Wed 17 Feb 2010
Seedlings’s Early Demise
Posted by brooklinemama under food (growing, cooking, preserving)[2] Comments
My growth chart now looks like this:
Yes, that’s a 
x 7. Horrible, this early in the game! The spinaches, lettuces and chards that had germinated were eaten by a mouse!
That sets us back by only (?) a week, but I must say it was quite upsetting to come into the basement and find only stems sheared of all those beautiful little leaves.
I guess that means we have mice in the basement and I need to trap them. I’ll get some traps tomorrow. The celery is under cover, so it’s safe, and the onions don’t seem to be very popular.
Our friends left a couple of hours ago after a wonderful time filled with chatting, cooking, eating, and a huge snowball fight. We’ll return to our usual programming tomorrow.
February 17th, 2010 at 5:57 pm
Oh no! Poor little seedlings! I have a cat or three you could borrow — they are all experienced mousers. :)
We’ve had some luck with stuffing steel wool into any cracks we can find. We use that expanding foam to fill any cracks that are too small for steel wool. After 5 years in our house, we still have the occasional “visitor.” Old houses are hard to mouse proof.
February 19th, 2010 at 8:27 am
That’s devastating. It’s bad enough to lose them but by a mouse! Unless someone in your family is allergic to or absolutely hates cats, that’s a good answer.
Actually we’ve just discovered we have mice in the attic. It was our cat who knew if first. Not because he’s allowed up there, but because he heard them in the walls and ceiling before we could. He’s not allowed up there, so DH set out mouse traps and we’ve gotten one every night for the past several.