New lodgers ...trouble with rodents

Well we went on holiday for a week, the cats and dog went to the kennels and when we came back the mice had moved in.

After 24 hours it was obvious that every four legged furry animal had developed an obsession with staring intently at the floorboards. Now if it was just one cat doing it I would have thought that it was the naturally odd sort of staring that cats can do from time to time (some sort of meditation ritual they go into), but this was serious stand near the skirting board staring.

Then the dog was spotted standing on three legs for long periods staring at the floorboards. Not normal.

It doesn't seem to count that most rooms have ultrasonic rodent repelling gizmos plugged in. The mouse/mice have invaded through the small kangaroo sized holes in the bathroom and kitchen walls. Holes which are apparently necessary (and semi-permanent it seems) until the bathroom project is finished (8 months so far). They are in the kitchen wall as well because the pipes go in under there somewhere.

How the dog hasn't chewed up the pipes already is anybody's guess. But now he is also in search of a rodent they are likely to be both chewed and dug up, which could also result in a flood. Does that count as pestilence and flood? Bring on the plague of locusts (no don't).

I'm quite happy that this is giving the cats something to do in the house. It stops them wanting to go out and kill birds, or worse still play with the traffic, but I am very concerned that there is so much floorspace the little brown furry thing will be very hard to get rid of now it is in. I do have 5 humane traps set around the place, but what self respecting rodent is going to walk out of his/her hole and investigate a mouse trap if there are 3 cats and a Jack Russell waiting?

I've been checking on the internet and apparently peppermint essential oil is good for repelling rodents so 100ml bottle is on order and I'll see how it goes. The trouble with living in an old victorian house is every room has mouse sized gaps, you couldn't possibly seal them all up.

We did once have a visiting rat. I caught it eating my packed lunch and freaked out, it also ate the rucksack that the lunch was in, so I called in the council pest controller. He did the business with little boxes full of poison and a few months later we found the poor thing curled up dead in its nest in one of our sheds. On reflection I decided not to do that again, hence all the live catch traps and repellent.

I had to put a bet on it I would give the cats and dogs odds on that they will be eating something furry before it can get into the mouse traps or be suitably repelled. I just hope we can do that before they start attacking the wiring or the new plastic plumbing pipes.

Mice are supposed to be clever, you think they'd have smelled the other animal residents and gone and tried out next door (no pets, bigger house), or better still the woods over the road. The house will no doubt be very minty by the end of the week, as I'll be spraying all the floorboards.

Gone gardening

Spring is bringing out the gardener in me. I'm still not brave enough to battle the way into the front garden, our front garden is inconveniently on the other side of a busy road, but I am on track for getting things in the ground on time in the back garden.

The picture on the left is of a Mantis Rotovator, this saves so much time digging, theoretically you can use it between rows of plants for weeding! But from personal experience that usually results in my plants looking like a hurricane has hit them and all their tops get chopped off.

I do extreme gardening. This means:
1. Rotovate almost everything
2. Plant things
1&2 can happen in one weekend
3. Ignore everything for weeks
4. Admire how the weeds are nearly as big as the plants I planted.

Somehow it seems to turn out ok. I really annoyed my dad last year when I ignored the potatoes he'd given me for months, and then got about four times the quantity of spuds as a result.

The classic example of extreme gardening is our 12 rhubarb plants. I've been ignoring them for years and they always come up like huge triffids. If I can see them over the weeds I might even take a picture.