Mariana,

That's terrible news.

We at OrchidMania deal with the critters every start of winter - they get
into the greenhouse when it gets colder in SF and do exactly what you
described.

Every year we buy a different brand of bait and it clears them out in a
week. Finding the mouse mummy carcasses all year long sux, though.

Good luck with the exterminator!

-Eric in SF

"GrlIntrpted" wrote in message
. net...
[Deep breath....].... I woke up this morning to a major, MAJOR disaster.
You
see, I grow orchids on window sills, almost every window in the house is
serving
as a home to orchids. At night, it takes me about an hour to move the
orchids
from the sills to their night spots [we close the shades for the night].
The
ones in my bedroom [Southern exposure] go under our bed [Our bed is 4
feet
off the floor]. Some go on the external staircase [It leads to the
basement
from the side of the house; it goes down to the high 50'F's at night]. In
the
morning, I wake up an hour earlier so that I can place the orchids back on
to
the sills.

This morning, to my complete horror, I noticed rodent bite marks on two
new
growths of a Laelia milleri. Laelia lobata took a severe hit as well, Catt
maxima which I just received from a friend suffered too. The bulbo's
took a big hit, on those they ate through the bulbs. I've already
contacted
an exterminator he is going to show up tonight. Meanwhile, I feel awful, I
can
not believe that this could happen, just like that, never ever thought
that
mice
go for orchids.....isn't vanilla the only edible orchid?

The very bummed,
Mariana