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I heard a startled squeal from the direction of the garage the other day. Iain came into the kitchen with the advice we ought to keep the garage door closed for a wee while as a mouse had just lunged at him from behind the washing machine. It was a very bold mouse as Iain had the hoover nozzle in his hand at that moment.
Funny as that story may be, I am not one bit amused at the mouse (x how many plural?) which has decided that the greenhouse is the latest des-res. During the winter I noticed that the plastic greenhouse frame had been gnawed at and later saw that there was a hole chewed right through on the greenhouse door. I set traps and laid bait. No – I am not one bit interested in catching humanely and then letting them go to start all over again. Dead! Thank you very much.
I finally found one lifeless body a couple of months ago but a. it wasn’t going to be the only mouse in there was it now?! and b. much of the damage had already been done no matter how much of the bait they managed to eat.
The first vandalism I noticed was in the pots. The one with the leftover tomato plants had a whole warren-tunnel system in the soil. Then I noticed any pots still in the greenhouse had at least a hole, if not a tunnel. Then I realised the plastic bin I keep new B&Q compost in didn’t have its lid on properly. Big mistake. Not only was there a tunnel system in there but the soil the wee sods had dug out was all over the place, up the shelving, over the floor, and all over the spades and tools.
Today, I spent a while rooting around, in and out of the greenhouse and decided to use some of this compost to build up the bags of potatoes that seem to be going very nicely – we will be able to keep a small country in potatoes after planting only three bags with chitted seed potatoes a while back. I transferred some of the compost from the big bin to a wee one, only to find bits of plastic in it. Torn bits of plastic. And more. And some more. And . .. huh uh. I think the little blighters had taken a whole bag – not a shopping bag – a thicker plastic than that – down into its tunnels and then had sat, patiently shredding it up in to nice little itty bit pieces which they then used to keep them nice and warm during the chilly nights. If they had asked me I could have nipped out and put the kerosene heater on for them too – maybe even a hot water bottle! DUDE! I can hardly use this compost now – it certainly can not be mixed with anything that is going in to the garden – I can stick it in with the potatoes, knowing that when they are lifted the soil is contained enough to be able to be dumped. Am not one bit pleased with mice.
Oh. Did I tell you about the seeds? Would those be the seeds they have eaten after chewing holes in the packets? Or would those be the seeds that they have eaten out of the seed trays that I only sowed last week. Every day I go in to the greenhouse I see another neat hole in the seed trays.
We are never going to have any peas at this rate are we?
I think the only way we will rid ourselves of these pests this year is to take an industrial-strength flamethrower to the whole greenhouse.