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Gardening

Find tips and tricks to make your garden or allotment flourish on our Gardening forum.

Original poster

How Can You Easily Repel Mice from Garden?

39 replies

Listlad · 12/05/2023 09:50

We moved home in January. There is old decking in the rear garden. The other evening I saw a mouse scuttling back under the decking. What’s the best way of getting rid of them. Putting poison down would surely leave the to die under the decking for example…

Thanks.

OP posts:
Shannith · 12/05/2023 23:22

This time of year, big enough for you to spot and under decking... almost 100% baby rat.

Which means there is a nest. Sorry. You can borrow my 2 cats - baby rats are their current specialty

AlliumFairy · 13/05/2023 13:13

@lljkk Same here. Rats get into out roof. We don't have a loft as such as it has attic bedrooms. Lived here 30 years and they always come back. I have a cat, my neighbours have cats. The village is over run with cats but there are more rats than cats.
In fact I saw one down the road today in broad daylight running along the farm track.

Many years ago a mouse found its way into our new build house and burrowed its way into the insulation within our gas cooker
We once came back from holiday to DEAD MOUSE SMELL. It had gone and died in the back of the microwave (had to throw it away).

SarahAndQuack · 13/05/2023 22:39

Our cats have been excellent. We had a minor-but-annoying mouse problem (confined to veg garden and compost heap, but you don't want them eating your veg/veg seeds or nesting in compost). Then that problem was abruptly solved by a much more major rat problem (they got into our loft). We got pest control in, and we also adopted feral kittens. I was amazed how many more beans and peas germinated - I knew mice went for them, but hadn't realised how many had been taken! We could never grow much in the furthest part of our garden and I thought the new shoots were rotted off/taken by pigeons, but now they do really well.

(Whisper it, but they're also great for indoor flies and spiders.)

SarahAndQuack · 14/05/2023 22:44

Grin I love it!

PinkRobotDuck · 15/05/2023 05:25

I don’t think mice are a problem at this time of year . If there is no food such as peanuts why would they come. They will be outside. Perhaps squirt the hose under the decking to discourage them. If there were many the local cats and foxes would find them.

Original poster
Listlad · 15/05/2023 08:29

PinkRobotDuck · 15/05/2023 05:25

I don’t think mice are a problem at this time of year . If there is no food such as peanuts why would they come. They will be outside. Perhaps squirt the hose under the decking to discourage them. If there were many the local cats and foxes would find them.

Haven’t seen many local cats in our garden. Well virtually none.

OP posts:
heldinadream · 15/05/2023 08:40

If you want to keep rodent levels down you need to get rid of the decking. It's literally a free house for them!
This was really a big reason people started to keep domestic cats. Consider having a cat or two.

MereDintofPandiculation · 15/05/2023 08:56

No, don’t have a cat unless you want a cat. They don’t deserve to be in a household which simply regards them as a mobile mousetrap.

heldinadream · 15/05/2023 09:27

MereDintofPandiculation · 15/05/2023 08:56

No, don’t have a cat unless you want a cat. They don’t deserve to be in a household which simply regards them as a mobile mousetrap.

Oh gosh no I didn't mean that! I kind of assumed that have cat = love cat. Sorry!

DogInATent · 15/05/2023 09:33

Decking is the perfect home for small rodents. It's sheltered, it's dry, and occasionally people kindly dribble crumbs through the gaps when they eat out on it. If you have a garden, you have rodents, If you have decking, you have them living under it. Mice in a garden aren't anything to worry about, and rats are a normal feature of wherever people live.

Ariela · 15/05/2023 10:16

Electronic traps. Any rats/mice (we have 2 sizes of trap) caught are instantly zapped to death as they enjoy a mouthful of peanut butter. I then release the dead mouse in an open area of land for the owls/red kite/corvids etc to eat. It's facilitating the food chain while ridding us of rodents.

PinkRobotDuck · 15/05/2023 10:25

What make of traps please @Ariela

MereDintofPandiculation · 15/05/2023 11:22

heldinadream · 15/05/2023 09:27

Oh gosh no I didn't mean that! I kind of assumed that have cat = love cat. Sorry!

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I find this hard to believe, but there are people around who don't like cats, and still don't like cats even when introduced to them Grin

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