Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with rodents

yes, I've seen caddyshack.

changeling — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 13:32:05 -0800

I live on the edge of a huge canyon. Gophers are tearing up my yard. How can I keep them out, when an inexhaustible supply lives just outside my property? I've seen this old post, but it's kind of scattered, with no real concensus. And because I live on a huge canyon, any trapping or poisoning I do would only be temporary (and besides, I don't wanna). I just need to figure out a way too keep them out of my backyard and in the canyon, so my backyard doesn't end up sliding into the canyon itself.

Is there anything I can plant that would keep them away? Spray along the edge of the canyon? I can't get a cat because my husband's allergic. Those electro-stakes would be perfect -- but I've heard they don't work. Or do they? Also, any tips on protecting my garden without building an entire greenhouse or chicken wire fortress?

Bonus: Here's one of 'em.

Should I get pet rats?

greendress — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 23:48:38 -0800

Should I get pet rats? Will they pee all over and eat all my wires and crawl into my walls? We're (husband and I, no kids) thinking of getting rats or guinea pigs (we're aware of the need to get them in pairs), and of those, I'm leaning toward rats -- specifically, male rats, because I understand they are generally lazier than their female counterparts and more likely to be "lap rats" (that's laP, not laB), which is desirable to me.

I've done a fair bit of research already and will continue to do lots more before we decide. But some of what I'm wondering is kind of hard to gauge from otherwise helpful sites, such as...

- How noisy are they? The cage will probably be in the living room -- are they likely to prove too distracting while we watch a movie?

- I understand they should have at least an hour of "social time" per day. Is it important that this be "run around and roam and play" time, or is "sit on my shoulder or lap while we watch TV time" good? Is the point to bond, or to bond and exercise?

- I understand they are keen on chewing wires and cables (among other things). Rat-proofing the living room is unlikely -- we have speakers (5 plus subwoofer), so quite a bit of speaker wire. Does this mean I shouldn't even sit with them there? Are they (males) likely to jump away from me and beeline to the wires and start gnawing before I can tear my eyes away from Lost?

- Do they urine-mark quite a lot? Is it awful? Am I going to want to put on my crappiest clothes before hanging out with them, and cover the couch in old sheets?

- If urine-marking is a problem and we decide to neuter to try to cut down on it, how much is that likely to cost? (I understand this may be hard to answer. I'm in Albany, NY, for what it's worth.)

- If given a little roam time, are they likely to find some weird hiding place, like under the radiator or in the recliner springs or, somehow, in the walls or something? (We have cats, so just leaving them until they come out on their own probably wouldn't be a wise option.)

- Are they great climbers? If I want to block an area (say, the stairs, or an area where there are lots of wires), how would I do that?

Mostly I'm just unclear/concerned about how much they're going to roam around and get into trouble. Don't get me wrong, I don't ever plan to let them run free unsupervised, but realistically, I might look away briefly, and I'm just not sure how quickly they're going to disappear/electrocute themselves/ruin furniture.

Am I overthinking it? Or is my concern a sign that we should get guinea pigs -- or neither -- instead?

I guess what I'm imagining is that for an hour or more each night, we'll have the rats sitting with us on the couch while we watch TV (in a non-rat-proof living room), and a couple or few times a week we'll also play with them in the spare room (which will be much easier to rat-proof). Is this realistic?

Lordy mercy what's in the bedroom with us?!??

Mutant — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 04:02:17 -0800

So exactly what is crawling about our bedroom at night and how can we catch it, exile it or kill it? We live in Central London in a two bedroom, two story garden flat.

About one week ago I woke up at night which is rather unusual as I almost always will sleep the entire night through. I've spent a lot of time working in Africa, sometimes in very, very crappy conditions (read that as tents out in The Bush) and that experience seem to have hyper developed my sense towards things creepy crawly.

So I heard some rustling under the bed, but soon fell back asleep. The wife slept soundly.

Same thing happened a few other nights. I'd wake up, hear this rustling (I've got a lot of finance books and research papers lying about the bedroom) but even if I turned on the lights couldn't see anything. And with the lights on the rustling would stop.

We've got these nifty little LED robot lights in some of the longer hallways, that will turn on when motion is detected. It helps us move about the flat in the evenings without turning on the overly bright hall lights. So I unmounted two of the robot lights, but them under the bed thinking perhaps I'd see the lights activate during the night. But even though rustling, still nothing (just a data point that of itself proves nothing as I'm aware that overly slow or rapid motion past a robot light will not trigger it).

Three nights ago I finally woke the wife during one of these episodes. Sure enough, she heard the rustling and her hearing, much finer than my live punk rock show damaged senses, indicated the point of origin in a particular corner of the room, later moving towards our bed (nice one that!).

So we purchase six of those glue traps and they catch. Nothing.

What the hell can this be? Surely if this was a rodent it would prefer to spend time either in the kitchen or a large, walk in upstairs closet where all the food is? And we've seen no rodent droppings. I lived in New York for thirteen years and know the ways of The Roach; specifically, if we had those insects then we'd be seeing them, especially so downstairs in the kitchen.

