20.04.17
RATS and mice are again a topic of conversation in the kitchens, cafes and bars of our district.
After a big grain and grass growing season in 2016, they’ve been breeding up and now it’s autumn they’re moving back into the more comfortable accommodation kindly provided by humans.
I don’t know about you but I find it hard to feel friendly towards any rodent who takes up residence in my cupboards, walls, ceiling or electrical appliances.
Any mouse in my house is fair game.
When they are rampant, I am up for almost any new idea for keeping them out and stopping the stench.
My internet search results revealed near the top of the list, PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), who are working hard to get us thinking nicer thoughts about rats and mice via a web page entitled “Living in harmony with house mice and rats.”
Apparently “mice and rats are very social creatures who become attached to one another, love their families, and enjoy playing, wrestling, and sleeping curled up together.”
Perhaps I need to take a more Disney view of our uninvited house guests.
And here’s one to think about next time you feel like freaking out about rats in your rafters.
“Rats love to be tickled, and they make chirping noises that sound like laughter.”
And you thought those were the sounds of rats chewing through your electrical wires!
PETA also provide helpful advice for humanely keeping them out of your home.
These include: Repelling rodents by “using ammonia-soaked rags or cotton balls (animals won’t like the smell and will leave), an indoor/outdoor radio (set to rock music or talk radio), or a strobe light.”
Sounds like they don’t like hard liquor, loud music or dance parties.
We are going to have to ramp up the nightlife at our place.
There are also hints for live-trapping mice in a humane fashion.
I was disappointed to find that glue traps, poison, bucket drowning, and fast-acting snap-the-mouse’s-spine traps are not on the list of acceptable methods.
They recommend luring them into a slippery-sided container that they can’t escape from, only trapping during mild weather and checking your traps hourly so the captured rodents don’t “die from stress-induced disorders, exposure, or dehydration”.
To avoid further stress, we are encouraged to keep “captured mice and rats calm by placing a towel over the trap.”
And we are advised to “release them within 100 yards of where they were trapped.”
Perhaps so we can get to know their family better through repeat visitations?
And finally, you will be pleased to know that “rodents can also be humanely euthanized by a veterinarian or at a local animal shelter.”
Get your credit cards out folks. I’m sure the team at the local vet clinic will be pleased to see us all heading up Effie Durham Drive with bucket loads of suitably relaxed rodents ready for their goodbye trip