View Single Post
  #3   Report Post  
Old 17-03-2004, 04:42 AM
Rodger Whitlock
 
Posts: n/a
Default update on my "mouse in the loft"

On Tue, 16 Mar 2004 15:07:28 GMT, Tim Challenger wrote:

On Tue, 16 Mar 2004 15:08:37 +0000, Nick wrote:

i would find it hard to believe that the mouse would have been able to
scale the angle of the roof felt to get back to its original point of
entry with it being 5 foot up and a 45 degree angle sloping inwards.


You might be surprised what they can climb over/up/under...


Okay, since you guys are all mousexperts, tell me: how do the
mice in my friend's cabin on Saltspring Island get in? Where do
they live once inside? (Cabin is an upper story over a two-bay
garage, reached by an outside stair.)

He gets the little wild mouse -- we think it's Peromiscus
maniculatus (sp), a deer mouse, and in warmer climates to be
feared as a carrier of hanta virus -- in considerable numbers in
his place.

It's clear that at times a gravid female has made her way in,
given birth, and raised a large family. When he first became
aware of the problem (little piles of cat chow stashed in
cupboards) and bought a live trap, he caught over sixty of the
pests in about a month.

We've both searched endlessly for a way in and found nothing. My
guess is that either they crawl under the door (perhaps 1/4"
clearance) or up the outside of the building and in through an
open window. Since the outside of the building is rough cedar and
shingles, this isn't impossible.

Of course, being a tender-hearted soul, he doesn't kill them!
Instead they get released outside...right at the foot of the
stairs up to his place.


Comments?


--
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
[change "atlantic" to "pacific" and
"invalid" to "net" to reply by email]