Print

[cornicen]

Apologies, but Googling gets no results, and this is bugging me...

It's getting colder, so mice are back in my kitchen. A few days ago I put down poison in a bowl. The mice have been eating it, but also peeling paint from the adjacent wall (easy to do, as it's damp) and placing it over the poison. This has been done over two or three days so it is now almost completely covered - and done very neatly with no bits dropped around the outside of the bowl. This also happened last winter!

Has anyone come across this, or have any explanation as to their purpose? 

[Worf]

Aspiring interior decorators 

[g6anz]

They can probably smell the poison and are covering it to stop other members of their tribe from eating it

[winchman]

No idea? I use traps with peanut butter on them placed inside a pipe, works well, problem with poison is they can die in inaccessible places and stink

[ian_1968]

Mice are very intelligent, they are known to have good memories and communication skills, I would not put it past them to be covering over poison to stop younger less experienced mice from eating it. Both difenacoum and bromadiolone have been shown to have only limited success in controlling mice problems in certain parts of the UK.  If you don't want to kill them and to be fair they don't want to kill you yet.. Then a large glass jar, chocolate biscuit crumbs and a ramp running to the lip of the receptacle will do the trick.  It needs to be a biggish jar of they stand on each others shoulders and escape (You will have seen it in zombie films possibly, its where the film makers got the idea). Hope that gives you some food for thought
 

[Wittsend]

I saw a TV programme once where the mice were in charge ... 

[ian_1968]

Yes and they got another extension to the European thingy and they heaved around a large mechanical mouse organ. I may need to lay off the wine.

[Exile]

I've done a lot of rodent baiting over the years but I never set the bait in the house, as you are attracting them into the house with "food".

Set the bait outside and in any outbuildings if you can, and catch them before they get into the house.


When they have eaten enough they tend to cover the bait in piles of sticks and leaves and even dry lumps of mud.

This is a food store, they hope is hidden from rivals so they can come back and eat it in due course.

When they are hungry they don't bother to cover it, they just eat it!


I'm doing this chore twice a week now, and only this afternoon removed a dead 'un from a bait box......

I used to buy large bucketfuls of bait but the law changed 2/3 years ago, so that you now have to have a Licence to buy anything but small quantities in sachets.

I hate my property being scattered in empty mouse/rat-chewed sachets, so cut them open and pour the bait into a sealed bucket, that way I can decide how much bait I want to leave at any point.

As I live amongst fields, I've already bought over 6kg of this stuff, this season:

https://www.pest-expert.com/pest-expert-formula-b-rat-killer-poison-3kg-with-safety-gloves-30-x-100g-87-p.asp

[w3526602]

Hi,

While in Malaya (Penang) Big Bad Bold Barbara spied a mouse in our bungalow. I kid you not, she stood on a chair (I must remind her of that sometime).

I eventually captured the said rodent  ...  put it in a box ... showed Barbara,

"Ah ... don't hurt it!" I released in in the field opposite.

But on another occasion, the dog chased a rat ... it climbed up the gap between the lounge wall and the side board. Mistake! There was no way I could miss with a broom handle descending down through the gap.

Then there was the centipede ... built like six inches of motor-cycle chain on legs. Hold it down with a broom, and pour insecticide of it.

Chit-chats (Gekkos .. sp?) were welcome, about the size of a newt, they run around the ceiling, and catch flies. I think they had bad eyesight ... I've seen one chase a sparrow.

But the biggest pests appeared while ladies were taking a shower. Our shower head was in the high walled yard outside the kitchen door. It was common for the Ozzy "Teeny Weeny Squadron" to fly up and down the road, seeing what they could see, behind the rows of bungalows. in their little Iriquois helicopters. I suppose it made a break from their duties in 'Nam.

602

[cornicen]

I've done a lot of rodent baiting over the years but I never set the bait in the house, as you are attracting them into the house with "food".

Set the bait outside and in any outbuildings if you can, and catch them before they get into the house.


When they have eaten enough they tend to cover the bait in piles of sticks and leaves and even dry lumps of mud.

This is a food store, they hope is hidden from rivals so they can come back and eat it in due course.

When they are hungry they don't bother to cover it, they just eat it!


I'm doing this chore twice a week now, and only this afternoon removed a dead 'un from a bait box......

I used to buy large bucketfuls of bait but the law changed 2/3 years ago, so that you now have to have a Licence to buy anything but small quantities in sachets.

I hate my property being scattered in empty mouse/rat-chewed sachets, so cut them open and pour the bait into a sealed bucket, that way I can decide how much bait I want to leave at any point.

As I live amongst fields, I've already bought over 6kg of this stuff, this season:

https://www.pest-expert.com/pest-expert-formula-b-rat-killer-poison-3kg-with-safety-gloves-30-x-100g-87-p.asp

Thank you Exile! 
That is what I wanted to know. I refreshed the bait, and this morning there are some paint flakes on top again, not much eaten, one dying mouse on the stairs and the cheesy smell of dead mouse upstairs.
Putting bait outside the house is not an option as there is a stable yard across the road, and we would get all their mice AND rats! My place is end of terrace, stone cottage. I know they come from farther up the row, via the first floor, but have no way of knowing how they get into the building. They get down to the kitchen through a hole in the ceiling for water pipes. I have tried blocking the hole with wire wool in cement mortar, but they enlarge the hole around this - an unbeatable strategy!
I have tried ordinary traps, but gave those up after finding a paw, and another time a little nose, but not the rest of the mouse.....
The electric ones were not a great success - the clever little guys became wary after one was zapped. A tall rubbish bin with peanut butter smeared inside does catch them out, but releasing them requires a 2-mile drive to be reasonably sure they don't return! - and regularly dispatching them would make me feel like Albert Pierrepoint.