Appropriate attire is important though. Shorts and a T shirt in my case as it was a lovely summers day.
A few wasps buzzed around but didn't dare to sting me.
Stu
When I was offered the use of the garage by my girlfriend's Mum it was full of old carpets and underlay, broken Kitchen units, cardboard, old
bikes and general crap. Oh, and when it rained it was 2" full of water!
With a single 40w bulb, a garage door painted black on the inside and dark brick walls and a small window at one end, it was also somewhat reminiscent
of the black hole of Calcutta. It did, however appear to be relatively pest free.
I've cleared it, painted the walls and floor, fitted 2 strip lights, a work bench, shelving and units and started to upgrade the power and sorted
the water problem.
Locost ensconced and all seemed jubbly. However! I obviously made it too hospitable as now, instead of old wet carpets and rotting kitchen units it
has mice, massive wasps, mosquitoes that appear from nowhere, woodlice and spiders galore.
Concious of the wiring of my car (and garage wiring!) I decided it was time for Mousepocalypse 2012, 5 of these blighters so far:
(Not safe for the sensitive or young children)
http://locostbuilders.co.uk/upload/Image099.jpg
Met his destiny on top of a kitchen wall cabinet.
I'm going to clear out the roof space this weekend and look for the wasp source (should be fun!).
Cheers,
James
P.S. I am an animal lover and go out of my way to save creatures normally (buy ethically sourced food, save spiders etc.) but I only go to the garage
once a week so humane traps would be cruel as mice would starve to death in the box!
[Edited on 18/5/12 by James]
Lucky you ain't got rats chap! They are buggers to get rid of.
Are you sure that you have wasps and not Hornets? Hornets are pretty huge, but they eat wasps and don't normally bother people at all. If they
are wasps then be careful about how you get rid, I had a monster nest in the loft at our last place and thinking I would get the better of them I got
some of that foam that you spray from 10' away, got the nest OK, but didn't realise that the crafty sods have 'guards' that hang
around a long way from the nest and attack at the first opportuinty! One of the feckers got me 5 times in the cheek before I could climb/fall out of
the loft!
There must be food nearby for the mice to be coming in, get rid of the food source and they will go away. We get them under the bird table when their natural supply runs low, don't worry about killing them they might look cute but they are dirty disgusting things that wee and poo everywhere. We found a nest in a bike airbox when it came to my friends shop for a service and they'd filled it with rice for emergency supplies as well.
I got rid of a wasps nest from the roof of our old house - I just climbed up the ladder and squirted some wasp killer powder in there and a few hours
later they were all dead.
Appropriate attire is important though. Shorts and a T shirt in my case as it was a lovely summers day.
A few wasps buzzed around but didn't dare to sting me.
Stu
Heh - that reminds me of a wasps nest under our living room floor - the buggers got in through an air-brick that the nest was attached to. We
discovered the nest because we had loads of wasps in the living room and they were getting in where the radiator pipe comes through the floor (no
carpets, just polished floors).
So plan one was to spray 'wasp death in a can' at the air-brick which was difficult because it was behind some very thorny bushes. That only
killed the ones that were busy there and then and I struggled to get in close enough - we had a resurgence 3 days later when the next bunch of
bastards hatched out.
so, second plan was better - my 3year old daughter and I got the dyson, attached the long tube to the end and put it at the air-brick where they came
in and out. Hah - I vacuumed every live wasp into the dyson. You could see them fly towards the air-brick and then get diverted 90 degrees round into
the tube (with a thunk). You could also see them stand on the edge of the airbrick and desperately try to back away towards the nest before ... thunk
- into the tube they went. When I had them all, I sprayed insecticide into the dyson and they all croaked.
we did this in the morning when the nest is most active. Once they were all in the dyson it meant i could coat the air-brick in "wasp-apocalypse
the powder" so the final batch of hatchlings would carry the powder around and into their ever increasingly empty and lonely nest. There were no
more.
Or .. .you could just throw a brick at it and run.
Looks like a rat to me!
quote:
Originally posted by scootz
Looks like a rat to me!