I fastidiously take out the garbage after each meal, but even so there is bread and potatoes other tidbits in the kitchen. But no signs of either insects or rodents. I might be inclined to think British House Spider but the seasons not appropriate and I've had them in the past; they just sorta scuttle about the flat and surely don't go rustling my research.

So we're foxed on this one. Any idea on what it could be? And how to dispatch it?

Yeh, our flat is indeed haunted but the ghosts never leave The Lounge and really don't bother us anymore than playing music and laughing sometimes late at night.

help me get rid of flying squirrels

thinkingwoman — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 08:49:49 -0800

how do i get rid of flying squirrels? they were living in the eaves of the house and somehow got into the attic and thence into the main living space. i have set two traps (one upstairs, one in the kitchen where they seem to hang out) and sprayed some really awful-smelling rodent repellent all over the attic and eaves.

does anyone have any other ideas until i can convince my landlord to call an exterminator? (and believe me, if he doesn't, i'm moving.)

Are vermin eating my underwear?

Anonymous — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 13:41:28 -0800

Mysterious holes are appearing in my dirty underwear where there are, ahem, juices. This is probably not lunch-safe. I have noticed holes appearing in my dirty underwear exactly where my girl-juices dry (I'm a fairly juicy girl). These holes are very specific--if the stains dry on the inner layer around the crotch (women's underwear typically has two layers of cloth in the crotch region), the holes will only be in the inner layer where the protein stains used to be, not the outer layer.

What could be causing this? Am I so acidic that I'm eating holes in my underwear? Or (and this is seriously gross) are bugs/mice supplementing their protein intake? I consider the latter because we do have cockroach/bug/mice problems, and there appears to be direct correlation between the appearance of holes and whether the underwear is on the floor and how long it's been sitting there.

Should I get a pet mouse?

afx237vi — Wed, 28 Jun 2006 15:46:40 -0800

Is it a bad idea to keep a pet mouse in your bedroom? How noisy and/or smelly do they get? For a while now I've been thinking about getting a small pet. I like the idea of a mouse, but I'm concerned by the fact that she would need to live in a cage in my bedroom. Just how noisy do they get at 3 in the morning? And are they as smelly as everyone thinks they are?

What about other small animals? Are there any better suited this environment? Ideally, I'd like something small, low-maintenence, quiet and non-aromatic. Does such a thing exist? Also, it would help if it's affectionate and intelligent and easy to handle. Oh, and cute. And easy/legal to buy in the UK. Thanks.

How to get rid of mice

stupidsexyFlanders — Fri, 12 May 2006 08:39:43 -0800

I've got a mouse problem in my house and I need advice on ending it once and for all. We've seen evidence all over the house -- from the first floor up to the third. It's an old house and there are several gaps where mice could get in to the basement. On the inside, there's some openings from the basement up into the laundry room. I think sealing these up should help a lot. So job 1 is to fill these gaps -- what are the best materials (inside and outside) for filling so mice can't get in? On the eradication side, I've tried traps of various kinds and I don't want to have to deal with baiting them, hiding them, disposing of them, etc. I would rather use poison, which I can put in the crawl space under the laundry room. However, I've never tried it. I'm guessing I need to poison first, and seal later. True? How exactly do they die? I've heard they eat the poison and then go outside looking for water and die there. Will they even really do this? Or are they going to die in the house (basement, inside walls) and stink for a long time? How long do they take to die after eating the poison? How often does the poison have to be "refreshed?" Any brand/type recommendations? Thanks.

There's a mouse in the house...

dead_ — Fri, 23 Sep 2005 08:42:55 -0800

Best way to get rid of a mouse without killing it? I'm a vegetarian--for many reasons, including ethical--and I'm pretty much opposed to killing animals. But boy, is the mouse living in my kitchen a pain. I've isolated his hole, and I am wondering if there are any good ways to get him out of there, and my house, without murder!

What is the best method for repelling mice?

spaghetti — Sun, 02 Jan 2005 07:33:28 -0800

What is the best method for repelling mice? I don't want to trap them, I don't want to poison them, I just want them to move on. We're trying to be very careful about cleaning up the kitchen and we have several ultrasonic things, but these guys are just fearless. We have a dog too, and she'd eat a cat before the cat could have any effect on the mice.

Removing unwanted animal residents in our attic

stefnet — Sun, 31 Oct 2004 14:37:20 -0800

We live (rent) on the second floor and attic of a house. The attic is finished in such a way so that there are crawlspaces on each side of the gable, which we use for storage. Something, presumably a squirrel or other manner of rodentia, has taken up residence either in the recesses of one of these crawlspaces or between the floors and scratches away annoyingly, most often at 5:30am. Is there anything we can do to drive the thing away* or should we just invest in a humane trap?

* We have a cat and two dogs live below, so things that emit animal-annoying frequencies are out of the question.

How do I remove squirrels from my eaves?

acridrabbit — Sat, 03 Jan 2004 18:39:53 -0800

Squirrels in our eaves! [more inside] We are trying to evict a squirrel or squirrels from our house. He/she/they have tunneled through a hole in the eaves and eaten away all our expensive Icynene insulation in that area. We covered over the hole today, hoping that the squirrel(s) would not be home while we were doing the work, but they obviously were, since we got home and heard them scratching.

Any ideas on killing or removing squirrels?