10697 Help unwanted lodgers

You don't happen to have got a photo of them by any chance??.............the critters don't have to be smiling !!??:eerr:

If it's this one: [url]http://cache.eb.com/eb/image?id=33265&rendTypeId=4[/url] then get out your traps and prepare a good stewpot! Sounds like you're the proud possessor of a colony of edible dormice.

It could, however, be another species?

[quote=bosco;99527]If it's this one: [URL]http://cache.eb.com/eb/image?id=33265&rendTypeId=4[/URL] then get out your traps and prepare a good stewpot! Sounds like you're the proud possessor of a colony of edible dormice.

It could, however, be another species?[/quote]

I just knew there had to be a recipe in italy somewhere. :winki::bigergrin:

[quote=IRITALIA;99528]I just knew there had to be a recipe in italy somewhere. :winki::bigergrin:[/quote]

This page includes the two surviving recipes from ancient Rome, and a bit about dormouse-farming: [url=http://romanhistorybooks.typepad.com/roman_history_books_and_m/2007/06/glires.html]Roman History Books and More: a dormouse record[/url]

A number of more modern recipes are available online, for those with adventurous tendencies.

From your description, it sounds like you could be playing host to edible dormice ([I][URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edible_dormouse"]Glis glis[/URL][/I]).

I think it's highly unlikely that they're actually eating your beams. Getting any nutritive value out of old, dry timber requires a specialised digestive system which dormice do not possess. Have you actually examined what they're doing to the beams or have you concluded that they're eating them just due to the racket they're making? Is it possible they are either just scratching rotten wood to make a nesting place or removing wood-eating insects from the beams?

I'd suggest that the only practicable solution when some variety of Italian wildlife – whether with four, six, eight or more legs – starts getting into the house and making a nuisance of itself is to block up their access. This is, I know, often easier said than done. You'd obviously also want to make very certain that there are no dormice in the house when you seal it up; not only for humane reasons, but because they might well do a lot of damage trying to get out and they certainly would pong if they died in your ceiling.

I'd suggest you first try to confirm what damage they're actually doing and, if it's not much, just try to get used to your guests. According to the [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dormouse"]main Wikipedia article on dormice[/URL], they breed once or twice a year and they spend several months a year hibernating. I suspect that this might be what they're getting ready for now and you'll soon have a pile of adorable dozy dormice quietly snoring away in the ceiling above you. Who knows, maybe your ceiling has been a traditional hibernation den for dormice for decades or centuries?

Al

Yes thats the little .......
Italian friend just told me not to eat it. my ceiling has only been there for 5 years so dont really want it wrecked. cant afford to repoint the house, so thinking seriousy about giving them a rent book!

Love your humour - you often make me laugh out loud. Thanks. :smile:

[quote=AllanMason;99530]From your description, it sounds like you could be playing host to edible dormice ([I][URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edible_dormouse"]Glis glis[/URL][/I]).
I think it's highly unlikely that they're actually eating your beams.... Is it possible they are either just scratching rotten wood to make a nesting place or removing wood-eating insects from the beams?
Al[/quote]

[B][U]If[/U][/B] they're like rats and some UK mice, they will also gnaw sound wood to sharpen their teeth and keep them filed down (depending on species, their teeth grow continuously and fast - totally unlike human teeth, but more like our finger- and toenails). This can, I'm afraid, cause damage - years ago in a UK farmhouse I had a number of wooden chairs stored in an attic which were ruined by mice - though at the time was grateful that they'd attacked the chairs rather than the roof-beams.

We had a mouse problem about 8 months ago (uk) and the usual traps didn't work. I caught a few on those glue mats and decided to buy 6 of those plug in's. They emit a sound that mice (not sure about your sort of doormouse) hate and since I pluged them in around the house, I havn't heard or seen any evidence of any mice since. Miight be something else to look into.

These are the ones I bought from amazon and they defo worked for me.

[url=http://www.amazon.co.uk/Big-Cheese-Mouse-Repeller-Four/dp/B000LJ56OA]Amazon.co.uk: The Big Cheese - Mouse and Rat Repeller - Four Pack: Garden & Outdoors[/url]

I was prompted to think 'what I need is repellers for spiders' and low and behold I found them on your Amazon link. Ta. :smile:

[quote=scatterbrain;99537]We had a mouse problem about 8 months ago (uk) and the usual traps didn't work. I caught a few on those glue mats and decided to buy 6 of those plug in's. They emit a sound that mice (not sure about your sort of doormouse) hate and since I pluged them in around the house, I havn't heard or seen any evidence of any mice since. Miight be something else to look into.

These are the ones I bought from amazon and they defo worked for me.

[url=http://www.amazon.co.uk/Big-Cheese-Mouse-Repeller-Four/dp/B000LJ56OA]Amazon.co.uk: The Big Cheese - Mouse and Rat Repeller - Four Pack: Garden & Outdoors[/url][/quote]

Wonder if they sell sound devices that emit Italian squeaks?

Perhaps you've got some of [I]this[/I] little guy's relations....

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfr5GrOGVz0[/ame]

I reckon all the strange noises are caused by them doing this - :laughs:

[ame=http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=8wmkmQooz1s&feature=related]YouTube - Blue Alien[/ame]

Italian friend (now a squirrel expert all of a sudden) said that the squirrels are sleeping in the daytime and as their party does'nt start till midnight maybe we should go to bed earlier, and make lots of noise as it may scare them away
- if you cant beat em!
I want a blue alien for christmas.

Herealready

If you cannot find your blue alien, we have glis glis in our bit of Buckinghamshire courtesy of the Rothschilds and their predilicition for bringing in foreign species to their zoo in Tring and then losing them. The veg get eaten by Muncjack deer for the same reason. Glis glis will happily eat anything, wiring, copper pipes, wood, anything. They are not nice and trapping is the only way to get rid of them. If you are squeemish, do not release them anywhere near anyones property, particularly your own. By near I mean miles away. Equally, do not go anywhere near their teeth, they are very sharp and will happily go through heavy duty gauntlets, I bear the scars.

Good luck.