The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Growing => Vegetables => Topic started by: chairmanphil on February 28, 2012, 02:08:42 pm
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just eaten half of my peas! very annoying!! >:(
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Only half?? ;D ;D Little devils aren't they.
Soak the pea seeds in paraffin overnight before you sow - doesn't seem to affect the flavour when you pick the crop, but does stop the mice. Or start them off in a section of guttering hanging up in the polytunnel, where the wee baddies can't reach them. When the roots have filled the guttering, make a shallow trench in the garden and slide the row of peas into it. Sometimes they will still bite off the seed part even at that stage of growth, but only if they are very hungry.
One year the mice ate all of one kind of my broad beans and completely ignored the other - but this was when they were ready to crop and they emptied out the pods, which I only noticed when I went to pick them - nothing there :o
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Only half?? ;D ;D Little devils aren't they.
Soak the pea seeds in paraffin overnight before you sow - doesn't seem to affect the flavour when you pick the crop, but does stop the mice. Or start them off in a section of guttering hanging up in the polytunnel, where the wee baddies can't reach them. When the roots have filled the guttering, make a shallow trench in the garden and slide the row of peas into it. Sometimes they will still bite off the seed part even at that stage of growth, but only if they are very hungry.
One year the mice ate all of one kind of my broad beans and completely ignored the other - but this was when they were ready to crop and they emptied out the pods, which I only noticed when I went to pick them - nothing there :o
just put 5 traps in the greenhouse! 3 with ritz crackers and 2 with peanut butter! revenge will be mine!
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When we put traps in the tunnel we caught 14 mice before we gave up ::) They were just about queueing to be caught :D
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When we put traps in the tunnel we caught 14 mice before we gave up ::) They were just about queueing to be caught :D
my land is boardered on 3 sides by wheat fields. can't ignore them. 3 years ago i kept count and had 281 from september to march
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That's a lot of mice. :(
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hello pretty!
(http://i1033.photobucket.com/albums/a415/fandange/2012-02-24-031.jpg)
love my work! :farmer:
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Oh poor thing didn't even get to the cheese :o :D
That's very fat for a mouse :pig:
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My first reaction was - isn't that a bit early for peas? But then I noticed that you are down south, and it's "indoors" peas we are talking about... ;D
Considering your ongoing problem, I am just visualising a kind of tunnel around the greenhouse (or around your property), entirely enclosing it, "manned" with about half a dozen hungry cats... But I also know the soaking-in-paraffin trick. Don't know what it does to the soil, though. I generally start peas, beans etc off in the house (if I find a spare corner); the season is just a bit short up here. And I tend to forget to start them off early enough anyway, so it's generally hit and miss. :-\
I spent a summer in France once, on a goat farm, and caught ten mice in my room with just the one hazelnut! Hazelnuts seemed to work best; they stick to the trap, even when the mouse tugs at it. Very economic.
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had a really good look round the green house and found where the little f..kers are getting in. just put a plug in the hole and siliconed it up to the glass. don't think i want parrfin peas but i can see why people do it now!
as for mouse bait i find as said earlier that ritz crackers and peanutbutter are killer!
and yes southern softies here, but i have to report the first cardoon sprout so i would imagine the artichokes won't be long now! nice a warm down here over the last few days.
:farmer:
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I just came on here to say that we still have not planted our peas yet to do bad weather, they where supposed to be in 2 weeks ago. but I read some where that chilli powder works wonders on mice, I tried rat bait traps everything as they where eating all my seedlings ontop of the freezer, yup they got all the way up there. but the only thing was to put chilli powder in all the places they could get in the house and even sprinkled it on the seed trays.
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I just came on here to say that we still have not planted our peas yet to do bad weather, they where supposed to be in 2 weeks ago. but I read some where that chilli powder works wonders on mice, I tried rat bait traps everything as they where eating all my seedlings ontop of the freezer, yup they got all the way up there. but the only thing was to put chilli powder in all the places they could get in the house and even sprinkled it on the seed trays.
i'll give it a go. i have loads of different chilli powders in the cupboard!
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Another stupid question I am afraid, but new to this rural living ;) I thought kicking out my cat regularly into her new space (round the vegetable patch) would deter the mice from venturing in to nick my seeds when i plant them. I am now figuring this is a bit hopeful as the little sods dont even run from me, just sit there looking at me continously eating. The garden perimeter is surrounded by tall (now dead and brown) weeds where the mice all rustle around before it becomes just a grassy field.. Would you advise clearing all this dead wood and stems out before starting the vegetable area or is just a pointless exercise? Any experience here would be useful. Cheers.
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Another stupid question I am afraid, but new to this rural living ;) I thought kicking out my cat regularly into her new space (round the vegetable patch) would deter the mice from venturing in to nick my seeds when i plant them. I am now figuring this is a bit hopeful as the little sods dont even run from me, just sit there looking at me continously eating. The garden perimeter is surrounded by tall (now dead and brown) weeds where the mice all rustle around before it becomes just a grassy field.. Would you advise clearing all this dead wood and stems out before starting the vegetable area or is just a pointless exercise? Any experience here would be useful. Cheers.
i think just staring is a bit passive. the mice don't sit and stare at me, even the crows are careful when i am out. like i said i have 9 traps on the go everyday and catch hundreds every year. i have a shed next to the greenhouse and caught 2 just after the peas got eaten and have had no trouble in there since. but outside is much more trouble. there are good cats and there are the rest. i have a big ginger feral tom cat and he is a killer! i put all the dead mice in the same place everytime and he knows it. fair exchange is no robbery! i also have 3 big catnip plants on the land and get about another 3-4 cats regularly and still have trouble with mice! when i am working on the land i always have at least an air rifle with me, loaded so when you get a shot you can take it, never know could make a good tea lol.
as far as cover goes, the less cover they have the more nervous they will be, hawks and kites are to be taken seriously if you are a mouse! if you study it you will see whenever possible they will make tunnels in the grass/scrub so they can go undetected, i get a trap with peanut butter on it and set it by one of these runs but not in itthere will be a gap in these tunnels and leave it there. often they ignore it the first night but can't resist it the next. just a bit of trial and error. good luck keep trying things and remember what works and stick with it! :thumbsup:
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That's a very entertaining photo! ;D
I used those traps a good few years ago, but found that there were mice being left alive so I gave up. It frightened the bejeesus out of me when I went to pick up a trap and the (injured) mouse started to scrabble about. Bleurgh.
I've also had lots of problems with mice eating the peas. I think that germinating them in the house before moving them to the greenhouse is the answer.
Still laughing at your photo! GGRRRRR! ;D
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That's a very entertaining photo! ;D
I used those traps a good few years ago, but found that there were mice being left alive so I gave up. It frightened the bejeesus out of me when I went to pick up a trap and the (injured) mouse started to scrabble about. Bleurgh.
I've also had lots of problems with mice eating the peas. I think that germinating them in the house before moving them to the greenhouse is the answer.
Still laughing at your photo! GGRRRRR! ;D
it was done for a mate in london that had mice in her flat! thought i would go all big hunter bloke to cheer her up a bit! :D
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we have a semi wild cat, really friendly but will he go catch a mouse....not on ya nelly, he just sits there looking at you saying what on earth am I supposed to do with that then, and the stupid mouse is standing right in front of it not daring to move.
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got a photo of my feral today. so intent on hunting he didn't see me until the camera went click! then he ran for about half a mile lol! won't beable to download it till tomorrow though! he didn't know what was happening :D
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I have gone ahead and cleared the area and the perimeter and raked it all out. Taken most of the day. The mice are running now.
Incidentally, my cat would have had one but she leapt into the chicken wire fence and rebounded quite sheepishly. Dont think she knew it was there, she is only just going out and about here since the move. Stupid cat! But good going for a twelve year old townie cat with more fur than meat on her (she's tiny and very fluffy, another rescue job I lumbered myself with yrs ago).
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I have gone ahead and cleared the area and the perimeter and raked it all out. Taken most of the day. The mice are running now.
Incidentally, my cat would have had one but she leapt into the chicken wire fence and rebounded quite sheepishly. Dont think she knew it was there, she is only just going out and about here since the move. Stupid cat! But good going for a twelve year old townie cat with more fur than meat on her (she's tiny and very fluffy, another rescue job I lumbered myself with yrs ago).
mice fear change! watch the sheds and out buildings as homeless mice find holes and cracks very quickly!
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Yes you are spot on, the shed is alongside the fence there and was full of sawdust and...well you can imagine...took us a whole day to get it properly cleaned out as it was ankle deep in stuff and full of junk. It was empty for a week or so as we actually came and just did it before we moved in, but now it is obviously full of stuff again. I have kept any food (bait for fishing) in a sealed plastic tub but I really do not want them getting back in there and re-homing themselves now it is full of my gear. There are holes everywhere round the base of the shed, i guess I will have to have a go at blocking them all up but its a bit like attacking a sieve with blue tack. Maybe just replank it all round the base with some better wood. I am sorely tempted to get a 'proper' cat to live in the shed and cut out a cat flap. Apparently the Cats protection has no shortage of feral cats that they can never find a home for as they aint pets! The trouble is proximity to existing (feeble) house cat and also the chickens I want to get. Also I dont really want to slay the local bird population as it thrives here with a lot of uncommon/ rare species nesting locally which I like. Tricky.