UPDATE: Squirrels digging up my plants

you could just put a few dried chilli flakes on and around your bird table, lot cheaper.

This caught my eye when I wasn't looking for it. Tidier too, with less contact.

ah-- I've been using dried chilli flakes to sucessfully deter the rabbits... we're evidently leading the innovation Grannyb

I'm having a big problem with a dormouse! I think I might try making a chilli spray...thanks, Alex!

Poor dormouse!!!!

My Nan had fieldmice living in her compost bin and she absolutely loved them. They would not wait for her to put the mealworms out in to a dish, they would climb in to the container while she as dishing them out, and they were intersetng to watch zoom around and appear here and there before diappearing again.

Their babies were ever so cute also.

If the mouse is not causing problems I would leave it.

Also, just in case anyone has a fieldmouse, they appear to absolutely love bananas. My nan said taht everytime she put on in the compost bin, sje would coem back later to find it "unzipped" and completely gone with droppings in a neat little line.

I think Dormouse numbers are declining so please just let it be if it's not doing any harm It will hibernate when it gets really cold.

you could try trapping it and then release it into a safe place.

I really like the idea of trapping it and releasing it, but only if it is really necassary to do so.

Grannyb has given some good advice. I agree 100%.

thanks Alexb. Wildlife needs all the help it can get.

Oh dear, it's not like a mouse...My dormouse is like a cross between a rat and a squirrel!
It is living in my walls and roof, and especially in the utility room. So, I'm terrified every time I go in there. It has attacked one of the dogs, leaving her with a wound on her eyelid which needed antibiotics and a stitch! It didn't hibernate last year, because it is living beside the central heating pipes and is constantly scrabbling up inside the walls! It is also trying to scratch its way up through the floor under the parrot...

But, I really don't want to kill it...(that's why it's still here), have humane traps every where, but it's also clever!
I'd just like to persuade it to move out into the woods, where it belongs...
...so I thought that the chilli might be a good solution...

I suppose it is worth a try.

Are you sure it's a dormouse, they are tiny little things, yours sound quite large. Could it be a rat?

Definitely a dormouse, Grannyb...Eliomys Quercinus...Lérot, as they're called here...Looks cute, but not...it's bold enough that I've been able to identify it. There are oak woods all around, which is where it came from. I wish it was a rat, then it would be easy to deal with.

Tried everything else...now the chilli...

Good luck. It sounds like you are at the end of your tether.

Thanks Alextb...chilli is possibly the only thing I haven't tried...so here goes...thanks for the tip.

Mmm wonder if it would work on cats and rats, we have loads of one (birdcatchers and poopers) and an occasional one of the other. Dont like harming peoples pets, but we've had a few murdered birds and piles of poop everywhere, so now we dont have a terrier, need something!