Theiving rotten scoundrels!

[Pauline Collison]

Hi,

Please can you give me your expert advice?

I am very new to this veggie growing game and today I came across a crime scene beside my greenhouse . At the beginning of November we had just completed our raised vegetable beds and I was filled with the urge to plant something, so I planted out onions, broad beans, garlic and an early pea. Every morning I'd go down the garden to check that the birds hadn't pulled out the already sprouting onions. Today my husband and I decided to lay some paving slabs around the beds, on picking up the first round of slabs which we kept by the greenhouse we found a store of 'PEAS', some theiving rotten scoundrels had been raiding my pea bed!!! I couldn't see any sign of disturbance, so I am sure they are proffessionals. My husband said they are probably field mice and they are having a field day !!! As he said that is the thing about having a pea, once started you cannot stop!!! Not the sort of advice I needed. The neighbour's cat isn't much help either, it just insists on using our raised beds as it's toilet!!!

So please can anybody give me some advice on how to tackle my vermin problem?

Kind regards

Pauline

[nick the grief]

Well you can coat them in red lead that'll sort the little buggers out as it's highly toxic as used by the Victorians or you can re plant them & put a enviro mesh/greenhouse shading type cover over them & install some traps. The tunnel is to stop any Birds getting caught by mistake & ones they are thru you should be OK.

Another way would be to get some guttering, fill with comost, sow the peas in these in the greenhouse & then when they are about 1 - 2" high make a shallow trench & simply slide the peas into it & give them a light firming.

[Snadger]

Another way would be to get some guttering, fill with comost, sow the peas in these in the greenhouse & then when they are about 1 - 2" high make a shallow trench & simply slide the peas into it & give them a light firming.

Thats what I'm doing this year Nic, guy next door did it last year to great effect!

[Snadger]

Make that NEXT year!

[Nicos]

hello there Pauline ..and welcome to the Vine!
Ain't nature fun!!
Sounds like mice to me too.
Mouse traps are the quickest way if you are happy to kill them.
Humane ones are available and just trap them alive so you can relocate them, but you do need to check those traps regularly as it is still cruel to leave a captured wild animal without food and water.
If you leave them be, they will certainly multiply and keep pinching/munching your crops..so it's up to you! ( you never know- might be worth planting some cat mint to encourage the cat to hang around in that locality??)
As far as the peas are concerned, I agree with Nick. I try to use as little netting as possible as I always end up trapping birds under mine, or worse still they get their feet all caught up in the stuff.
Let us know how you get on!

[Digger-07]

My father always soaked the dry pea seeds in paraffin overnight before planting them as normal. He always said that this is what they did when he was a child to stop mice from eating the seed. It seemed to work at a time when wildlife was a lot more obvious than it is nowadays.

As he came from a farming community I wished I'd listened to a few more of his folklore remedies as he always seemed to have a better plot than everyone else.

[Sue]

~Welcome Pauline
I've only just started this allotment growing, its extremely addictive!
However I've got field mice who live behind my compost bins, they mostly just help themselves to the food on the bird table. However to be sure, I covered my newly planted peas with plastic bottles which seemed to work.
There are also two cats visiting the allotments and I'm not sure if it's them or the foxes who enjoy a good dig through my raised beds and strawberry patch. I found that "planting" kebab sticks in the bare ground worked (mostly) and once the plants had grown to cover the earth I could pull them up to use elsewhere.
Happy Gardening
Sue

[Pauline Collison]

Hi ya,

Thank you for your advice, I must admit that I have the peas planted under fleece tunnels so it is down to the Garden Centre to by some traps to place inside, fingers crossed that it works. I will let you know.

However, I am a little bit worried about Digger's advice. Where do you buy paraffin nowadays as our hardware store is now closed? Also, would the paraffin soak into the pea and make it poisonous to us weaker, molicuddled human beings of the modern world? If the mouse were to eat the pea and die could you use it on your log burner as a fire lighter?!! It would be worth trying it out to get your revenge!!!

Thank you for your help.

Kind regards

Pauline

[rustylady]

Well you can coat them in red lead that'll sort the little buggers out as it's highly toxic as used by the Victorians or you can re plant them & put a enviro mesh/greenhouse shading type cover over them & install some traps. The tunnel is to stop any Birds getting caught by mistake & ones they are thru you should be OK.

Another way would be to get some guttering, fill with comost, sow the peas in these in the greenhouse & then when they are about 1 - 2" high make a shallow trench & simply slide the peas into it & give them a light firming.

Nick, I hope you are not really recommending using red lead!

[Pauline Collison]

Hi Sue,

Thank you for the advice, I have plenty of used lemonade bottles waiting to go for re-cycling so I could salvage what is left of my planted peas and replant under the bottles. The Kebabs sticks are a very good idea too.

You are right about allotment growing being addictive, I cannot wait for the season to start.

kind regards

Pauline

[rustylady]

hello there Pauline ..and welcome to the Vine!
Ain't nature fun!!
Sounds like mice to me too.
Mouse traps are the quickest way if you are happy to kill them.
Humane ones are available and just trap them alive so you can relocate them, but you do need to check those traps regularly as it is still cruel to leave a captured wild animal without food and water.
If you leave them be, they will certainly multiply and keep pinching/munching your crops..so it's up to you! ( you never know- might be worth planting some cat mint to encourage the cat to hang around in that locality??)
As far as the peas are concerned, I agree with Nick. I try to use as little netting as possible as I always end up trapping birds under mine, or worse still they get their feet all caught up in the stuff.
Let us know how you get on!

Only trouble with encouraging cats to keep the mice down is that you will end up with lots of cat poo to clear up - it stinks, can be damaging to health, and I think mouse poo is preferable.

My old dad always used to advise planting extra seeds (One for the birds, one for the mice, and one for the gardener) He never mentioned caterpillars, they've been abominable (did I spell that right?) this year

[roitelet]

The only thing thast I have found that really works is to cover the peas in the drill, before puting the soil back, with snippings of gorse. The mice dig down and get their noses pricked and give up

[nick the grief]

Nick, I hope you are not really recommending using red lead!

Not really thats why I added the "highly toxic" bit. It was used by the Victorians though to deter birds & mice from stealing the seed - it has a low re-offending rate as they end up dead Also they used to put a thick layer of chopped gorse on top of the seeds as a barrier

[Nicos]

Hi ya,
If the mouse were to eat the pea and die could you use it on your log burner as a fire lighter?!!
Pauline

[Digger-07]

You can get paraffin for greenhouse heaters at most garden centres, some filling stations or car accessory shops also sell it. There is never any taste to the crop or even a smell that I could detect even after planting the seed but It did keep the animals (birds, cats and mice) away.