Mice in the greenhouse?

[LaurenRitz]

I finally got around to planting my greenhouse a couple of weeks ago. Everything coming up, beautiful!

Then one night my spinach disappeared. I found the entrance hole, but since then every night something else is gone.

Last night they finished off the last of my arugula and mustards. The greenhouse is now a desert.

I have blocked holes, they dig new ones. I put out baking sida, they ignore it. I put out traps, they ignore them. I will try a bucket trap next.

Any ideas for getting rid of mice in a greenhouse? Just today I planted garlic around the perimeter. I have rue and lavender seedlings but they need more time.

 

[Debbie292d]

Oh my, our cats would have a hay day over there. Is a cat out of the question?

When we had bees, the mice were a threat to them so we took no chances and bought this from Amazon which appeared to work as we didn't have mice in the hives.

 

[LaurenRitz]

I've got bait, but I hesitate to use it since I'm in a rural area with lots of predators.

I have considered a cat. There is a feral that I've seen a couple of times. Last year we didn't have a mouse problem until I killed several 5-6 foot black snakes. Instead we had snakes eating eggs and chicks...

 

[lomine]

I had some mice come into my garage, and at least one even made it into the house, after we trenched in some new water and electric lines. Guess we hit their old home. Put down snap traps and caught a few. A couple days later sprayed with mint mouse repellent in the house and along the garage door. Caught a couple more but no more signs after a couple days so I assume it worked.

I have also had good luck with a multi catch metal mouse trap. It's designed to sit along the wall (where mice like to run) and has doors they easily go in but can't get back out. It is a live trap, but you can open it into a bucket of water.

You may want to consider putting an apron of hardware cloth along the perimeter of the greenhouse. I put one around mine and covered with several inches of pea gravel.

 

[LaurenRitz]

Most of the outside has greenhouse panels that go a foot down. They're coming in through the weak points, under the doors where there are no panels, and at the corners where the panels can't overlap.

I've blocked four holes so far. One mouse found a way around the block so I had to do some additional work. It found the corner, went in behind the panels and tunneled under the 4x4s until it found an internal weakness.

I actually saw one enter through another hole yesterday. Blocked it, but need to do the job permanently. I think that may be the last, but we'll see.

 

[Acre4Me]

I've got bait, but I hesitate to use it since I'm in a rural area with lots of predators.

I have considered a cat. There is a feral that I've seen a couple of times. Last year we didn't have a mouse problem until I killed several 5-6 foot black snakes. Instead we had snakes eating eggs and chicks...

There are several classes of poison/bait. Not all is harmful to other animals. You should read up on which ever bait you choose.

RatX or MouseX is considered safe around pretty much all animals except rodents/gerbils/hamsters.

Others get metabolized so fast in rodent body they don’t harm other animals.

Some are certainly detrimental to other animals.

 

[Sally PB]

When traps weren't enough, I put my pots in clear totes. I fashioned hardware cloth lids to go over the top. I had a lot of pots, so this took a lot of totes and hardware cloth, but it worked.