What Are You Doing Now?

[Chrissie777]

English mice love chocolate! We had some intruders a few years ago. Caught them in humane traps and took them about a mile away and released them into the countryside!

That's a cute story, Daisy .

[Chrissie777]

That's what I do with spiders, put a glass over them, a paper beneath and put them outside. I do the same with wasps too if they get in, just pick them up with a towel, so they won't sting me, and throw them out! Flies the same. I can't kill I'm afraid, not even the dirty flies!!

But they keep coming back in your house.

[Anita Bensoussane]

I was trying to find out whether the devices that use electromagnetic interference or ultrasound work well or not. We had one in the garden that was supposed to repel cats and foxes, but it didn't work. One cat used to curl up and go to sleep right near it!

Anyway, I landed on a wildlife site which has a page about dealing with rats and mice:

http://www.discoverwildlife.com/british ... your-house" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I'm not sure how reliable that site is, but I was surprised to read that if you release a mouse or a rat into the wild it can apparently find its way back to your house over quite a distance:

Also, if you don't take it at least 2km away, it may well arrive back home before you.

I don't know how people know that, unless experiments were done with tagged rodents.

The site also warns against using certain kinds of poison:

Anti-coagulant poisons cause a slow, painful death. Problems also occur if the rodent is eaten before it dies – 40 per cent of barn owls, polecats, stoats and weasels carry rodenticides from eating poisoned prey.

Again, I wonder how they know that 40% of those birds and animals have been affected!

[Domino]

Chrissie,
In answer to your question as to whether humans can hear the ultrasounds, the answer is no. Nor can cats and dogs. Rodents can hear sounds at very high frequencies that our hearing can't reach.

Anita,
I think there have been proper scientific tests to show that mice, rats, and spiders too have homing instincts that are quite astounding. I've heard the 2km. mentioned before. As to the 40% of certain animals' deaths being caused by eating poisoned rodents, it can only be arrived at by testing a sample number and then extending that figure to the total found. Not foolproof, but the best we're likely to get.

Dave

[Anita Bensoussane]

Yes, tests must have been done but I must say I found both figures surprising - the 2km and the 40%!

[Moonraker]

Chrissie why don't you just get a cat or a dog, you won't get mice then. Fraid I'm not one for killing anything.

No, you just get the cat or dog to do your killing!

[Bannerman65]

Listening to Moonus running away.

[Chrissie777]

I'm not sure how reliable that site is, but I was surprised to read that if you release a mouse or a rat into the wild it can apparently find its way back to your house over quite a distance:

Also, if you don't take it at least 2km away, it may well arrive back home before you.

We heard that, too. That's why the squirrel was moved 30 minutes from us. But on the other hand I'm sad that our 108 years old beech tree is now abandoned...no more squirrel living there.

[Julie2owlsdene]

Chrissie why don't you just get a cat or a dog, you won't get mice then. Fraid I'm not one for killing anything.

No, you just get the cat or dog to do your killing!

The mice smell the cat or dog and just stay away. No one gets killed them!

[John Pickup]

Spent about three consecutive hours on here just catching up. Unbelievable!

[Chrissie777]

I know. It's very tempting to read other people's posts and to comment on a few. And time flies by...

[Daisy]

Spent about three consecutive hours on here just catching up. Unbelievable!

Good thing you have managed to get back now John! It's good to see you, by the way.

[floragord]

I have seen this on the news. It's very depressing. I love piers and Eastbourne's is a lovely one. Coming only a few years after Hastings' pier burned down and that only a few years after the fire which finally killed off Brighton's historic West Pier it makes me wonder if someone out there hates them and has a box of matches.

Quite a shock to see the damage "face to face" despite the TV coverage, though fortunately a great deal of the Pier is intact and plans are already in place for renovation. Sadly arson is now suspected...

[Julie2owlsdene]

Just reading a few posts, then relaxing for the afternoon hopefully, whilst at Little Harbour with the grandkids.

[Daisy]

I never found that "relaxing" and "grandkids" went together!