Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat

Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: siztenboots on September 15, 2007, 18:29

Title: stopping mice getting the sweetcorn, help
Post by: siztenboots on September 15, 2007, 18:29
our sweetcorn is behind everyone elses , but the mice have eaten the cobs on most of the other plots on our site.

anything you can think of to deter the pests?
Title: mouse stoppers
Post by: muntjac on September 15, 2007, 22:31
put circles of card around the stems and remove all the lower leaves that touch the floor .six inxh stiff card cut into a circle then cut to centre , place on stems n then tape together
Title: stopping mice getting the sweetcorn, help
Post by: DD. on September 15, 2007, 22:37
Short of something that sends out bits of lead at high velocity, what would you suggest about squirrels????
Title: stopping mice getting the sweetcorn, help
Post by: shaun on September 15, 2007, 22:40
tape a mouse trap to the stem with duct tape  :wink: werks for me
Title: stopping mice getting the sweetcorn, help
Post by: Fat Hen on September 15, 2007, 23:42
Wish I still had my shotgun as rodents very susceptible to high velocity lead poisnoing, very fast acting.

mice coming in my hen pen and knicking their food.  Going to have to resort to humane traps, but what do i do with them when I have caught them.
Title: stopping mice getting the sweetcorn, help
Post by: Bigbadfrankie on September 16, 2007, 00:05
you need to be a very good shot :lol:
Title: stopping mice getting the sweetcorn, help
Post by: DD. on September 16, 2007, 07:48
Quote from: "shaun"
tape a mouse trap to the stem with duct tape  :wink: werks for me


Know someone who can do 'em in bulk cheap? I'd need 150.
Title: stopping mice getting the sweetcorn, help
Post by: sweet nasturtium on September 16, 2007, 10:50
I also get rodent trouble, but I think it may be a squirrel.  They seem to just take one cob every couple of days and the stems are bent over so I guess it must be a squirrel.
Title: stopping mice getting the sweetcorn, help
Post by: muntjac on September 16, 2007, 12:10
you can get squireel traps ... n then shoot em with a air rifle
Title: stopping mice getting the sweetcorn, help
Post by: shaun on September 16, 2007, 18:20
badgers like sweetcorn
Title: stopping mice getting the sweetcorn, help
Post by: muntjac on September 16, 2007, 22:26
forgot to mention .. squirrel makes good eating  :wink:
Title: stopping mice getting the sweetcorn, help
Post by: sweet nasturtium on September 16, 2007, 22:32
I had a dreadful feeling you might say that (after having seen your pic with rabbit slaughter)  :roll:
Title: stopping mice getting the sweetcorn, help
Post by: muntjac on September 16, 2007, 22:41
i teach survival skills now to scouts ,was also an instructor in the service  :wink:
and it wasnt slaughter .it was rabbit " pest control " what happens to the cows and chickens in a factory setting is slaughter  :)  :wink:
Title: stopping mice getting the sweetcorn, help
Post by: sweet nasturtium on September 16, 2007, 23:17
OK Muntjac, only joking, you can put the gun down now...  :wink:
Title: stopping mice getting the sweetcorn, help
Post by: muntjac on September 16, 2007, 23:18
i wasnt shooting at you lolo :lol:  :wink:
Title: stopping mice getting the sweetcorn, help
Post by: leeky on September 17, 2007, 00:51
When the fella next to my plot lost his corn to mice , i wondered about prevention, naturally.

Collars was what i though of, like the anti-rat jobs on ship ropes. Havent done corn this year but probably will next though.
Title: Re: mouse stoppers
Post by: David. on September 17, 2007, 15:42
Never had much of a problem (except for some nibbling of cobs left on to dry out for seed saving) until this year and it's become a bit of problem.

I use heavy duty plastic dpm fixed vertically to my cold frame to stop mice climbing up and wondered if wrapping the stems at the base would work.
Title: stopping mice getting the sweetcorn, help
Post by: muntjac on September 17, 2007, 15:46
you can use grease as well . dont let any leaves droop down to the floor  :wink:
Title: stopping mice getting the sweetcorn, help
Post by: Sally A on September 17, 2007, 15:52
On an earlier thread someone mentioned cutting drinks bottles up the side and sliding over the cobs, and I think someone else wrapped them in fleece and rubber bands; but if mice can eat through most things, don't know how much of a challenge this would be.
Title: stopping mice getting the sweetcorn, help
Post by: theothermarg on September 17, 2007, 16:04
yes i went down the plastic bottle route and have really enjoyed my unnibbled cobbs this year :lol: the thing is not to put them on too early and to ventilate them. a bit time consuming i know but def worth it
marg
Title: stopping mice getting the sweetcorn, help
Post by: David. on September 20, 2007, 19:25
Use the un-nibbled lower part of the cobs to make sweetcorn relish.
Title: stopping mice getting the sweetcorn, help
Post by: theothermarg on September 20, 2007, 21:40
spot the one that has had the bottle on (if i can get photobucket to work)
fingers crossed
(http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i229/theothermarg/sweetcornbottleexperiment.jpg)
Title: stopping mice getting the sweetcorn, help
Post by: DD. on September 20, 2007, 21:43
The one on the right - all the kernals have been stripped off when you pushed the bottle on. Correct?
Title: stopping mice getting the sweetcorn, help
Post by: gobs on September 24, 2007, 00:10
Quote from: "Fat Hen"
Going to have to resort to humane traps, but what do i do with them when I have caught them.

You keep them for pets.
Title: stopping mice getting the sweetcorn, help
Post by: gobs on September 24, 2007, 00:12
Quote from: "Bigbadfrankie"
you need to be a very good shot :lol:

not really, depends what species,rats are deeeeaaaad slow............
Title: stopping mice getting the sweetcorn, help
Post by: gobs on September 24, 2007, 00:17
Quote from: "muntjac"
forgot to mention .. squirrel makes good eating  :wink:

that just reminds me of my favorite environmental problem and solution, why don't we eat them s***ing pigeons???????????? Mad!!!!!!!!!! They are much better than chicken , to say the least.
Title: stopping mice getting the sweetcorn, help
Post by: muntjac on September 24, 2007, 00:21
Quote from: "gobs"
Quote from: "muntjac"
forgot to mention .. squirrel makes good eating  :wink:

that just reminds me of my favorite environmental problem and solution, why don't we eat them s***ing pigeons???????????? Mad!!!!!!!!!! They are much better than chicken , to say the least.


 i do  :wink:
Title: stopping mice getting the sweetcorn, help
Post by: gobs on September 24, 2007, 00:31
where is all this mice thing is coming from, mind gobbling ...
Mice and slugs, however ferocious they are, are not behind everything, all the time, seems to make sense to me.
that's not gardening, that's just bullying.