Useless Feline!

[Minouette]

Hi

I have a cat who, at the great age of 15, is still a hunter par excellence when outdoors.  He spends hours at the local mousehole watching and waiting, then brings home his trophies for approval before he devours them with great bone-crunching relish.  Yeuk.  This same cat seems incapable of catching any mice that are already indoors.  Yet again I have found the little tell-tale crottes in my stores overflow cupboard.  And the weird thing is that the mice are obviously making a beeline for the crunchy catfood.  Do I have confused mice, or a confused cat?  Does the french window denote some sort of cease fire line?  Are these mice his personal pets?

Seriously, can anyone suggest the best way of getting rid of these pesky little rodents?  I hate the thought of mousetraps but I'm worried about using poison in case the cat finds it.  Also, is there any risk of illness if one inadvertently eats something that the mice have got to first?  I ate a packet of fruit and nuts the other day and didnt realise until I came to throw the packet away that there was a neat little hole chewed in the bottom of it!  Bigger yeuk!

Thanks....

Minou

[Hegs]

We had much the same problem, our "night visitor" was welcomed as one of the family by our three. We bought in France a humane mousetrap from the Cantena shop (same chain as M Bricolage), that just traps rather than kills.

Of course the cats were fascinated once the mouse has been caught...

We let the little blighter go in a field.

[Minouette]

Thanks for the advice.  I have a M. Bricolage quite near me so I shall go and make enquiries.  Hopefully it will do the trick and we will all live happily ever after. 

Quite what I do about the racket in the roof is another matter... I think I have a family of fuines in the space between the lambris and the roof tiles.  Whatever they are they play football with a large stone at about 2am every morning in the roofspace just above my head and the noise is deafening.  I've tried telling them that we live in the heart of Rugby-land (deep in the SW) and that they should learn to pass the ball rather than kick it (it makes for a quieter night for me) but they're all obviously little George Bests at heart.  Probably been on the Armagnac as well, by the sound of it!

Quelle belle via a la campagne!

Minou

 

 

 

[zeb]

We have the same problem as you Minou, only our cat (Elvis, who we gave a home to last year when another LFer was desperate) brings the mice in, chases them around for a bit then loses interest and forgets about them.

We have found and disposed of mice, nests and baby mice but gave up being humane I'm afraid when we were being overrun with hungry mice and OH carted the humane trap down the road on his way to work, stopped and tipped out........a piece of bread!! I put poison in a jar lid and slid it under the sideboard which is too low for the cats to get under but was a good hiding place for mice. Result........dead mice and, sorry, but I didn't even feel slightly guilty.

The same cat has now learnt a new trick which is also becoming a problem for us. She can open doors and her favourite is the bathroom door because she can jump into the bidet or basin for a drink. She headbuts the taps until water runs out. Unfortunately she hasn't learnt to turn the taps off yet.

The other old cat is very sensible and spends all day in front of the woodburner.

helen

 

[Minouette]

Hi Helen

Your cat is called Elvis?  It's a female?  I suspect your cat is probably more confused than mine!!

You might have a point about 'losing interest' once the victim is brought indoors.  As a rule though Murphy traps AND kills outdoors.  He just seems to prefer to bring them indoors so he can eat them in front of me.  I think he's trying to show me what he would prefer to see on the menu. 

There was little vole once though... Murphy caught it by its rear end (normally he kills like a lion by asphyxiating them) and it swore at him so much that he got quite offended and dropped it.  The vole just sat there, practically with its paws on its hips like an old fishwife, giving him what for.   Murphy and I just gaped in astonishment whilst vole sauntered off!!  I saw it quite frequently for a few days afterwards... it didnt seem scared at all... even, on one occasion sitting in the middle of Murph's foodbowl having a good old nosh.  I got rather fond of the little beasty but I was quite sure that Murphy would get his revenge one night and I'd find a little corpse the following morning.  Voles, in catland it seems, are never for eating.  But no...  no corpse and no more sightings.   Maybe, there are feline rules on fair play and neutral territory!

