Did mice do this?

[LittleDisaster]

Foolishly I had a small stockpile of food stored in the garage. I first noticed that the corners of some crisp packets had been nibbled, then the biscuits. Then I realised that 1kg pasta had been emptied completely and another was about half empty!

I know I had mice because I set some traps and caught three, but there haven't been anymore for a while now. 3 mice, 1.5 bags of pasta?!

However on recently giving the garage a good tidy, I have discovered they didn't eat the pasta, but moved it and created a pile inside a plastic laundry basket (solid sides).

So now I'm thinking how does a mouse carry a piece of fusilli, in it's mouth? Under it's "arm"? The pasta must be almost as big as the mouse. And, assuming it can carry it, how did in get in and out of the basket?

Didn't you watch Ratatouille?

Rodents multi task extremely well.

It could be rats too. My local residents relocated a good few days worth of dog food.

Borrowers?

Rats or squirrels maybe?

They can use their tails, can't they?

Always stash your stockpile in a nibble-proof, lidded plastic box, @LittleDisaster

Mice are resourceful little bu**s. They literally only eat 4g of food a day, so to empty a 1 kg bag would only take 250 days for one if it was eating it all, or say a month if you have ten, but as you pointed out, they've been what's called 'caching'.

It's fun to watch them. Sadly there aren't many humane ways to kill/capture them that aren't expensive. They can also fit through holes the size of a pencil so are very difficult to keep out once you have them.

yes is quite mind boggling when you come across this with mice… they did it with dried dog food in our house- I used to keep coming across little mounds in corners of cupboards .. they must have carried it piece by piece in the night across the kitchen! Humane traps take commitment to releasing quite far from the home or buy a high pitched pest control noise for garage - good luck!

Yes they could have done that but I would say you might have had/currently have rats as well.

Rodents are very clever, adaptable creatures. Could be mice, rats or both. You might have sizeable colonies. Just because you can’t see loads of them doesn’t mean there aren’t many!

I don’t like using poison or traps because they cause so much suffering. You can keep the numbers down and eventually get rid of them by storing all food in rodent-proof containers - bearing in mind they can chew through aluminium sheet… Firmly closed steel containers for animal and bird food. I use the steel pedal bins that have rigid plastic inners, and put weights on the lids too! Metal or airtight glass containers for your food. Don’t spill a thing. No bags, paper, fabric or cardboard boxes left out ever. They want bedding as well as food, so don’t leave paper or cardboard about.

If you’re not providing food, nice bedding material and places to hide and nest, they won’t reproduce as much, the numbers will decline and they’ll look for a better garage to live in!

I heard something or read it on here maybe that releasing mice in a new area almost always leads to a slow lingering death for the mouse, and its actually kess cruel to kill outright.