Night Breadcrumb Marauder

Are you sure? Certainly if it was one of ours they would be looking for the cheese rinds too. :grin:

You can see him looking at the cheese rinds, and there was certainly one missing, but if he took it why did the camera not catch him doing so?

Really ā€¦ Itā€™s a well known fact that dogs and cats can teleport, one second you look and they are 20ft away, the next second you trip over them :wink::laughing:

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That is a stunningly beautiful creature! I looked it up and found it doesnā€™t come this far north, sadlyā€¦

I once had a cat that caught half a leg of lambā€¦.fully cooked. Awkward.

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Back in the UK now and suburban living. We lived in rural France and the wildlife definitely had its pros and cons. We loved seeing golden orioles and hoopoes, and I very much enjoyed the snakes, apart from the one that invaded the kitchen and hid itself in one of the units. We couldnā€™t get it out and had to take the unit from the wall and leave it outside overnight. The campagnols wreaked havoc in the garage, excavating a wheelbarrow load of gravel from where the pool pipes went underground. We had lots of mice, and there were things in the loft.

There are a lot more of them than of us ! A scratching in the roof last night has signalled a new visitorā€¦

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I hear them in the roof from time to time, but very rarely, perhaps a couple of times a year.

Back to the mice, although they know they are there in the kitchen veranda, the 2 boards, because they took crumbs the night before last, they did not touch cheese I left on there last night. So they donā€™t like cheese. That much we know now. :slightly_smiling_face:

Iā€™ll put them back tonight with Nutella on, and/or peanuts and raisons. Then, if they take that maybe a trail towards the entry to the trap, but they may be wary of entering a small unknown opening like that. These are strange mice, they ignore Nutella (a surefire attraction in the past) and leave no traces (previous visitors have dotted all over the place), so getting a handle on them is not easy.

I found one last year after first turning on my ground source heat pump as winter approached. The mouse had got inside the case, crawled up to where the mains input joined to the main PCB, and itā€™s mummified body was found behind the PCB, directly across the live and neutral. It took a while to figure out why the electricity tripped when I turned it on. Thankfully I didnā€™t have to get anyone in.

We found a completely mummified fouine, or possibly a belette, in the roof space of a building we were renovating years ago. Best to keep them out if possible, but itā€™s not easy.

It seems that my fouine has now departed, after managing to find and block up all the openings I could find around the roof. But must say, over the years whilst I was only visiting periodically, it/they did create one hell of a mess in the ceiling void - I know, as recently had to cut out and repair some sections of ceiling. Praying that I donā€™t get it/them back! Now just need to discover what the light rustling is still in the ceiling void - think itā€™s a small rodent, but completely stumped as to how it got in there, and more importantly, how it gets out :smiley:! And just hoping when Spring arrives, I donā€™t suddenly have an army of them up there :scream:

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I bunged up a very small hole under the eaves yesterday where a conduit goes through. Iā€™m hoping now that the little critter who has been scratchingat bed time isnā€™t still in there. Looks hopeful, no noise last nightā€¦

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After studying various videos I have wondered if my marauder is a rat, rather than a mouse. Fleeting glimpses of it running across the floor on entering a previously darkened kitchen appear to be of a larger animal. Also I have tried to measure the stills of the first videos against known background objects, the supports of the cupboards above the work top for instance. Again, not sure, but could be. If so, a larger, mains electric, trap will be required, but at nearly ā‚¬70 from Amazon.fr I need to be sure first although I think it would attract a mouse equally. The mouse, if it is one, has ignored the small electric trap, even taking a raisin left at the entrance without continuing inside.

Those glimpses have been of an animal running towards the kitchen veranda, once from behind me in the opposite corner containing the fridge and a cabinet on which the small cooker resides. So I have done some other videos to try and trace origins/nests etc. Last night what appeared to be a mouse ran under the cooker cabinet, so I will be emptying that corner of the room, cooker cabinet and fridge, later.

Might a rat explain the lack of droppings too?

Quite right, it might, and they are apparently very different in appearance.

The distance between the leading edges of the rear and front support is 21 cms. Too long for a mouse?

The tail might be shorter than a mouseā€™s and the ears shorter, also it made a beeline for that lump of pate and carried it away. though I do read that veggie mice will eat meat too.

That looks like a brown rat not a mouse.

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What convinces you Colin, the size, the shape of the snout, the eyes, the ears, or the tail? I must say I am inclined to agree on all counts, but Iā€™ll set the camera for a few more nights from different viewpoints before I lash out on expensive kit. Maybe. :thinking:

Easiest way to find out is ask the expert :wink:
@Rob_le_Pest

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Rat.
Rattus norvegicus as youā€™ve said I think.
How are you going to kill it? (And its friends.)

Unfortunately it looks a very healthy size.

Does The Big Cheese catch these, or just mice.?
Iā€™d be looking on ebay as I got some brilliant stuff off there that worked right away after careful look at reviews - professionals only as anything decent seems to be but worth every penny.

I got more than I needed as you always assume it may take a round or two more of laying bait than you thought but problem stopped and nothing taken after the first round.

If you do get a trap, make sure you donā€™t handle it directly with your bare hands. Wear a new pair of rubber gloves, or a disposable pair. Transferring your scent to the trap will make the rat very nervous about approaching it.
I had a similar problem, but with a mouse who was just not interested in the cage trap I had at all no matter what I put in it. This went on for about 4 weeks. With a new, unhandled trap, he was caught within 1 hour.