Loving all creatures great and small is all very well, but it's the great big ones I have problems with.
if i remember the story right, then all you need is an old woman, and the rest sorts itself out...
erm, yes, thats a rat!
I have to agree that thats the biggest mouse I've ever seen, probably a small rat.
Traps tend to work best at 90 degrees to the wall and pushed against it as the mice or whatever run next to the wall for preference.
Regards
Hugh
After another look, I tend to agree, it's a young rat! We have ducks and chickens and that always comes with the bonus of loads of rats. Costing
me a fortune in pellets and poison 
[Edited on 18/5/12 by Daddylonglegs]
quote:
Originally posted by Peteff
There must be food nearby for the mice to be coming in, get rid of the food source and they will go away. We get them under the bird table when their natural supply runs low, don't worry about killing them they might look cute but they are dirty disgusting things that wee and poo everywhere. We found a nest in a bike airbox when it came to my friends shop for a service and they'd filled it with rice for emergency supplies as well.
On a mission to convince it's better moved! Would 20' further away be enough?
MiL's garden is massive but it's gotta still be in a postion easily accessible to her. Right, hadn't seen all the 'that's a rat' posts as I took too long responding.
Hmmmm! That's a game changer!
If/when I catch another one I'll take clearer photos and share for your opinions! 
James
quote:
Right, hadn't seen all the 'that's a rat' posts as I took too long responding.
Get yourself a cat! My cat kindly left me a massive rat in the front room this morning - just glad I found it rather than my mrs finding it - it was a
beast!
Your photo looks like a large mouse, rather than a small rat - the head shape and tail type isnt right for a rat.
quote:
Originally posted by Daddylonglegs
We have ducks and chickens and that always comes with the bonus of loads of rats. Costing me a fortune in pellets and poison
[Edited on 18/5/12 by Daddylonglegs]
quote:
Originally posted by scootz
Looks like a rat to me!
Mice are extremely small, nimble creatures, that is a Siberian Hamster in your trap.
I have mice, they're in the kitchen, under the bath, all over the house. The traps seldom get them, the mice are just too small I guess. Bait
works, but it takes a long, long time and then you go in search of the dead nest. The 'pasta' type bait seems pretty effective, they drag it
back to their accomodation instead of eating out (saves a lot of mess).
I gave up trying to shot them with the air rifle, just way too fast.
Easy way to tell if it's a rat is to look at the tail. If it's a mouse it'll be smooth, if it's a rat it'll be scaly.
@bonzo - I've had several crows/jackdaws in my sights too. The sods nick the duck and chicken eggs. Last year we had a clutch of 5 duck eggs (all
fertile) that got dessimated by jackdaws, still had a chick left in one of them
No rules in this game I'm afraid.....
Never caught it but a little mouse (or maybe squirrel?) had been stashing its supply of nuts in my engine mount :-)
http://i.imgur.com/bm65O.jpg
As others have said, if that's a mouse it's a bloody big 'un!!! I have trouble with mice in my loft space and I've caught a few
over the years, but never one that big! They are usually no bigger than the trap itself.
I've also attacked a few 'underground' wasp nests in the garden! They were great fun.
quote:
Originally posted by scootz
Looks like a rat to me!
It's a rat for sure. Don't touch it, use tongs to pick it up or at least wear gloves. Leptospirosis or Weil's disease. Look it up. you definitely don't want to catch it!
Well, for those not sure if it's mousey or ratty...
Caught another one last night, pretty sure it's a mouse!
DM1
DM2
Sadly, the tail pic is really poor- bad light and worse camera(phone):
DM3
Cheers,
James
Oh, and a couple more half asleep/stunned massive wasps! God knows there they're coming from- can't see/hear a nest!
James
Might just be wasps waking from hibernation looking for a nest location. Just kill the ones you see and leave some killer (spray/powder/iquid) in the eaves and rafters.
Those wasps are probably ones that have spent the winter hiding away in the garage.
Wasps hibernate over the winter & in late autumn they will pack a massive amount of weight on then look for somewhere to hide away for the
winter.
As usual, I have been finding loads in my workshop, in fact been finding them for ages this year.
Dare say it's this silly weather, few days warm & then a few weeks freezing cold.