And the culprit eating my pea shoots was…
Comments(19)
Image by: John Good - NPS Photo
I’ve been busy tackling the mystery of what was eating my pea shoots. These peas were planted in October under fleece. They germinated well and were at the stage where they needed to be supported by twigs. At first I suspected slugs. My open beer traps didn’t attract a single slug. Then Cath gave me the tip that traps need to be covered and I remembered that years ago my mum gave me the ultimate in slug traps. I found it in the greenhouse and set it up with a trill. But even the mighty Slug X beer fest didn’t attract a single mollusc reveller.
Also there are a lot of tasty pak choi and lettuce seedlings under cloches and these haven’t been touched.
Meanwhile Jo from Little Ffarm Dairy suggested mice. I thought mice were only a danger at the seed sowing stage. Even though my patch of peas is just a few feet away from a mouse hotel – I’ve seen them playing when the Min Pins are indoors – the seeds didn’t appear to attract mice before they germinated.
I like mice but I love peas.
Feeling a bit of a pig, I set two traps in the giant cloche – perhaps mice like their five a day too? Yesterday morning the cheese had been gently eased off one trap.
“Ah ha!” I thought. “It’s just a matter of time until I catch my suspects.”
This morning I found a dead mouse in the other trap. So mice like eating pea shoots. I wonder if they ate the carrot seed?
I have set both traps again. Although the dead mouse was very plump it couldn’t have eaten so many shoots on its own. So I’m expecting more visitors who would welcome a little cheese with their pea shoots.
Image by: John Good – NPS Photo
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Thank you for your comments. And a bit of silly bath time fun with the Frothing Sea Monster trick!
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Wy not try choclate in the traps this is a very old idea that i was told about when i lived in Brandon Suffolk, it works better than cheese..
Have you tried peanut butter as a bait? I use it in the house, and mice seem to love it. It is also harder for them to eat it without getting caught. But I thought peas were safe once they had germinated, too!
If you have some dark chocolate, that works very well to attract mice, as does apple chutney! When they moved into “my” bit of the garage, they went for a bar of Tesco Value plain chocolate and some white chocolate chips from my camping stash, then decided to help themselves from the one un-lidded jar of maturing chutney. Naturally they ignored the boxes of apples on the next shelf.
is it terribly namby pamby of me to wish you could use humane traps rather than lethan ones? Though I suppose that would just relocate the problem to someone else’s garden/field.
I don’t suppose there’s much chance that mice have the sort of collective memory displayed by blue tits and sheep, and that they will learn to avoid the peas from the example of their dead comrades?
aawww poor ickle meeses… from now on you shalt go by the name of fiona the mouse murderer LOL.
When I think of all the tiny ones I rescue from the cats in breeding season and nurse back to health covered in cat spit and then go out of my way to release in parts of the garden that they stand a chance of not being caught again straight off…. its difficult to realise other people would welcome my feline brigade of mouse maimers, and are desparately trying to murder the little nibblers.
My dad used to tie a bit of bacon on the trap, which always seemed to work.
When I had cats, I never minded that they were supplementing their diets with mice (I was too poor to buy them anything but the cheapest dry food) and only made my boyfriend take away mice from them twice: once when I was tired and the poor thing was cheeping every time it got batted, and the other time when it was so stiff with rigor mortis I was worried for their health.
Then there was the night when we got home late something largish and shiny popped up when I rolled the front door over it. I shuddered and jumped back (okay I shrieked, too), thinking that it was a bark beetle, which the locals described as being so large that it was “a handful of beetle”. Nope. Closer inspection revealed that it was a neatly flayed mouse that was brown because its flesh was oxidizing. I looked at one of the cats and sternly said, “You eat that!”, whereupon he picked up the mouse and slunk off to a dark corner of our apartment to eat it.
Years ago as a teenager I netted the peas I was growing to protect them from the birds. When I took the nets off at the end of the season several tiny mice skeletons were catapulted from the nets. I had forgotten all about it till just now. Yes mice do like peas
Oh, it’s such a conflict: we too adore the tiny fieldmouse and even the more pesky house cousin. I guess we must be townies at heart because any true farmer or country style dweller would not spare a thought for any pest that threatens crops.
I remember one dark evening last year when I went down to my shed with a torch to light the way. At the shed door a mouse was climbing through one of their entryways, which had been chewed through at my eye level. It was so startled by the light that it simply pushed through and dropped to the ground. A long fall for such a tiny body. It must have been OK because I could not find it anywhere.
Sadly, any pest is the enemy of the produce grower and must be dealt with. Hopefully humanely.
I was thinking, I recall an episode of river cottage where some whacky woman went and ‘asked’ the mice to leave.. have you seen it? Can’t you give it a try??? Just a long shot :S
I’d rather keep the mice. Much more fun. Peas aren’t really worth the effort.
I’m squeamish and always hope for humane responses to pests of all kinds, but I’d be setting traps if mice were eating my peas.
Mice ate all my broad been ‘sproutlings’ last year in the greenhouse: I came down one morning to find neat lines of holes in the trays where the 1″ plants had been.
I set a ‘live capture’ trap with chocolate cake in the far end. It worked a treat, and I relocated three mice to the far end of the village – near some stables, so I hope they found a nice new home. They never came back. But I’m afraid I would have set the snap-traps if the live-capture ones hadn’t worked. We really needed the veggies last year to help make the budget meet, and I just couldn’t afford to lose a crop like that more than once.
Hi Paul
Thank you – I’ll try that! I like dark chocolate too ?
Hi Barbara
Peanut butter is now on the shopping list. Thanks.
Hi Rosa
Apple chutney – we’ve got plenty of that! Great idea.
Hi Rae Mond
I think that mice are intelligent creatures. I know what you mean about humane traps but think of the terror of being caught and moved – the traps are quick. Also I wouldn’t want to pass on a pest to someone else however cute they look. I’m happy if they stick to sharing the bird food but not my peas.
Hi Mandy
The Min Pins catch quite a lot of mice in the garden – they kill them very quickly so the mice have no chance. But the Min Pins don’t hunt much in the winter.
Hello Paula
When I had cats they’d torment the mice for hours so generally I caught the mice and put them back in the garden.
Love your flayed mouse story! One of my cats would catch worms and put them under rugs to jump on them – I saved the worms too.
Hi Sebbie
That’s interesting – I had no idea that they like pea shoots. Now the berries are all gone there’s not a lot for them to eat.
Hi Danny
When I first moved to the country I hated trapping mice. There was a sweet little one that lived in the Rat Room for about a year until I saw the damage that was being done. I’m still not keen on killing them but if they are eating our food they have to go.
Hi Mandy
That’s worth trying. I’ll definitely give it a go.
Hi Michael
I’ve just popped over to your blog to see the great mouse photos and video! Brilliant.
Hi Cathy
Yes I agree with you. If the mice don’t eat our food they can stay!
Hi Katyvic
Yes our budget means that growing our own veg is a must – and they taste far better too. Perhaps I’ll try using a humane trap and then taking them to some woodland near by.
Hi Fiona – I feel a bit guilty now as I’m indirectly responsible for their deaths! However a pest is a pest – & they are destructive. The ‘humane’ traps just transfer the problem elsewhere – IF the mice survive. As you say, very often the terror of capture can literally frighten them to death; not nice. At least the only thing they know about the ‘snap trap’ is that they were tucking into a tasty snack before – crack, instantaneous, nothing.
If you’d said it was a rat I’m sure very few would quibble over extermination – & after all a mouse is just a smaller less threatening model.
Incidentally when I was a child a mouse made a home in the family airing cupboard – as it was chewing our undies it had to go! I remember Mum put a bit of her chocolate cake in a snap trap. It did the trick – but the trap didn’t spring, it seems the cake killed it! Fortunately it didn’t have the same effect on us….
Glad you enjoyed my Blog photos BTW – as you say it looks lovely but sometimes it truly can be Hell in Paradise!
I’m afraid I’m with Jo@LFD on this one….sort of.
It is a shame to kill them, as with all pests, in my opinion, they only become a pest by virtue of where we find them. If they kept themselves away from your juicy pea shoots I expect you would have been more than happy to leave them be!
With regards to bait for traps anything thats sticky is great- they cant then whip it off leaving the trap none the wiser.
I prefer the plastic traps with a small bait cup under the treadle plate (they have to work to get the bait then)
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Hi Jo
Love it – the mouse dies from overindulging in cake!
Hello CPC
Thanks for your tips. I must look out for one of those traps. Our wooden ones froze solid during the recent cold snap which was no good at all!
Hi Izzabella
I’ve just checked those out and they are very nifty! Thanks for dropping by.
BTW another mouse story…
A couple of weeks ago Moriarty the Merciless (one of our massive Maine Coon cats & Head of Pest Control on the Ffarm) came sauntering up with a tiny field mouse clutched between his mighty jaws. He dropped the shivering creature on the ground at my feet, apparently for inspection.
The little mouse turned to him, sat on its haunches, & clasped its paws together in an aspect of prayer. Moriarty observed it through half-closed “I’m bored” eyes before casually taking a swipe & batting the poor little creature several feet from where it had been apparently pleading to him.
Moz followed after it & the poor little thing again sat facing him on its haunches, again clasping paws skyward in a gesture of begging desperation.
I could see that Moriarty wasn’t moved & was keen on continuing his heartless game before turning the exhausted, miniscule rodent into a furry canape.
But in a moment of weakness I admit that I did, indeed, feel sorry for the suppliant – & I scooped Moriarty up into my arms & took him into the cottage for a slap-up fish supper as his reward for being such a clever pest preventer.
As for the wee brown mouse? Well, he/she scuttled away safe amongst the brambles, nooks & crannies of an old drystone wall; hopefully never to meet his evil adversary again. Just so long as it leaves MY peas alone in gratitude….!
Hello Jo
Thank you so much for leaving this story – it warmed the cockles of my heart!
I’m still catching mice and am planning to start some more peas in an old gutter in the greenhouse as most of my pea plants are quite bare.