad karma for you better to be kind.

 

Not always. Killing a wasp always give me great inner satisfaction and a feeling of well-being.

And don't start me on horseflies!