Wednesday, August 9th, 2006...3:06 pm
Meece
Argh. We have mice. Or a mouse. We live in a third floor flat so it’s obviously an energetic creature. It must have travelled up to us in hollow wall cavities. We’ve been a bit slovenly with bread crumbs of late (sorry, Mum!) and we found a telling trail in the bread bin which we had left open.
There was no way I was having a dead mouse in our kitchen, so a humane trap was the only answer.
I’m still a little worried, as the instructions say the trap should be checked every two hours to ensure the mouse doesn’t become stressed. I have no problem with this during waking hours – no mouse as yet, unsurprisingly – but I’ve got a full day at work tomorrow. I’m not going to get up every two hours to check the trap, but I’m probably going to toss and turn at the thought of a stressed mouse in my kitchen.
But look! We made salad.
Living in London in a gardenless flat, you have to make your garden where and however you can. We have sown some herbs and salad leaves in window boxes and green things have grown! It’s very exciting. Tonight we ate our first salad yield and it was great – freshy, springy and tasty. The leaves are ‘cut and come again’, so we hope to enjoy more salad before the cold weather comes. Next year, I want tomatoes!
8 Comments
August 10th, 2006 at 1:06 am
Don’t want to alarm you, but… we had mice at my Mum’s house and used humane traps. Trouble was I think the shock of the trap springing gave them all a heart attack anyway as we still had to deal with dead mice.
August 10th, 2006 at 1:15 am
We got a thingie that plugs in an emits a high pitched whine that humans and other animals can’t hear. We had a mouse last winter and we’re on the 6th floor! We worked out that it came up through the central channel where the electric box is.
Anyway, the high pitched whine thing is the only thing that worked (we tried humane traps). I had to think a bit to translate it from dutch, but I think it would be called an’ ultrasonic pest repellent’. Ours cost 30 euros but we have no more mice. We also got a cat shortly after
Your windowbox garden sounds great! We had lettuce and tomatoes on our balcony but the lettuce is all gone now. I grew lollo rosso. My cherry tomatoes did really well, but the bigger tomatoes I grew really didn’t. Next year, it’s all cherry tomatoes
Enjoy your salad!
August 10th, 2006 at 2:51 am
i think it must be a bumper summer for mice. we’ve released 5 from our humane trap (none of them dead), and three more met a less humane fate at the business end of our cat. nature red in tooth and claw and all that.
August 10th, 2006 at 2:52 am
also corn salad (lamb’s lettuce) goes on and on into the cold weather, for long-lasting home grown salads.
August 10th, 2006 at 5:18 am
When we had mice we tried the humane trap only to find the mouse could get into the trap eat the bait and escape before it was sprung so I wish you luck but maybe the noise emitting thing might be a wise second choice
August 10th, 2006 at 7:34 am
Humane traps have never worked for us either, we seem to attract very clever vermin who know how to get in and out of them while stealing the bait. In the end we went for old fashioned neck breaking traps and I think they are kinder than poison. But I wish you luck in your humane trap endevours!
Growing tomatoes is the best. You can do tumbling varieties in hanging baskets and window boxes.
August 10th, 2006 at 7:50 am
re: garden – you should have at least another crop of greens if it doesn’t get too hot. Here, we get a good crop in the spring, and then it’s too hot all summer, but we re-sow around the end of August and we get another good crop right through until frost comes. Lettuces are surprisingly cold-resistant. And you should try tomato plants next year if you have a very sunny spot! They’re very satisfying and one or two plants of Romas will yeild more than enough to make a batch of sauce to freeze and plenty to enjoy w/ salad as well.
August 12th, 2006 at 8:33 am
Aggghhh – what a nightmare meece are – my Mum and Dad have the field variety in their garden and eating outside is – fun !
Just to let you know my brother and his troupe are performing at Edinburgh again this year – they were nominated for the Perrier award last year – they are the Dutch Elm Conservatoire if you fancy a look. Have a lovely time – I wish I could go too – sadly I’ve run out of time and I’m off home to warmer climes !