Peas & Mice

[MINESAPINT]

I am ready to plant my peas but know I have a mouse problem. I could easily set traps to thin them out but I hate killing things. Would much rather find a way of me, peas & mice living harmoniously alongside each other.

Last year I planted 181 broad bean seeds & the score was 178 to the mice 3 to me! This year I have grown my broad beans indoors in newspaper pots (all 510 of them) & have planted them out over the last couple of weeks with no problems.

Does anyone have any tips to enable me to plant my peas so the mice will leave them alone.

Thanks

MINESAPINT

[Andy Hamilton]

Well you could do them in newspaper pots aswell then plant them out. Better still what about getting a cat?

[red]

this year - as I am doing three times the peas we did last year, decided to sow direct. as we have a pigeon problem, I put netting over the top. the mice ate the lot.

so.. i am back to what i always do.. I start them off in modules in the gh.. then plant them up. labour intensive.. but does get you past the mouse problem.

[MKG]

I do remember some 15 years ago battling with mice - it wasn't peas but broad beans, but the principle is the same. I thought I'd defeated the little buggers, and I had. Unfortunately, I lost an entire row of beans - no germination at all. On investigation, I found a mole run going along that row with amazing accuracy, and all of the beans were lying down there high and dry. Is it even vaguely possible that mice have allies?

[Jandra]

Is it even vaguely possible that mice have allies?

Of course! I'm convinced of it.

(Oooh, I love a complot theory!)

Jandra

PS: I've been told that covering the seed with soot might deter various hungry and conspiring critters.

[theabsinthefairy]

my mouse catcher at rest after an exhausting night catching mice in the barn.



(sorry - couldn't resist the photo opportunity)


I plant all my peas and beans in toilet roll tubes:

Here is the First Batallion of the New Compost Army ready for orders.

[MINESAPINT]

Cheers for replies guys.

Have not thought of adding a cat to my existing menagery. However killing the mice is easy and it is this I am trying to avoid. I have been leaving the control to the local barn owl but have just found it dead! Suspect someone locally is using poison and the owl has been feeding on the poisoned mice/rats. We also have a local population of Kestrels that regularly sit on the electricity wires adjacent to the garden.

I have thought of growing the peas indoors in newspaper pots/toilet roll middles but it is the quantity that has put me off. My pea row is about 140 foot and I have not bothered to calculate how many plants I would need. Probably several thousand. I have just managed to clear the 510 broad bean plants.

I have found earlier plantings are more lightly to be attacked as there is a shortage of food. Might just plant a handfull to see how I get on and take it from there.

MINESAPINT

[Mal]

What size should they be before you plant them out then, to avoid feeding the mice and pigeons? I read 4 inches on another thread, does that sound about right?

[Cheezy]

After my peas got ravaged by mice last year I asked around. I got a variety of responce's

1. dig your normal trench, water it, scater the peas as usual, then cover with chimney soot, then cover with soil . They don't like a sooty nose

I've tried this and it works...except the little bastards wait until the pea shoot's are up then they (or something else) nibbles them at the base and leaves the shoot....WHY?

2. Make some chillie oil with chillie powder or dried chillies, and soak the pea's over night. plant as above , and add some chillie powder to the top.
My allotment neighbour swore by this. I soaked mine for a few hours and worked until the shoots started then the blighters dug them up.

3. plant in modules OR get a peice of gutter the length of your trench, seal the ends with plastic bags and elastic bands. