"Carol Russell" wrote in message
...

"Michael Berridge" wrote in message
...

Drakanthus wrote in message ...
My mouse traps are catching mice nearly every day under the garden
shed. I
keep disposing of the corpses and re-baiting the traps with cheese. But
it
occurred to me today - why? Are mice really a problem (outside)? I've
heard
they can carry disease and eat certain garden veg such as beetroot -
but do
they actually do any other damage or harm outside? What diseases are
they
supposed to carry and how would they be transmitted to humans? Since
buying
the traps a few months ago I must have killed at least 50 mice. It's
getting
a bit tedious disposing of the corpses each day and I'm wondering if
I'm
actually achieving anything anyway. Advice welcome.

Rats and I expect mice certainly carry a nasty disease in the UK, just ask
a
vermin control expert, I don't know what the disease is, just that it's
the
urine that's the problem.


The nasty disease is Weill's Disease, a form of leptosipirosis, see
http://www.caving.org.uk/wdic/ for information. It is certainly transmitted
via rat urine, not so sure about mice.

As to the question of whether or not to kill mice living in the garden, I
don't, because they aren't a sufficient bother to me to justify the effort.
Have to admit I don't feel the same about rats, though.