Minou

PS  I also have a photo of Murphy fast asleep in the washbasin... I think it's a cat thing!

[I1]

[quote]Thanks for the advice. I have a M. Bricolage quite near me so I shall go and make enquiries. Hopefully it will do the trick and we will all live happily ever after. Quite what I do about the rack...[/quote]

I also have Stone Martens in my roof. With regard to them (I don’t have cats so I have no ambiguity about the identification), they are a real nuisance and very difficult to get rid of. Be careful who you ask about them locally as they are protected and it is illegal to “do anything about them” (hence the fewer people who know the better).

People say that they hate noise so leave a radio on a lot of the time. This did not work on mine (even a loud hi-fi had no effect). During the late-spring I even took to bashing the plasterboard when I heard them (right at the point they were) – with no effect. I started with one, then got a family and now the youngsters have gone their way and I’m back to one (or two).

I have purchased a humane trap so I can relocate them elsewhere but I keep getting hedgehogs (who then like the trap so much they stay in it).

If you find a way to remove the Stone Martens, do let me know.

[Minouette]

So.... I went to M.Bricolage and purchased one of those humaine mouse catchers.  A very elegant, chic piece of engineering which cost a fortune... 35 euros!  I also had to suffer a lot of teasing from the young sales assistants who thought I must be totally barmy to want to catch mice without splatting them.  Quelle folle anglaise.

Judging by the holes gnawed in the bottom of the bags, the mice have developed an appetite for my cat's crunchy food (unlike the cat) so I transferred all the different flavours into Tupperware tubs.  Not the cheap fake versions mind... the real tough McCoy.   I then placed the mouse-trap, with a nice piece of baguette in it, right alongside the catfood containers.  This morning I discovered that my mice are either super intelligent or little gourmets.  They have totally ignored that tempting piece of bread and gnawed a flipping great hole in the Tupperware.  Mon dieu!

Tonight I shall be putting catfood into the trap, placing the trap where the catfood usually sits, and hiding the Tupperwares in a large thickest-ever cardboard box.  I will not be beaten!  If all else fails I shall transfer the catfood into glass containers (they couldnt gnaw through that.... could they?) and hope to starve the little beasties out!  Or maybe I'll go to another shop where they dont know me and buy rodent poison!

Watch this space.....

Minou

[Anton Redman]

We think the ultra sonic repealers work. We had one small field mouse in this autumn which, much to Isabel's amazement, I caught with my bare hands. I walked it half a mile then let it go.

We also found repealer gave Isabel headaches

[I1]

[quote]So.... I went to M.Bricolage and purchased one of those humaine mouse catchers. A very elegant, chic piece of engineering which cost a fortune... 35 euros! I also had to suffer a lot of teasing from...[/quote]

The ones I got (from Leclerc and Bricomarche) were dirt cheap, cheap plastic base with a wire mesh top and a few other bits of bent metal. Literally a few Euros and easy to find in the shops (so I recon quite a few people use them).

[Minouette]

[quote]The ones I got (from Leclerc and Bricomarche) were dirt cheap, cheap plastic base with a wire mesh top and a few other bits of bent metal. Literally a few Euros and easy to find in the shops (so I re...[/quote]

Well, they must have seen me coming then! 

If the darn thing doesnt work I shall hang it on the wall as a piece of modern sculpture.  And if it does work I shall rent it out to fellow sufferers at a few euros a day until I recoup my outlay!

Minou

[Minouette]

[quote]We think the ultra sonic repealers work. We had one small field mouse in this autumn which, much to Isabel's amazement, I caught with my bare hands. I walked it half a mile then let it go. We also fou...[/quote]

Dont these ultra sonic gizmos have an adverse effect on felines as well?  I dont want my poor old Murphy suffering a crise cardiac as well as kidney disease.  And how come you caught the mouse... did the repealer sort of stun him immobile? 

Minou