Mouse?

[Mrs Dobby]

Hi all, have been clearing our plot, working on the paths, and on digging out the soil that had accumulated inbetween the beds and lifting the carpet / polythene to remove some weed roots prior to barking I think I've found a couple of 'runs' or tunnels, about 1 1/4" wide running under our plot at about a depth of 6 to 8". I have a feeling they could be mice runs, as something has been nibbling on the strawberries in the plot, but not sure as I havent found any spores or seen any, so not quite sure what (if anything) this may be!

Any suggestions as to how to identify the pest and or what to do about it would be gratefully received!

[bramble]

Plug the hole for a start or failing that set a few mice traps and see what happens. I would also try to cover your strawberries with some sort of fine netting. Let us know what you find as a result and good luck.

[Mrs Dobby]

Thanks Bramble! We've plugged the runs that we found and another one we found today whilst clearing the last path, one of the other allotmenteers suggested that it may be birds eating the strawbs, so we are gonna net over them and the rasps next year when we've moved them into a single bed!

Will let you know how we get on!

[dwrudd]

Hello Mrs Dobby,

You may also have noticed a strong smell of what could be described as old damp hay??

Mice are incontenant and urinate constantly so this smell is a sure sign that they are here. Also, don't discount the possibility of rats or even a mole.

Either way, you don't need them on your plot. Good luck
Darren

[Mrs Dobby]

Thanks Darren! Havent noticed such a smell, but will deffo keep my nose open!

[sewer rat]

Hi Mrs D
It may be mice but as Darren says, do not discount other creatures - in my experience, if they are found under sheets of tin, old carpet etc, mice runs tend to be visible from the surface when you pull the obstacle away, and are no more than 2" deep.

[Mrs Dobby]

Thanks Rat, we'll keep an eye on things and see what happens! Nothing visible as yet, definitely no mole hills, so dont think its moles, but could be rats or mice, so will have to wait and see!

[Mrs Dobby]

I'm afraid there definitely appears to be some sort of rodent living on our plot!

We covered over one of the beds last week with plastic, and today I saw it moving and heard noises coming from it! On lifting it to investigate found a hole about 2" round disappearing into the bed, which is near to our shed, and which I'm not particularly happy about! Not sure if the size of hole means its mice or rats, but whatever they are definitely not welcome!

Not sure if its our responsibility to deal with the pest or whether the council will do anything about it, so am going to speak to the liason tomorrow, but if it is our responsibility has anyone any hints or tips about getting rid of them?

I had thought of trying a banger or two down the hole (Mr D wants to get hold of some dynamite and use that!), or to try flooding them out, we've a full water but that needs emptying, so that may help, any thoughts or ideas would be gratefully received!

[Skipper]

Hi Mrs D.

We had a lot of mice last year in our field and our outhouses and as "sewer rat" say's they usually have runs on top of the surface that you can see,( the holes in our field were about 2" in size). I bought some of the humane traps that catch them live,and as long as you take them at least a mile away before you release them they should not return. My total catch last year was 75 of the little darlings and this year to date it is only 7 (what a difference).They are a problem and if it is mice that you have then
something needs to be done as they can cause a lot of damage,there are other ways apart from the method I used to catch the little varmints.

good hunting Skipper.

[Crazy Chickie]

Poison, poison, poison and maybe a few traps. It may be nastie but its the only way to go. We had rats in the back garden when we lived in edinburgh. They are buggers and you just have to keep trying to do 'em in. I'm told there are rats living around here too, the locals put poison traps out in the ditches to try and keep them down.

[Snadger]

I'm not an expert, but by the size of he hole and the depth of the runs it seems like moles to me! A moles main run will usually be along a hedgeline or fenceline and it will have branches off that it uses for to collect worms. It usually returns to the main run after 'harvesting' the laterals! Moles like good soil with plenty of worms!

Snails were the culprit on my strawberries btw.

Just another possibility to think about!

Good luck in getting rid of whatever they are!

[Snadger]

Just an update....did you ever find out what it was then Mrs D?

[Mrs Dobby]

We think it was mice Snadger, when we dug over the area for the strawbs and rasps we found quite a few tunnels, took advice from the council liason and she said field mice. She also said with the rural location it was impossible to stop them coming onto the plot, but that they werent usually too much of a problem.

Having said that we did tip a load of water down every burrow we found and then blocked them up tight with soil. With double digging those beds I think we may well have destroyed any burrows, so will have to wait and see whether they return or not. The only areas we havent double dug yet are the last large bed near the pond, under the shed (which needs a new floor anyhow, so will be tackling that sometime early in the new year) and the highly raised bed at the bottom of the plot where the rhubarb and brambles are (which is very overgrown and full of nettles, brambles, russian vine and raspberries. The current plan is to tackle that once we have all the main beds dug over, and to put some supports in and train the brambles over them, along with planting our loganberry and possibly a couple of gooseberries down there, with a path down the middle, so we will find out what the score is when we tackle that area!

Oh, and the damage to the strawbs turned out to be slug damage, so we've mulched under all the strawbs and planted through weed control membrane in the hopes that this will help keep the slugs off them!

If we find evidence that they are still around then we'll do something about it then!

[Alison]

Your allotment must be a proper little nature reserve Mrs D.

[Mrs Dobby]

Thanks Alison, I think it definitely was considered a nature reserve by the other plotholders before we got it, as it hadnt been touched for 12 months, so nature had run wild!

So far we've seen toads and frogs in the pond (and around the plot), a sleeping hedgehog (in the back bit we started to clear today - he got covered back up and the spot marked so we wont disturb it till the spring), 2 friendly robins (who come and say hello every time we are down there), squirrels in the trees nearby (fun to watch them running along the hedges at the bottom of the plots) and evidence of the field mice (runs and moving plastic ground cover) and evidence of the foxes (footprints on the newly dug bed that was left uncovered!) that live nearby!

I dont mind wldlife, in fact I am quite happy to see it there, but whether my view will change if our crops start getting eaten is another thing!