Vermin near compost bin

Hi all,

'It's a robin!' said my husband when I told him I had seen something brown moving quickly at the side of the garden twixt the shed and compost bin. Not unusual as we had been out gardening this afternoon and are always accompanied by a few robins, and they are the last birds to feed at night. But no. At the speed it was going, this was no 'Mighty Robin', but 'Mighty Mouse'!

We have a dalek compost bin sat on top of a concrete pavement which, due to its uneveness, does unfortunately leave a gap around the bottom which a few broken bricks does not enclose. We only compost kitchen waste (i.e. peelings), grass and newspapers. I assume, however, that this has attracted the vermin so hubby now wants to get rid of the dalek, and I am inclined to agree having found several 'dips' in my growbags where the mice/others have either been digging around for food, or the squirrels have been searching around for the nuts they buried.

So, once we get rid of the composter, how do we deal with any remaining vermin? We don't have kids or cats. Are traps the answer, or is poison more effective? I don't like killing anything but I really don't want a furry family or more moving in. Will they stay in the garden waiting for the vegetables to grow to eat or will they move on?

(Shudders..)

 

I don't think it's the composter attracting them Effy. Do you put any food out for other animals, hedghogs, birds etc. or maybe your neighbours do. Anything can bring vermin into your area even if it's just to nest.

Rodents have become very wise in recent years and tend not to touch poison that's put down for them, I'd use traps. If you use humane traps, you won't be able to release the rodents elsewhere as it's illegal, something to bear in mind.

 

You are not on your own. We get mice here and they do seem to like the old fashioned compost heaps best as they are easy to enter. They are a real nuisance in the sheds also. I keep traps set most of the time with poison bait in sheds placed carefully.

 

I have 3 daleks and had a big pile of garden refuse made of grass cuttings,branches,leave etc etc.
I thought it was time to burn the pile and after 20 minutes of it burning strong something caught my eye and a rat burst out of the burning pile its fur smoking and it shot past me and off to the stream about 20ft from me
Made me jump then laugh
I wont let the pile grow again in the future without having regular burns to keep the place vermin free.
Still plagued by the damned moles though.

 

Hi ... we do put food out for the birds, but in all the years we've been here, we've never seen mice, only yesterday. Hubby has now emptied the dalek but will this stop the problem or do we need to put traps down? He bought some glue strips but I don't want to use those, isn't there anything we can spray that deters mice?

 

The mice will probably have young to feed so the food put out for birds is what they are after. Make sure you store your supply in tough sealed containers too or they'll chew their way through. Emptying the dalek won't make any difference, that wasn't their food supply but probably there nest site as it would be warm.

Personally I think the glue strips are cruel and a rodent wouldn't think twice about leaving a limb behind to escape. The only deterrent is to take away their food source and the only way to get rid of them is to use traps.

You could invest in a Jack Russell or two!

 

We try to have a live and let live attitude, but when the mice sat on the shelving in the garage and just looked at us, we did have to resort to using traps in the end. Between the traps and my mousing dog, we dispatched 6 mice. Now things can be stored safely in the garage, and we no longer have scurrying sounds in the roof spaces either. We now suspect they have been running amok in the wall cavities... Personally, I would not use glue strips. I can imagine that like snares, it would not be a good way to deal with the problem. Although I tried to avoid using traps, I can honestly say that each mouse was killed efficiently, and as far as I can tell swiftly, by the old-fashioned traps. I checked the traps at least every 8 hours....

Yes, we have mice in our compost bins. But they are allowed to be outside. (Bird food is stored in thick plastic containers, so far successfully.) We also have frogs, toads and newts in our compost bins... We don't put anything but green matter and coffee grounds in the bins, so the rodents are there, because they are in the garden, in the area. I have less of a problem with them being near the compost, than digging holes under my rose bushes!

I know, we don't like to think of killing things, but then most of us eat meat, drink milk, eat eggs, etc. My thoughts, for what they are worth are, live and left live where we can, and be as humane as possible, where we need to take action.

 

Our bird food is stored in big hard plastic containers in our utility room. I expect we have mice in our shed, just never seen one before except the other day.

In our old property, a flat in an old building, we had a resident mouse that used to come out of the walls, and jump onto the kitchen table as bold as brass, and then run along the shelving unit in the recess and back from whence it came. I don't mind a mouse per se, just don't want mice.

No, not going to use the glue strips that hubby bought - they are cruel and I would rather use old fashioned traps too. So for now our dalek is redundant, sadly - we don't have a big garden, but it was just nice to do our composting bit.

Thanks for all the responses folks.

 

Do you live on an isolated, remote island @Effy66 ?
No? Thought not
Then abandoning your dalek composter isn't going to make a jot of difference to your garden visitors.

I have mice here and they sprint across my patio quicker than a Quicken calculation!
Are they in my dalek? Nope.
Do I have bird food? Nope.

I *do* have a neighbour to the left of me (decking = mice des res!)
I *do* have a neighbour to the right of me (feeds the birds right next to his back door!).
Here I am: stuck in the middle of .... mousey runway!!

Now, all the while they are crossing my path outside, fine! I simply practise good hygiene.

If they cross the threshold though ... they had better beware because I am not, repeat not, living with mice!

Have a rethink on your situation. It may simply be that they are drawn to a neighbours house/garden and you have no control over that at all.