Loir

[Framboise]

Last year I for asked help to identify the wee beastie in our grain loft that attacked our friend!    Well Monsieur Loir is back!

Sadly it was only through the fact we found a poor dead hirondelle up in the loft the other day that we discovered this little devil was back in residence, indeed it looked as though he had made a meal of the poor little bird which made us more determined to oust him from our loft.  (That and the fact we do not want him chomping his way through the electrics when we start work on the conversion upstairs!)

So how do we deter him from raking out the insulation to make himself a cosy nest in the roof apex as he has done now?   Do we need to set rat traps or something?  Personally I would rather catch the blighter and chuck him out to find another home although we have no desire to handle him because we know what vicious fiend he is already. 

Any suggestions??

[chris pp]

First of all, Loir are vegetarian, so what ever was eating the bird, it wasn't a loir. They are also not aggressive unless extremely threatened or handled, in which case they will bite, who wouldn't?

You can try catching them in cage traps baited with apple or walnuts, then release them about 500 metres to a kilometer away, but remember to visit the traps at least twice a day.

Chris

[Framboise]

Thankyou Chris,

We will give that a try when we next visit the house because we don't want to hurt Monsieur Loir, preferring him to find other accomodation instead.    There are plenty of barns nearby that are purely for hay storage so we will relocate him to one of those and hope he likes his change of address.

I don't think we have anything else in residence, ie. rats or mice,  because we have no evidence as such in the way of droppings etc.,  but then the house is old so I guess we should expect lodgers in what was previously a grain loft.   Our worry is that once we install the electrics that M. Loir might munch his way through them and incinerate the place for us - not a pleasing thought when we are only halfway through the conversion - although once the upstairs work begins we can also trace where He is getting in and  block it off once and for all.  I cannot get over the cheek of Him though, right up in the apex of the gables, swishing his tail at us as if to say "Ha!   You can't get ME..." 

Anyway, our friend who was attacked by M. Loir has lived on the story of the giant mouse that bit him for a year now, but M. Loir is of course the size of a domestic cat this far along the line.   It was only the fact that we had new ceilings put in downstairs that Mr. Loir's presence became known because the nest was between the ceiling/floor and he dropped out onto our friend's head, along with a ton of old grain husks and gnawed pine cones.   No wonder M. Loir was angry as his home dropped from underneath him!

Many thanks.   

[Tag]

Surely the loir is the edible doormouse, much loved of the Romans and Southern French many moons ago, so an alternative might be to catch and eat the little bu****.

[Framboise]

One of the same so I understand, but I don't particularly want Loir Chasseur on my menu thanks!  

However, were it not for the fact our Monsieur Loir is such a hooligan I wouldn't mind his presence up in the loft, but we would rather he found alternative accomodation whether he likes it or not.   Moreover I don't want my lovely longere vandalised by Him in our absence!