General Chat

A few days ago, I went to get the (large) bag of peanuts I keep in my utility room for topping up the bird feeders in the garden and found it was empty. On closer inspection I found dozens of mouse droppings and peanut remains (skins, if you get my meaning). So, I put traps down in the area and so far have caught 11 mice - eeeby jeeebies!!!! No mice police please - I cannot stand the thought of them in my house!!!

Hi Patricia,

Are yuou having any building work done? I had the same problem a few years ago, the noise at night was a bit like someone dragging furniture across the loft!

Someone had left an open ground pipe exposed and rats had gone in and climbed up inside the cavity wall into the loft.

The local council came and baited, which solved the problem, thank heavans!

Annx

I KNOW JUST THE MAN

HES DEALING WITH MINE

JUSTPUT A THREAD UP FOR

MR SLY FOX,,,JUST SAY MRS DIZZI SAID

That Lady Augusta is a very sobering thought. It is too late to take action after the fact. Here is a timely warning which might save someone's home. At least have your house checked or take a look yourself.

I'm never going to sleep tonight now.. Thanks girls.. not! pmsl

Heh, did you click on the next video offered?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rx9Xu0cE6FM&NR=1&feature=fvwp

That one's quite safe for the squeamish. I wonder how they'd be as pets??

But then the next one up is

GIANT KILLER RAT FOUND IN INDONESIA

and the squeamish really may not want to check that one out. ;)


I dunno, rats don't bother me, and mice are cute. But then I've never experienced rats in the wild, as it were, i.e. not in cages being pets. A friend of mine is allergic to everything and so has never been able to have, uh, "real" pets, but she has had rats for years and is quite devoted to them, and they to her. They're just clever little furry animals!

O My giddy Aunt!!! thanks for that Aunty Sherlock... I think I would die if that lot came tumbling out the attic!!!

Rats terrify me , never mind them being captured i would be gone xx

It is difficult to bite my tongue and laugh at the same time.

If we are discussing vermin I have a treat in store for you all. But warning...... this is not for the faint hearted, and standing on a chair is a waste of time.

The vision is a few years old. Our farmers are reporting a similar set of circumstances this season for a recurrence.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JH4EFgRB4bU

Ah, is that it. Squirrel pox? About 15 years ago I read about your squirrel pox in the paper -- and how it was in the US, and had crossed into Canada. A half dozen cases had been reported in my city.

Well, Rat Ear was a ratty mess right then. Scabby. It looked to me like it might just be squirrel pox. Munchausen's Syndrome by squirrel, that's me. So I called the wildlife centre, and they said it was likely just mange, but if not treated he wouldn't survive the winter if he'd lost 25% of his coat, which he had. So I trapped him, and took him in - and sure enough, it was squirrel pox. He stayed for 2 months and then came home, but it took him a while to forgive me.

My smallest current black showed up at the window last week with its whole upper body bare and furless. I guess it's a good thing it had a nice warm kneewall space in my house to overwinter in, or that would have been an end of it. Not more pox I hope though. The feral cat colony has fe-leuk and FIV, not needing pox in the squirrels ...

Btw, I was referring to grey squirrels in my post above. Sadly, we don't get red squirrels down south, only thousands of grey ones. I believe they pass on a disease which kills the red ones and that is why the latter are an endangered species in Gt. Britain.

If it is squirrels then get rid asap, when we had them in our loft they pinched 50% of our lagging!!!!

Tracey

WOW this turned out to be a good thread!!

Janey you do make me smile...Could be squirrels as I used to see one climbing along the fence.. Something has been throwing the mortar out the roof gulley down onto the patio as well...
Mont's not having any of it he says it's the birds on the roof..
Excuse me MR but I do know the difference in the noises... LOL

Well we're just going to visit my Mum and taking our two eldest Grandkids to see Grandma..
Catch you all later if I don't drown in all the flipping rain... oh to live somewhere nice and sunny and no noisy critters!
Actually you've all made me smile especially rat with a headache Joy! :o))))
BBL
Tricia LWD xxxx

I know about the plight of your reds there -- and the effort to eradicate the blacks/greys (that the Victorian nincompoop imported). The tails of my blacks/greys were once requested by that well-known critter-hater hereabouts so he could claim the bounty. ;)

I don't know what happened in North America - how come the reds disappeared so suddenly. I'm sure the blacks and greys (and all the variations, there are lots among the greys) are native here. Why they suddenly ousted the reds in the late 20th century - ? Maybe they just did better at living in cities.

Anyhow I agree with the diagnosis -- squirrels are notorious screechers, so that's likely what Patricia's got!

stray had a rat in her garden
it was just visiting


but it die with a massive headache

rats we had them last year ...took about 8 months to get rid!!!

squirrels

natures little speed bumps lol

they are endangered in UK although we are gradually getting them back. It is the greys that have taken over from the reds. We too have black squirrels, the only place I have seen them is Letchworth in Hertfordshire. Greys are considered vermin here and it is not illegal to kill them. If you capture one you are not allowed to release it anywhere.

Ann - black and grey. I have two blacks and one grey that come to the window daily for a handout. (We had loads more squirrels up to 5 years ago when the enormous soft maple in the next yard over was executed.) The blacks tend to intimidate the greys - the greys I've had in other years were smaller, although this grey is a biggie. The ratio of black to grey most places hereabouts would be 10 or 20 to 1, I'd guess.

The blacks are more aggressive than the greys - and of course far more aggressive than the reds - and so are more easily tamed. For several years I had my buddy Rat Ear, who had no doubt that my casa was his casa, and hung out in my dining room scrounging for peanuts when I was working there.

The squirrels had excavated an opening in the sliding fibreglas screen door at the back. Then one night I heard Riiiip, and found that a raccoon had just grabbed a corner of the opening in the screen and turned it into a good-sized doorway, allowing the family easy access thereafter to the cat food in the kitchen. Urban wildlife. At least we don't have coyotes yet, but farther from city centres in Ontario, they are getting them.

The red squirrels disappeared from Ontario a couple of decades ago, at least. When I was a kid c1960, the major downtown park in London, in southern Ontario (Victoria Park, of course!), was full of reds. I can't even think of when I last saw one. My mum actually seems to have a couple this year, where she's lived north of Toronto for about 10 years and never seen them before. She's being careful to get them their share of peanuts.


So Patricia, if you have red squirrels in your attic, you should be nice to them, because they're going to be endangered before long!

Sounds like squirrels to me - they screech at eachother. If so, you should try and get rid of them because they can cause havoc chewing through stuff, including wiring. Also, they will breed and you'll be overrun with them. Don't want to scare you, but I had a friend who found rats in her loft! The council will come and deal with those for free.