[poshsimontemplar]

Hi All,

I'm relatively new to allotmentments and last year was our first. It was reasonably successful.

This year is proving to be a challenge. Waterlogging and the cold is something we can't change and has set back most crops, along with many we're just not going to continue bothering with.

What is generating most annoyances at the moment appears to be the complete destruction of the brassicas, of all sizes, along with the peas.

I've used Nemaslug to reasonable effect, and we do use organic slug pellets.

I've got netting over most of the plot to stop the pigeons, and that worked up until last week.
The netting is still secure, but the brassicas are getting consumed.

The peas are pretty much a write-off this year, mainly due to the flooding, but the tops have been nipped out as soon as they popped their heads up.

Looking carefully at the brassicas indicates that they are being consumed in a radius from the corner of the allotment plot. Whatever is consiming it is moving further out from the corner. If it were just slug damage they wouldnt really attack the bigger plants in such a pattern. Additionally, we'd see them in the evening, and the slug pellets would do some damage to them, but there are hardly any slugs.

At this rate we won't have any plants left at all.

I'm thinking that it's mice, unless you know different.

If it is mice, do you have any constructive suggestions for combatting mice on a remote allotment?

[LilacSandy]

Are you sure it's not rabbits?

[starry]

if your netting has holes bigger than 4mm it could be the catapillars of the cabbage white   

[yorkiegal]

is your netting properly secure at the bottom as well as over the top? the pigeons can get in under any little gap.

[sarajane]

The pigeons over here just land on top of netting and eat through the net.  Make sure it is taut enough so they can't do this.

[poshsimontemplar]

Thanks for your replies.

@LilacSandy
Not rabbits: I have rabbit fencing around the the whole plot, and no rabbits are living in the area of my plot, although there are rabbits around. There are plants outside of this cage that have not been touched by this.

@starry
Not caterpillers, sorry. It's small-sized netting to combat exactly that. There's not one caterpiller on the site, and no sign of cabbage whites anywhere. I happily picked them off last year. The munching is more significant than that of caterpillars or slugs.

@yorkiegal
Yes, I secured it with bamboo poles, held down by metal tent pegs. It's taut and at least two feet above the tallest plant.

The smallest plants were nibbled first, now the larger plants further away are being munched. I can only think that it's a mouse as it would get through the smallest of gaps. I may be wrong, of course.

I'm not the only one on the allotments to have this mysterious problem.

I was thinkimng of putting a humane mouse trap there to see what gets caught.

Sadly, I can't be there over a long enough period to monitor it.

[shokkyy]

I have a lot of problems with mice on my veggies. They go after my pea seeds, devour my strawberries, nibble my squashes and courgettes, and I've also had them nip through stems of pea and bean plants. There's not much they won't try eating at least once. But I've never had them touch the brassicas. I do think they suddenly get a taste for something they've never touched before though, so maybe your local population have got a taste for brassicas.  And when they decide they like something, they can go through it like a plague of locusts.

Check for holes in the ground. If there's any small round holes in the ground, that could be mice (or voles or shrews, but I don't think they'd go after your brassicas). Bigger holes would be rabbits, obviously. If they're just outside your fence, maybe they've found a gap somewhere underground and they're burrowing beneath it. But how big are the plants? If they're pretty big, I really couldn't see mice eating the whole thing.

I've never found traps much use for mice though. When the local population is big, catching a few in traps is a drop in the ocean and you'll certainly never catch them all. And if you did, a new mouse family would move right in. The only thing that's ever really effective is finding a barricade to keep them out. This year I've been using 4mm wire mesh pushed down into the ground and that's working very well. But they can get through a quarter inch gap and they can nibble through just about anything, so normal netting isn't even going to slow them down.

[poshsimontemplar]

Hi all!

I thought you'd want to know what it was that was consunuming our braasicas.

It was mice.

They were eating not just the brassicas, but moved on to the runner beans, nipping through the stems about 6-inches high, which, obviously, killed the plant.

Peas were also a target, too.

There was no solution this year, although we are encouraging predators, such as owls, to help fight the mice.

[Yorkie]

Pesky little blighters 

[shokkyy]

You have my sympathies. I think mice are the most difficult pest to keep away from crops. I found this video on youtube, which gave me the idea for the 4mm wire mesh. Having lost my first lot of pea seeds to mice this year, I tried this and it worked like a dream. I just need to find a way to convert this method to carrot protection, which seems to be their very favourite at the moment.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yzGfysh3yM