Mice

In my outdoor grow the past couple years I have had trouble with mice . The first year it was about a week or two before harvest they started to chew the bark off of the main stems the second year they chewed the plant off when transplanted outside from the seedlin. This year I have been using mouse bait a month before it was time to go outside and am still using it and will until there finished . Now my question is will it hurt the plant to wrap the stem in tinfoil once it becomes big enough once I cut soda bottles cut them and zip tied them around the plant but I feel it would be easier to use tinfoil WHAT DO YOU THINK WILL IT HURT THE PLANT ?

rats may eat the plastic too man... I believe tin foil is better...

66 north said:

In my outdoor grow the past couple years I have had trouble with mice . The first year it was about a week or two before harvest they started to chew the bark off of the main stems the second year they chewed the plant off when transplanted outside from the seedlin. This year I have been using mouse bait a month before it was time to go outside and am still using it and will until there finished . Now my question is will it hurt the plant to wrap the stem in tinfoil once it becomes big enough once I cut soda bottles cut them and zip tied them around the plant but I feel it would be easier to use tinfoil WHAT DO YOU THINK WILL IT HURT THE PLANT ?

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Yes, plants breathe through the stem too and need air around to aid the movement of water etc. It's like blocking the one end of a straw kinda. Probably won't kill them but slow them down for sure, and you'll find you get 'air roots' too.

The mice go for your plants at first because they are THIRSTY. They drink from the stem. They soon discover, though, that the branches are ideal building-material. But mostly, they are like fountains of water to the mice/rats.

GET RID OF THE POISON! You're killing off your predators too, your snakes and owls and so on. You think you have problems now? Wait for next year if you persist with the poison route.

Here's how I solved it: Get some plastic pots, 20cm should do fine. Cut the bottom out and cut a slit down the one end. Pull apart at the slit and put around the base of your plants as a collar, taking care to bury it at least 10cm too. SEAL THE SLIT WITH STRONG ADHESIVE, something like an epoxy glue. This should leave a huge amount of space between stalk and the pot, I can't imagine a plant that's stalk will outgrow the collar, if you grow one with a 20cm thick stalk you are a GOD.
Make sure ALL vegetation, including grass, is cut down to 5cm above ground, they will weave grass together to make a bridge in.
USE MECHANICAL TRAPS. You can look up many nice DIY cage-style traps allowing you to inspect your catch before getting rid of the pest. I re-locate to farmland a few miles away. No need to fuck with Karma mate.
Research the predators in your area, and encourage them. I built several owl-houses. Control of a pest such as mice is a constant effort. Strive for balance, not eradication, think of your total ecology and you will find that balance.

The collars WORK. All the best, they're right little fucktards mice are.

OH I forgot to mention, give them a constant supply of water, the mice. Keep it a bit away from your garden. In a generation or two they forget how tasty the herb is and how useful it is for building, and you should have a peaceful arrangement. Keep collaring if you have mice, though. Always keep collaring.

I had an issue with the mice, I feed the birds here and naturally mice wanted in on the game too.. so since it was my fault I set up a humane trap and removed them.. (well as many as I could get) I have a bird bath so the mice stay away from the stems and they are well fed.. these are from last year..

and they were brave little turds too.. I watched one I trapped in a 50 gal drum take off running and spiral it's ass across the sides of the barrel to the top it was on the ledge and looked at me but I was able to push it back in and cover it..

I had a bit of fun with them with my kids too.. we set up paper tubes for them to crawl in and out of..









looks like he's hitting a bong







and finally a quick vid..

My son and I used peanut butter on a q-tip and some fishing line to play with them

[video=youtube;iA9hApidDDw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iA9hApidDDw[/video]


(humane trap was a 50 gal container with a string across and down to a plate that tipped over when they got on it)

I have my bait in covered bait stations my grow covers to big of a area a plant here a plant there to use any kind of live trap would be out of the question besides slugs love it to . What I have lost to them in the last couple years all I want is them gone .

66 north said:

I have my bait in covered bait stations my grow covers to big of a area a plant here a plant there to use any kind of live trap would be out of the question besides slugs love it to . What I have lost to them in the last couple years all I want is them gone .

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Secondary poisoning to predators? How you taking care of that? Slugs are easy, nearly empty beer cans in the garden sort those out quick. They crawl in after the yeast and never leave.

Trust me the collars are the only immediate defence. Stops them causing damage instantly and keeps it that way. THAT is the part that's going to save your crop. Make collars. It WORKS.

gioua said:

I had an issue with the mice, I feed the birds here and naturally mice wanted in on the game too.. so since it was my fault I set up a humane trap and removed them.. (well as many as I could get) I have a bird bath so the mice stay away from the stems and they are well fed.. these are from last year..

