A New Home

Glad you use humane traps So do I. I put them in my greenhouse then take the little feild mice out to the woods, Normally followed by my cat Olley.

It's nice to know there are 'big softies' out there! This little one seems completely unconcerned about being 'caught' - hope he settles in his new home.

Why hurt them?

As much as I hate these little buggers in my house I have to admit they are very cute....

Not only cute Newfie, but just trying to live their short lives. Who are we to decide who should live and who should die?

They're all god's creatures :-)

Isnt he cute............bless.............

Wonderful Photo Toto :) Made me Smile when i saw it :)

Thanks everyone.

Much better than killing them. :o)

Off to pastures new, they are so cute and inquisitive could watch them all day!

Hate to kill anything Hywell. Great aren't they Pansy?

Wish I could apply your principles to slugs and snails, but I just can't. He's a little cutie though I might feel different if he was a rat!

Cute piccy. I've found the easiest way to catch mice in the house is to lay a wellington boot against an inside wall. Mice always run round the edges of a room and are happy to dive into the dark. You then just put the boot upright and go walkies to a new home!

Rats are not usually a problem unless they get into the house where they can cause a lot of damage. One thing to beware of however, that they can carry a disease called Leptospirosis (commonly known as Weils Disease) and this can prove fatal if you contract it. The disease can be caught from contact with rats urine if you have a break in the skin. If you were to contract it you would probably start with "Flu like" symptons and should see medical help immediately as you could die within a few days. People have actually caught the disease from drinking from bottles and, or cans where these have been stored outside and rats have urinated on them. The good news is that the disease is extremely rare so your pretty safe. The message being, don't handle rats and make sure to wash you hands properly with soap and water especially if you have been in a situation where you may have come into contact with rat's urine. Only last year we had a rat in the house and it cost me £20-00 for a humane trap. I caught the little fellow and took him to the fields where I released him.

That sounds like a great idea Debrah. Don't you squash them when you put your foot in the boot to go walking to the new home?

Point taken, Toto - it is a really debilitating disease even when treated promptly. My brother caught it while canoeing in Wales in the mid '60's,was badly jaundiced and suffered liver damage meaning that even now he has to be careful with what he drinks - no spirits at all and very limited wine. And he was quite lucky.

I'm so sorry to here about your brother Wagger. As you say, not a nice thing for anyone to get.

One rat I could probably cope with but it has taken over 7 months for the council to solve my rat problem; it started with one but very quickly developed into a major problem (not just affecting me). At one time they were even in my compost (urine and all) so that had to be disposed of. They are a major problem here because of the duck pond and many culverts. I hate killing anything but draw the line at a plague of rats which is what we have here at the moment. They were even chasing the birds away from the food. The poor Council man says he has never had so many call-outs all over the area. He did suggest that I should stop feeding the birds but I just tried to make sure there was nothing out overnight but as the rats came to the bird tables during the day that solved nothing! I'm afraid catching them and moving them elsewhere doesn't really solve the problem, just gives it to someone else! Sorry to be a grump over this but I have sometimes despaired over the last 7 months and hated going into the garden after dark :(

I don't think you are a grump Gee. This is the major problem with rats and mice, that they breed so quickly and become a pest and even I who hates to kill anything would change my tune very quickly if things started to become out of control. As you so rightly point out, it is not only people who are affected. It is when there are so many living together that they become a incubator and carrier of disease, even though individual rats are very clean creatures.
I can't imagine many people taking a different attitude to yours. I certainly wouldn't.

Lovely Toto. My mouse has just been out for his/her breakfast xxx

We had woodmice and bank voles living in the stone walls of our other house and they were never a nuisance but we did have a balance of barns owls little owls and tawny owls in the location. I don't like killing anything but sometimes needs outweigh the balance and pests have to be eradicated in there is a plague of them.

Thanks Daff.
Dead right Lindak.

We had a family of rats last year and,like you Toto,bought two humane traps and baited them with fat balls.Caught 7 and drove 2 miles to release them in dense woodland.! One of them gave us such a dirty backwards glance as it was released as if to say "we were fine where we were " Trouble was they were so bold in coming out daytimes,instead of at night like any self respecting rat ! Lol
Field mice and voles galore in the old stone wall between us and churchyard...feed them peanuts in the cracks and crevices !

They can certainly be a problem when they multiply. I have the odd field mouse visiting the compost bin. Must be quite a metropolis in there now. Sometimes I put a bit of old bird seed in there and it soon disappears.

I adore this photo of your little mouse going to his new home...he is so cute...
I am like Gee and my neighbors are too..living here on this bluff..there are all manner of rat issues we all deal with..it became a major problem last year for some reason the rats were in plague proportions everywhere...they ate through every manner of container to get in and destroy and eat anything they could...I have to do something this year as my garage is my storage area and cannot let them get in and destroy so much as they did last year...I had boxes of things from my store that were totally destroyed because I had no idea they were in there...going through it all...chewing nesting and urinating on everything in their path...My neighbors all hate it but have begun using the rat poison to stop the destruction...I wish I could use humane traps..that would be my first choice...not sure how to deal with it all yet...still trying to come up with a plan since I have to use it for a storage area while I am out of my home...they did not get in to my house...just the garage and of course this is where I need it to be safe from them now.

I appreciate your problem Cat. When they get to the numbers and create the problems you describe, you need to take drastic measures and poison may be your only option. Even though I hate the thought of it.

Its a difficult one isnt it Toto.We were lucky to "nip it in the bud " as if had not relocated ours to forest area,would have been overrun in no time !

Once my son and me livd in a souterrain flat, and many animals couldn´t escape -(up the stairs again)- so my son, beind 11, caught them with his hands. We took them to one of the sheds around (at that time we lived on the countryside). We had many mice (I loved them. ), a toat, a mole and some shrew-mice. One of them bit him. It was nice, to meet all of them...

It's nice to know that your son would treat them well Nelke.

Now I would love to try to catch em to put them somewhere else..hmmm...can't quite picture it, doing it by hand here...not sure where to put them either...no where anyone would like me to put them for the most part...too many and oh my the damage they do..it would be like taking my curse and giving it to someone else....so far they seem to have gotten less here for now...am going to have to stop feeding the birds for a while as the seed seems to draw them in ...I love feeding the birds...sigh....

Where are you now Cat? Can't keep up with your globe trotting.

I am back in Washington State being homesick for Wales and GF..miss him like crazy.....I will be coming back hopefully at the end of July...will stay a bit longer next time...want to see the fall there that would be nice...so you have not gotten rid of me...lol...I have lots to do here yet..so am hoping my jet lag eases up soon...being a jet setter is not all that it's cracked up to be...!

I'm glad you had a good time and everything worked out for you. Not too sure that autumn (fall) will be as spectacular as yours but hope you enjoy it anyway. As for getting rid of you, I can only speak for myself but I hope we never do. Good luck to you for whatever you may have planned for your future.

Thanks Toto.....and I think from the photo's I saw last fall on GOY that your fall is beautiful as well...good planting time too a little later in the fall !

This is a fantastic pic Toto- you must have been quick with the camera!

I doubt that I was that quick, more likely the mouse was slow.