Do mice eat your bird food? (2 Viewers)

[Euan Buchan]

We have a few mice in our garage that eat my peanuts so we usually end up laying mouse traps inside and sometimes they work. It's not much of a pest like the squerrils and crows were at my little bird feeders just find it bit odd. I have moved my bird food so they won't get them. Have to buy new bird food today

 

[NickPatel92]

Yeah Mice eat the Peanuts (Peanut bags and feeders) all the time. But they don't take too much so i let them.

 

[Nick-on]

We have a few mice in our garage that eat my peanuts so we usually end up laying mouse traps inside and sometimes they work. It's not much of a pest like the squerrils and crows were at my little bird feeders just find it bit odd. I have moved my bird food so they won't get them. Have to buy new bird food today

We keep all our bird food in plastic dustbins, keeps the mice out although we still get a few in the house! A couple of 'Little Nipper' traps usually sorts them out! then it's into the freezer with them for a month before feeding them to the snakes:t: waste not want not and all that.

nick

 

[KLH]

They don't get it until it is out on the table and in the feeders - woodmice that is - they can often be seen scuttling around the base of the table and hanging onto the odd feeder. Cute little things.

 

[amkid247]

are mice a big problem in the UK? ive never had a problem with mice in my seed.

 

[KLH]

They can be mate!! Depends on what kind of mouse though. Woodmice are normally tolerated as they're quite cute and live mostly outdoors. But infestations of house mice are something that local authorities/pest control are regularly called out to deal with in the UK. If they can get in and get a toe-hold, especially where they've found a good food source, then they can run riot. And give a rather unpleasant mousy smell to the building. Someone I knew has recently had them in her workplace, just before Christmas - old building and gaps in the skirting boards, they were after the Christmas biscuits methinks!

 

[gillian]

I don't think it's odd, I reckon any mouse would be happy to tuck into such treats given half a chance! We keep our bird seed, nuts etc in plastic bins, seems to stop any such problem.

 

[KLH]

We keep our bird seed, nuts etc in plastic bins, seems to stop any such problem.

Does't stop our squirrels - blighters have started chewing their way through the new wheelie bin lids, there were large holes in the last bins where they chewed through over time, and when our bins all got replaced the squirrels got to work almost immediately. Once they've got through they sleep in them, only when you lift the lid early morning to put some rubbish in does this squirrel come flying out. Not trapped either used to see them coming and going out of the holes..

Determined little b*ggers!

 

[brettski]

We bought a small galvanized garbage can/lid. We just drop in all the seed in their original bags. Works great; tree-rat proof.

 

[Chris D]

Rats. Tougher to take action after the latest Pixar flick though.......

 

[tjcnok]

We also have a metal trashcan with a tight fitting lid. We never keep feed in the house, only in the barn. A can of the appropriate size for each type of feed. We keep cattle, mules, chickens, hogs, and other assorted livestock so pests could be a real problem if we let them get started.

 

[amkid247]

They can be mate!! Depends on what kind of mouse though. Woodmice are normally tolerated as they're quite cute and live mostly outdoors. But infestations of house mice are something that local authorities/pest control are regularly called out to deal with in the UK. If they can get in and get a toe-hold, especially where they've found a good food source, then they can run riot. And give a rather unpleasant mousy smell to the building. Someone I knew has recently had them in her workplace, just before Christmas - old building and gaps in the skirting boards, they were after the Christmas biscuits methinks!

i havnt heard of someone around here having a house mouse problem in a while. i guess its because theres a high population of cats around here. we have a big cave cricket problem though. and i know that mousy stank my pet boy has plenty of that foul odor.

 

[KLH]

Even with a a lot of cats around, some of the infestations I have seen, no amount of pussies would deal with. Trying to think of that footage - possibly on YouTube of this infestation where there were literally thousands, the building was alive with them!

 

[Nina P]

Had a big shock yesterday morning when a huge rat appeared on the bird table on the patio, hubby went out with a hoe held like a spear, but the devil scarpered down then went under the POND? :eek!:A hole is there, so wonder if it is worth trying to flood it out! That devil was almost the size of the cats, helping itself to the food put out for the early nesting sparrows, they were cueing up for the seed I put out for them to feed their babies, and this monster was taking all the food put out that morning! :CHow can you stop that happening? I don't leave it lying around, but have to keep bird food in the house, in plastic boxes, but know if a rat got into the house there are three cats who would give it a hard time, specially the brute with the missing tail, she is a real thug.:cat: I have three cats in the house, two belong to the youngest daughter, those are the soppy kind, but the eldest daughter's cat is intolerant of any other cat, or any creature, she is really vicious, a known killer, but has to stay indoors now after tangling with traffic, hence the missing tail, if she got her teeth into the rat it will not last very long.:t:
Normally the rats around here get got by the Buzzards or Kestrels, but they possibly wouldn't come that near to the house, unless Sparrow Hawks take rats that one is to be got by hubby. Maybe we will have to ask someone to borrow their gun to shoot it.

 

[brettski]

Nina P,
If the "rat" slid into the pond and disappeared, in my neck of the woods, a muskrat, nutria, or otter would be the suspects. If it is, indeed, one of the above, you will want to be sure of the rules and regulations for control, including lethal force. A trapper may be the answer.
Also, they can do substantial damage to a pond. If it is a muskrat or nutria, they burrow dens into the soil, just below the water line. They enter below the water, dig in, then go up to create a den just above the water line and within the pond bank. If this occurs in the area of the dam, the potential for a breach exists.

 

[Nina P]

Nina P,
If the "rat" slid into the pond and disappeared, in my neck of the woods, a muskrat, nutria, or otter would be the suspects. If it is, indeed, one of the above, you will want to be sure of the rules and regulations for control, including lethal force. A trapper may be the answer.
Also, they can do substantial damage to a pond. If it is a muskrat or nutria, they burrow dens into the soil, just below the water line. They enter below the water, dig in, then go up to create a den just above the water line and within the pond bank. If this occurs in the area of the dam, the potential for a breach exists.

If it were a Muskrat I would have something rare in my garden, as I live in the UK, but in my area they are total vermin and need to be destroyed, as I would be in trouble for not getting rid of it. Personally I believe in live and let live, but the powers that be don't, so I must try and remove it. I had no idea that there was a rat in the area, plenty of moles though, but they do say that you are never less than a metre from a rat anywhere in England. The rats hole is beside the pond, where there mmust be a gap between the pond liner and the hole itself, but when the pond overflows it would drown them out, just there hasn't actually been enough rain in my back garden, despite the rain everywhere else I seem to be short of the rainfall required to flood out the pesky rat!

 

[KLH]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LMxhc8WwGU

World's worst mouse infestation - one I was thinking about...

Pussy, pussy???:eat: