need gardening help--mice and rats into the greens in my greenhouse. YUCK.

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Chicory on December 21, 2008 at 8:33pm

hmm... are the trays on the floor, or are they up on grated tables? I would suggest investing in some tales if you don't have them already.... although, I guess it's not much help at the moment. Can you see where they are entering the greenhouse? Is it a dirt floor? You could block off any openings with narrow gauge chicken wire, if it's a dirt floor you would bury it down a little ways with an L shaped bend in it. oops.. just read about the doors. maybe run an electric fence wire around the entire greenhouse? I have one for groundhogs, and it works really well. There are 2 wires, on is about a half inch off the ground, the second just above it. If the rats are medium sized or larger, they would end up touching a nose to it. The one I have is Mr. MacGregor's fence, and it comes with a battery pack that runs off of a 9 volt battery. Doesn't sound like much, but it really snaps your arm! Plus it won't kill the animal, just scare the crap out of it

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Anne on December 21, 2008 at 8:35pm

Dear Kaybee,
here are some links for you that may be of use:
They are natural repellents that should not be toxic to you and yours.

http://www.critter-repellent.com/mice/how-to-get-rid-of-mice.php

http://www.zooscape.com/cgi-bin/maitred/GreenCanyon/questp428699

http://www.care2.com/greenliving/scatter-mice-naturally.html

Hope your situation resolves,
love and peace,
from Anne.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Sarah on December 21, 2008 at 8:38pm

Therapeutic grade peppermint oil on cotton balls, all over.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Kaybee on December 22, 2008 at 6:52am

awww shiv--yeah now i remember your mouse post. ick. i wish there were a cat there, then i could just leave it out of my hands... BUT the greenhouse is at someone else's house so I cant really just put a cat there. his traditional way of dealing with them is to put down poison--which is the solution of everyone else here.
hmmm. i remember seeing that critter repellent stuff before and meant to get some when i went home to the states but it sort of completely slipped my mind. peppermint oil...worth a try..i didnt have good luck using just dried mint in the past, and the turnip bed they got was surrounded by a border of mint, but it wasnt interspersed. ill give the oil a try, but its so frustrating to depend on something for working and then go and find your stufff that you need for food ruined one day. hmmm. electric fence.. that sounds good. i wonder if theres some way i can arrange that.... yes there are dirt floors in there... ive tried to rodent-proof it but its so tricky, especially given the high cost and availabliity of materialsl like wire/fencing here.... people dont just have bits and pieces laying around the same way they do at home. i bought a roll of the cheapest chicken wire to fence off things from the rabbits (who ate my FIRST round of outside stuff this summer), and it cost me over 50 bucks for a small roll. at home (states) theres always just "stuff" lying around my parents, or someone has extra or whatever. here, if you want it you have to buy it. I cant think of a feasible way to rodentproof the doorways... they seem to be able to slip through or climb over any little crack. apparently they can skitter up wooden posts as well, as my sunflower greens they got to were on a 3 foot high wooden bench. (they also gnawed on cukes during the summer which were WAY up near the ceiling which means they either climbed the wood, the wire, or the vines themselves. ACK. some of my stuff is on benches, but they did get up there anyway. at the moment i have a bunch of untouched baby greens, but they need to go into the ground. they are dying because getting too big for their trays. I dont want to have everything on tables becasue i let stuff grow bigger..... amaranth and tall basil and stuff during the summer, and stuff that needs to put its roots down. The chard plant they are mangling at the moment is in the ground and HUGE, over 2 feet tall and a couple years old. just so frustrating to go through all the work and care of nurturing stuff and then find it decimated, chewed off and contaiminated.
ok so i will look into these things guys, thanks.
kaybee

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Lorianne on December 22, 2008 at 7:11am

this is pretty mean but whenever we'd get slugs or something in the garden, we'd put small dishes with beer around and they'd all end up there.. dead..

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Kaybee on December 22, 2008 at 7:27am

yeah i resorted to that with the slugs. they avoided them. i guess i have a black-thumb. or critters know im a push-over tand that i dont really WANT them to die...unfortunately I DO want them to GO AWAY...but they dont get that either.ggrr... i didnt catch a single slug with the beer traps. weird, huh? maybe i needed shallow saucers. i tried soda bottle traps and flush-with-the-ground traps. no luck. but i dont think it would take care of mice/rats.... i can live with the slugs now if i have to, just not the bigger critters.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Anabrese on December 22, 2008 at 7:52am

Having looked after mice and rats I'm a bit biased. Why not keep your food up on high shelves and deliberately leave some other food stuff out for the rats and mice, they got to eat too! The other thing is to find the hole they're coming through and to block it.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Kaybee on December 22, 2008 at 8:31am

anabrese--im partial to all critters, long time vegan. BUT i lived in a mouse infested apartment once that was IMPOSSIBLE to rid of the critters, my parents house is infested by them at the moment, and in the case of my greenhouse which is the most urgent problem at the moment, its not possible to put food up out of their reach as it needs to be in the ground. my biggest problem isnt actually with them eating stuff. im not against sharing. BUT rather with the hygeine problems. they leave droppings everywhere, on the plants and greens that I need to eat, and its gross and dangerous. Further, they sheer all the leaves off my baby plants to the point where the plants can no longer grow. so i wish there was a way to share, but they are dirty and dont seem to be so good at sharing. Because the greenhouse has a dirt ground, they seem to be able to slip in places even if one tries to block them up, because the dirt is soft. I literally need this food in order to feed myself. the availability here is really really slim if you want variety and want organic, and its expensive as well. Im pretty much at the end of my rope with trying to be "nice" to these guys.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Anabrese on December 24, 2008 at 12:42pm

I hope you find a benign solution to this issue. I've just put out a nice dish of food for the mice and hedgehog in the garden for their christmas tea!

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Kaybee on December 25, 2008 at 12:44pm

yeah, i think having a compost pile there doesnt help. they are endemic; they live in all the stone walls (ever see pictures of how many stone walls there are in ireland). i dont want to do away with my compost either, but im sure that attracts them as well. i wish i could put it in a totally different field or something away from the garden, but none of it is my land... its not right next to the greenhouse, but the garden area itself is fairly small. i want to do worm bins, but havent been able to get any worms...sorry but i cant afford FIFTY EURO (seventy bucks!!) for some worms. I bet that would help, but even before we had a compost, the guy who owns the place was always putting poison down. people here buy poison in BUCKETS, not packets, and everyone ive talked to, even some organic farmers, say they have to put poison in the ditches just to keep the population down...ACK. snap traps are more humane, but i cant deal with those either. One of the organic farmers i talked to said that because they also have a cafe, they dont even have a choice; they HAVE to have the professional people come in and do their place because the government checks. I dont have quite so much of a gross-out problem with the rats outside--although i hate when they chew up my stuff... at least the rain will wash away the droppings and the soil will purify it, but INSIDE it just sits there and festers...

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Sarah on December 22, 2008 at 8:25am

Anthony, the Raw Model, has a really interesting video log on how he dealt with animals that were chewing at his garden. You definitely want to be kind to them, but there comes a point where you have to decide if you want to protect their right to life or your right to life (food). It's a crap situation to be in, but I'm on the side of providing for my family.

Make sure if you get therapeutic peppermint oil if you try it. I have read wonders from people about their successes with it; mice simply cannot stand the smell.

Best of luck!

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Lori on December 24, 2008 at 11:12pm

OMG, this really sucks!! I had a problem with mice getting into my compost bin a few years ago, then I stopped feeding my cat and then he took care of the rest. I never realized how helpful a cat can be in the garden. I have no clue what to do about your infestation. I am really sorry though.

▶ Reply to This

• First
• Previous
• Next
• Last