Loir attracted to the light from a torch.

[JohnRoss]

Further to my last post about Loir and the dubious delights of sharing your home with them I have now satisfied myself that ultra sound does not put them off in the long term. Because the little blighters have been making such a racket in the wall space behind our bed recently I hooked up an ultrasound squeaker pointing down into this wall space a couple of days ago. I had a look into this same wall space today and saw the two little beady eyes of a loir hanging on to some electrical gaine in this space. He/she was not in the least concerned about the torch or the squeaker and in fact slowly climbed up the gaine to within a couple of feet of me and the squeaker so clearly not put off by the torch or the sound pulses. I guess he was just plain curious about what this light was!

A couple of years ago I put several ultrasound devices into the house in places where Loir had been heard. I suspect that it did deter them from living in the house for a couple of years as our catch rate dropped dramatically to only one or two a year, had been more than 25 a year before this. Those that were born in the house during this time must have got used to the sound pulses and accepted them as normal and it is these offspring that we have been catching this year, number 10 had a free trip to the woods at the beginning of this week.

So what to do now as I have exhausted any ideas that I have had. I really don't want them in the wall spaces as they make nests out of the polystyrene insulation and spread chewed up pieces of this along the base of the chimney behind the inner wall and I have just spent most of the day removing it by suction yet again. A bit of a fire risk I think! My neighbours think I am crazy not to use poison but there must be a better way!......................................JR