"Rodger Whitlock" wrote
snip
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.
snip
Comments?

Reducing the gap under a door to 1/4" or less is the textbook
recommendation for proofing against mice. They wriggle under doors etc.
by flattening their ribcages, BTW. I've seen film footage this and of a
mouse scaling a 20' vertical brick wall in remarkably quick time.

They are also very adaptable to new environments. There is a fascinating
account of a colony which established itself in a very large freezer store
(in London, England, I believe). Within a very few generations and
living solely on frozen produce with no free water present, the mice had
adapted to their surroundings. They nested in the packing material and
grew longer and denser coats than normal. (The infestation didn't say
much about the vigilance of the staff who worked at the freezer store,
however).


- Tom.

On Tue, 16 Mar 2004 22:39:50 -0000, Tom Bennett wrote:

Reducing the gap under a door to 1/4" or less is the textbook
recommendation for proofing against mice. They wriggle under doors
etc. by flattening their ribcages,

Not to mention being able to dislocate the plates of their skulls. The
skull would otherwise limit the smallest hole to about 3/8"...

--
Cheers
Dave. pam is missing e-mail

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

SNIP

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.

SNIP

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?

Could it be the same one sixty times then?

Martin


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

SNIP

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.

SNIP

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?

Could it be the same one sixty times then?

Martin


---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.631 / Virus Database: 404 - Release Date: 17/03/2004

On Wed, 17 Mar 2004 21:42:19 -0000, Martin wrote:

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

SNIP

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.

SNIP

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?

Could it be the same one sixty times then?

That's certainly a possibility. Another is that there's a hole in
the space-time continuum into another universe that is entirely
filled with deermice and they're leaking through it.

The whole thing has amusing sides that may not be obvious to
those not on the scene, I might add.


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

On Wed, 17 Mar 2004 21:42:19 -0000, Martin wrote:

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

SNIP

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.

SNIP

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?

Could it be the same one sixty times then?

That's certainly a possibility. Another is that there's a hole in
the space-time continuum into another universe that is entirely
filled with deermice and they're leaking through it.

The whole thing has amusing sides that may not be obvious to
those not on the scene, I might add.


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

Once a family establishes a run which involves going around and eventually
up and over someone's home they will get in easily.

I had over a dozen rats in our loft and worse between the wall cavities last
year they got in under the tiles above the guttering, they were climbing up
a Forsythia and leaping on to my conservatory to get to the main roof.

The stink was and still is appalling in the loft although I killed most of
the with Poison I don't think I got them all, but so far this year we have
not seen (or heard any).

They also very nearly got in to the bathroom through the underground
sewerage pipe but I noticed them chewing the plastic just in time and gave
them a dose of caustic soda


"Nick" wrote in message
...
for anyone interested from my previous thread last month i have an
update.

i was cleaning the loft out at the weekend (a month later than
expected!) and i saw a small hole in the roof felt and some shredded
bits of felt where the mouse had gained entry! the mouse must have
dropped 5 foot after gaining entry so i can only assume that the mouse
had got under the tiles and couldnt find his way out and gnawed his way
through the felt after feeling warmth underneath.

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.

i caught one mouse up there fairly quickly after seeing infestation and
haven't seen any other activity in the last month.

Once a family establishes a run which involves going around and eventually
up and over someone's home they will get in easily.

I had over a dozen rats in our loft and worse between the wall cavities last
year they got in under the tiles above the guttering, they were climbing up
a Forsythia and leaping on to my conservatory to get to the main roof.

The stink was and still is appalling in the loft although I killed most of
the with Poison I don't think I got them all, but so far this year we have
not seen (or heard any).

They also very nearly got in to the bathroom through the underground
sewerage pipe but I noticed them chewing the plastic just in time and gave
them a dose of caustic soda


"Nick" wrote in message
...
for anyone interested from my previous thread last month i have an
update.

i was cleaning the loft out at the weekend (a month later than
expected!) and i saw a small hole in the roof felt and some shredded
bits of felt where the mouse had gained entry! the mouse must have
dropped 5 foot after gaining entry so i can only assume that the mouse
had got under the tiles and couldnt find his way out and gnawed his way
through the felt after feeling warmth underneath.

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.

i caught one mouse up there fairly quickly after seeing infestation and
haven't seen any other activity in the last month.

Once a family establishes a run which involves going around and eventually
up and over someone's home they will get in easily.

I had over a dozen rats in our loft and worse between the wall cavities last
year they got in under the tiles above the guttering, they were climbing up
a Forsythia and leaping on to my conservatory to get to the main roof.

The stink was and still is appalling in the loft although I killed most of
the with Poison I don't think I got them all, but so far this year we have
not seen (or heard any).

They also very nearly got in to the bathroom through the underground
sewerage pipe but I noticed them chewing the plastic just in time and gave
them a dose of caustic soda


"Nick" wrote in message
...
for anyone interested from my previous thread last month i have an
update.

i was cleaning the loft out at the weekend (a month later than
expected!) and i saw a small hole in the roof felt and some shredded
bits of felt where the mouse had gained entry! the mouse must have
dropped 5 foot after gaining entry so i can only assume that the mouse
had got under the tiles and couldnt find his way out and gnawed his way
through the felt after feeling warmth underneath.

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.

i caught one mouse up there fairly quickly after seeing infestation and
haven't seen any other activity in the last month.

Once a family establishes a run which involves going around and eventually
up and over someone's home they will get in easily.

I had over a dozen rats in our loft and worse between the wall cavities last
year they got in under the tiles above the guttering, they were climbing up
a Forsythia and leaping on to my conservatory to get to the main roof.

The stink was and still is appalling in the loft although I killed most of
the with Poison I don't think I got them all, but so far this year we have
not seen (or heard any).

They also very nearly got in to the bathroom through the underground
sewerage pipe but I noticed them chewing the plastic just in time and gave
them a dose of caustic soda


"Nick" wrote in message
...
for anyone interested from my previous thread last month i have an
update.

i was cleaning the loft out at the weekend (a month later than
expected!) and i saw a small hole in the roof felt and some shredded
bits of felt where the mouse had gained entry! the mouse must have
dropped 5 foot after gaining entry so i can only assume that the mouse
had got under the tiles and couldnt find his way out and gnawed his way
through the felt after feeling warmth underneath.

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.

i caught one mouse up there fairly quickly after seeing infestation and
haven't seen any other activity in the last month.