On a discussion here about mice last year, one person wrote that she had used Green shield electronic pest control against dormice in the attic.
My roof space - to which I have no access - is full of dormice, it seems, and they are ripping out the insulation. My daughter hears them running along the gutters and in the eaves' ceilings.
They ignore traps that I have put around their apparent entry points outside. I really do not want to poison them and smell their decomposing bodies for months.
Has anyone else tried Green shield for dormice and had success? Has anyone found a solution to dormice invasions?
Sorry, Kenneth, I have been away for quite a while, and then working very hard.
I have had the Greenshield electonic + MAGNETIC devices for a year now and am so relieved and happy that I bought two more of the devices for the outbuildings. The creatures did indeed leave after a month. They do try to return, but they do not stay more than a day or two.
Yes the Romans kept them in clay pots and fattened them up & cooked them with clarified butter & honey, among other things. Apicius has recipes... but they didn't eat Lérots (the other sort of commonish dormouse).
Are you still alive? Not been overcome by the dreaded loir? I have had the same problem over the years and my cat is not able to get to the present nests. Hence I bought a "Decamp" Repulsiv anit-nuisible a ultrasons - "Souris/Insects" and installed it several weeks ago for 27€.
I am not convinced yet that it is effective but the four weeks you quoted have not been reached and it still sits there perhaps some 2 metres from one nest blinking every five seconds - thankfully I got the expensive version with a power supply which is supposed to be more powerful. It does not specifically mention Loir but my neighbour who recommended this says it rid her place earlier this year within a fortnight!
I would be very pleased to hear some further response from you about your own situation - whether this has been effective or not.
I have another alternative of breaking open the plaster boards and making an entry point but I believe there are maybe several nests and I don't want to damage lots of the house just to be able to get a night's sleep!
I have been also looking through the internet trying to find the latest developments regarding infrared sensors/cameras since this would then show me (please correct me if I am wrong) where they are. Additionally I could use this to find the moles in the garden who should really be off somewhere else and I am sure could be pinned down and taken off if only I could discover where exactly they are.
Thanks for such a useful site and if it brings results then I will be back and give further details and photos etc.
Update - I have bought three of the Greenshield devices, which arrived yesterday and were immediately plugged in. I must say, the lady on the phone knew quite a lot about requirements in old French houses (thick, stone walls, ancient, weak wiring) so it is clear I am not her first French customer.
Their instruction paper says it takes about four weeks to thoroughly rattle a dormouse brain enough for them to leave. I hope it works, and before they go into hibernation!
They never did go into the humane traps I bought.
Still looking for potent moth balls with naphtha, which seems to have been pulled off the market.
From what I understand, the animal was given that name because -- in antiquity -- they were kept in cages, fattened, and eater. As I am a vegetarian, that is really not an option.
Thanks, everyone. I will try a combination of electronic and mothballs to start, since some of you have had success with those. I'll let you know what works, if anything.
Lidl were selling endoscope cameras a couple of months ago. They take pictures down a flexible tube about 4 feet long. We used one twice to find mice and voles in tricky places, in particular to find how they were getting in. If you wish to identify your intruder (know thine enemy) try to get hold of one of these, it will fit through a minimal hole. You can use it look through the entry points to see what they are up to. If necessary, bite the bullet and make a hole in the plaster, it could be a small sacrifice - if they are damaging electric cables, for example, they could cause a fire. We had a creature in the ceiling once, turned out to be a rat, which played merry h*ll with our telephone and internet cables. Very costly that was, too.
I had a problem with them years ago when I lived in the Aude, though with me they could access the house and used to sit and look at me when I walked into the kitchen, quite apart from seeming to dance in hobnailed boots at night over my head. I never did manage to get rid of them, but after I sold the house and it became a holiday home, they decamped to my neighbours house! They obviously prefer company ..... perhaps you could go away for a bit - though rather extreme perhaps?
There seems to be a lot of confusion as what constitutes the glis glis both in this forum and from my internet browsing in the past hour or so. I can be included in the ranks of the confused.
I may however have managed to answer my own question earlier as to whether the glis glis is a protected species in France or not.
Linnaeus who categorised species generally in 1766 seems to have put the little creature in one family of mammals but somehow over the centuries its status has changed. Ok I'm getting nerdy I know and I'm no biologist. It's only important because all animals in the family GLIRIDAE are on the current protected species list and to quote from www.thepiedpiper.co.uk in an article on Myoxus Glis (Glis Glis)
'The taxonomy of this creature has changed. Many references refer to MYOXUS GLIS or Glis Glis and place it in the family GLIRIDAE rather than MYOXIDAE'
So if it's NOT a member of the family Gliridae it's not protected it would seem.
Confusion still reigns however in many minds it would seem as MYOXUS GLIS is apparently also known as MYOLUX GLIS together with common names of Glis Glis or Loir Gris. All refer to the same furry mammal.
The garden dormouse is ELIOMYS QUECINUS and known in France, as David Gay has already pointed out, as the lerot commun or loir des greniers. Just to add even more confusion I also read that 'the garden dormouse or Muscardinus Avellanarius is the only dormouse listed as a protected species.'
All of which is very interesting but doesn't help Martha to get rid of the pests she has, whatever name they go by. It would seem they can be legally zapped here in France though.
I'm back again Martha. For some reason this forum is not allowing the whole of the 72 characters of the website link I actually typed to print out here. Too long I guess. So after
Sorry Martha - nor could I get into the website direct via the link I typed in my earlier response when I tried again just now.I got straight in however by googling the above. Some interesting info and pictures are there so it's worth a look if you or anybody else can be bothered to type in 72 characters!
Hmmmm, David, Thank you for this. You may be right. I cannot be sure, as I have never actually seen one (and dread doing so). I have read the Wikipedia article on the species and they do point out that the creature is known for its "tappage nocturne", which we certainly have heard. Why, oh why do they ignore the fruit in the humane traps????