We have a family of mice in our compost bin...

[mrsflowerpot]

Any ideas how we can get them out? They can't stay there - I don't want them breeding and breeding and breeding. And they are driving the dog wild...

Help!

[Meglet]

I've arranged the slabs so there are little gaps in the middle of it. Plenty of space for the worms to crawl up and down but not enough for the rats to bother trying to tunnel in. I used huge slabs but if you had smaller ones (ie: placemat size) you could just put them round the outside and under the edges and leave them the middle empty for the worms.

[ChristieF]

Forgot to say, we had to chuck out our newish compost bin few weeks ago. Riddled with mice. Only garden waste too never food. Don't want rats.

[ChristieF]

The trouble is there is no such thing as a solitary mouse. They live in groups and breed every three months. The babies breed themselves at I think 15 weeks old. Just add that up. I have to say I think there's a plague of them. Never seen them until recently. I seriously think it's bin collection once a fortnight instead of weekly. A serious health hazard. Decking provides all rodents with safe homes. Our council will treat rats and mice for free (we do pay our council tax so not "free") as they say they are a health hazard. Went to Lakes last week and saw two mice separately both casually strolling across roads!

[Ewemoo]

Will compost bins work on paving slabs??? Surely the point is that the vegetable peelings etc decompose into the earth below. The people who owned our house before had the compost bin on slabs and it was full and had been there for years. We moved it onto soil and it usually decomposes within a week so it's emptier again.

[Meglet]

I've had a mouse in my garden for ages, but never noticed a huge population explosion. It likes the compost bin and I've called him 'Stig', as in 'of the dump' not top gear.

The rats, on the other hand, are evil. They ate all the bird food and tunnelled into the compost bin. I've moved it onto patio slabs now so they can't get under it. When the dc's aren't out there I puts rat traps down and usually catch one. I won't use poison as I have g-pigs. I've discovered they live under my neighbours decking, my garden is their bloody larder.

All this home composting and decking is luxury for rats and mice . The council won't come out for them anymore and the pest control people are so busy as the problem is huge now.

[tigerbear]

MollieO - we haven't seen any since, but give it time - I'm sure there are more hidden somewhere!

[MollieO]

This thread is making me feel faint. Ecologically I think I should have a compost bin but all the postings on this thread confirm my fears of what I may end up giving a home to.

[tigerbear]

Horrid evil things!
We killed one last Saturday - it was under a pile of clothes in our bedroom, and when I picked up the last item, it fell out and ran across my bare foot! Ewwwww! Then ran off into the corner of the room not to be seen again..... until we did another tidy up the next day and lifted all of the debris of the floor so we could vacum -and then found it on our BED!!! DH killed it with a rolling pin!
Then we saw another one a few days later - the tiniest little baby one, which was quite cute - and poor DH was traumatised when he had to bash it to death - by the time he was finished it was totally flat!!

I know what seeing a baby one means though - that there's a whole darn nest of them somewhere!!

[ladders]

We had rats nesting in ours! We had to poison them and then reset the bins on a very small wire mesh so they couldnt dig under the side to get back in.

[ChristieF]

I think that with everything you do you have to think am I providing them with a home and a free meal. When we lifted our garden pond there were runs all around the edge in the sandy soil.

[ChristieF]

We have had mice in our compost bin too. And under the shed and in the garage, and in the guinea pig cage and under the pond. We had to get rid of the pond and compost bin and bring the guinea pigs indoors. Being veggie we started out with humane traps. Afraid too many for that. Now we use bait traps from BandQ. Cream coloured plastic boxes. You put the bait they provide inside. This kills mouse and leaves body inside. Chuck body (wrapped) in wheelie bin and re-set the trap. You can never get rid of them but you can control them. We also never feed the birds anymore as rats and mice come for the food! We have two dogs (one a Jack Russell). Cats seem to drive them away.

[Thevelveteenrabbit]

turn it over and wet it - that is how we got rid of ours - they don't like wet nests

[lljkk]

We had field mice in the compost bin and they went away of their own accord. Just turn the heap over lots, I reckon, the frequent disturbance will make them feel unwelcome.

[SoupDragon]

Poison them.

[lljkk]

Would it be illegal to dump house mice on someone else;s property?

[lljkk]

Are they field mice or house mice? Field mice aren't vermin, but house mice are.

[CountryGirl2007]

use humane traps and drive them about 2 miles away which is a good enough distance that they won't be able to find their way back. also make sure you never put any sort of cooked meats etc into the compost as this attracts rodents.

[mrsflowerpot]

[mrsmaidamess]

You can always use humane traps, the ones that tip up.

Then take mice a loooongg way away so they aren't tempted to return (You must make sure they each have a spotted knapsack on a stick)

[mrsflowerpot]

I was afraid of that. Dh will have to do the trapping and the children must never know.

(I was hoping someone would have a real-life Pied Piper solution that would lead them all off to live a happy life in the fields somewhere.)

[mrsmaidamess]

Traps. Set with peanut butter.