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Mice don't deserve to live. Especially if they're fucking with your garden. Humane trapping of mice lol That's hilarious.

Poisons can kill other animals. If the mouse get's eaten by whatever. I think you should use glue traps. You will catch all of them. And they can eat eachother.

tall metal pans w an inch or so of water....... they jump in cant jump out cause their wet cant get no traction to climb up ......... if its water they want

Yup... I forgot to mention my grow isn't your ordinary walk in the park. It is some 45 miles away and about a 6 mile hike threw the wood .So when I make a trip I want it to count as far as the mice screw them they have cost me more work that i care for .

To trap mice (it will kill them, read no farther if you dont wanna hear about dead mice) I use a 5gal bucket, pour about a gallon of antifreeze in the bottom (the enviro safe stuff, or use water if in an area that dosent freeze), at the top of the bucket, I drill 2 holes directky across from eachother, take a wire hanger, and a small piece of metal, make a cup out of the metal, and put peanut butter on it, run the wire hanger thru the bucket, and cup, so you basically have a spinning cup on the hanger inside the top of the bucket, when the mice go for the peanut butter, the cup spins, and they fall into the bucket and drown.

When you are dealing with a grow in an area where catching all the mice is literally impossible you should just protect the plant, like the one guy keeps saying. Most gardens I've worked on use corrugated pipe. Buy the 10' long and 4" wide pipes at HomeDepot or wherever, cut them into 6-8 inch segments, then scissor up the seem line (cut as straight as you can), now slip them around the base/stock of the plant. Any branches that are in the way should probably be cut off anyways. Very simple. I've seen larger grows get decimated by mice. The plants start to droop like they need water so you start giving them more water and before you know it the plant is dying with NO return. Upon further investigation you find the nibbled stalk taking the plants ability to transport water throughout away. Don't wait for the critters but rather use this method as a preventative.

66 north said:

Yup... I forgot to mention my grow isn't your ordinary walk in the park. It is some 45 miles away and about a 6 mile hike threw the wood .So when I make a trip I want it to count as far as the mice screw them they have cost me more work that i care for .

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You're poisoning wild land? DUUUUUUUDDDEEEEE NOOOOOOO!!!! You're in THEIR home man!!! If you were defending your own land against pests then sure go for it. But then use SELECTIVE methods like the bucket-and-antifreeze one stated below (look, a pest is a pest no tears for them in the end) but try to make sure you get ONLY the pest in question.

But you're on their turf dude. I know we're not all hippies around here, but in the circles I move your method would've earned you a few smacks upside the head area.

No amount of pest-control will help you. Welcome to Guerilla Growing my friend. And I am going to point out to you at this point that a good guerilla grower knows what pests to expect for his patch, and prepares for it. Mice are a guerilla grower's worst, absolute worst, enemy. After that you get rabbits, hedgehogs, deer, etc.

Mad Hamish's Guerilla Rule No1 : NEVER KEEP ALL YOUR EGGS IN ONE BASKET. A single patch is no guarantee for a crop. You'll make yourself go grey with worry before your time this way, single patches.

Mad Hamish's Guerilla Rule No2: YOU CANNOT MASTER NATURE. You can roll with it only.

Mad Hamish's Growing Rule no1: Apply the principle of Occam's Razor: "All things being equal, the simplest solution is usually the most effective"

So my advice is prepare more patches next time. Your mice are NOT going to stop being a problem so prepare for that well in advance. You can poison as much as you want, it will make NO difference.

What is simpler, trying to exert control over an eco-system, or protecting the stem of a plant with a near instantly made collar?

Last bit of advice before I unsubscribe from this thread: Whatever you use, galvanized pipe, cheap pots, make sure to paint the things a nice olive green or whatever suits the colour of the earth around, olive green is excellent because at worst it looks like a shadow.

I know it's pissing you off man. I lost an entire crop to mice, and I'm talking NYC Diesel and Black Widow TREES of 2.5 to 3 metres each. On a big plant they start stripping the harder tougher bark off for buildong nests or whatever, and chew so deeply into the stem that a plant can topple. Of not that, they take care of it branch-by-branch for the water, going higher and higher up the plant only to gnaw off a single branch at the stem in order to drink the sweet fluids.

IF some do survive after that, they'll go at the buds, gnawing them open and destroying them for the few seeds, they are ADDICTS for weed seeds.

Best of luck.

No bud there not pissing me off you are I feel your talking out of the crack of your ass . If it helps you any I own this land if you go back and read I was asking for another way around poisoning these animals it gets costly luging backpacks of poison in the wood .I couldn't give a mouses ass if you uusubscribe from here or not like they say take a hike kiss-ass