Mice ?

[jackie1955]

I have found lots of small dark droppings in my greenhouse and some of my toms have been nibbled at so I am thinking mouse or worse still mice ....... Put two traps in the green house three nights running so far only caught a SLUG ! I would appreciate any advice on what to do next. The green house is very tightly shut down at the end of the day I appreciate the little blighters are tiny but I can not see how they get in , I have droppings on the tomatoes and tom leaves it very unpleasant. Help please
JackieV

[Nicos]

Not nice- I can understand.

Try peanut butter in your traps...that seems to work for us

[veggiechicken]

Could it be Tomato Moth caterpillars? Have you spotted any on the leaves or burrowing into the tomatoes? They leave big dollops of poo around!!

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...lar_74421.html

[jackie1955]

OMG tomato eating caterpillars !!!! I shall be having nightmares . I have to say I have not ever seen a caterpillar in the greenhouse and the toms appear to be stripped if that makes sense not bitten into or burrowed into . There is a lot of poo droppings but they are small. Yuk I don't want to eat anything from the greenhouse and it's full of gorgeous salad and veg . I shall keep a sharp look out cheers
JackieV

[jackie1955]

We have been using peanut butter the slug liked it ! Thanks for your ideas
Jackie

[Nicos]

Do you have a friendly neighbour who might lend you their cat overnight???

Just a thought??

[Potstubsdustbins]

I would go with VC on this one, yes it may be a mouse but its odds on its a caterpillar. I had exactly the same problem last year and had quite some damage until I discovered the culprit.

There are tons of small droppings everywhere and the leaves were stripped. This year at the first sign I was on my back looking up to find the little (well not so little actually) devils. They are a lovely shade of green and very hard to see when they hide under the leaves of the plant

[Bigmallly]

If it's toms that's getting eaten then that suggests what to put on the trap...................

[Nicos]

OK...I'm going to go gross/scientific here peeps!

here are examples of mice droppings...



can you see they are thinnish and slightly pointed??

where as caterpillar droppings are more rectangular...




perhaps that will help you to differenciate between the two????

If not, please feel free to post piccies of them!

[Jay22]

If it's a mouse...use chocolate, they love it. We had a mouse in the house...or if you are Scottish like me...a moose loose about the hoose, but I would only let my OH use a humane trap. He used to laugh when I released the mouse at the bottom of the garden saying it was probably back in the house before I made it back! Eventually it did get the message!

[Jay22]

Yuk Nicos!!

[teakdesk]

Thanks Nico's, breakfast has never tasted so good!



Note to self... Mum was right, no reading at the table!!!

[Nicos]

We'll....I did say it was going to be gross/ scientific

[jackie1955]

Hi Nicos thank you for you graphic photo's yes it's the caterpillar , I found ONE in the greenhouse I looked high and low could not find any more as yet but there is no way one of those horrid creatures could poo that much !! I shall continue to search , I really appreciate you taking time and effort to show me the difference between caterpillar poo and mouse poo I am enlightened thank you .
PS could I have done or can I do anything to prevent this creatures presence in my greenhouse , the huge amounts of poo is awful and it poos on the fruits . It has no shame damn it :-))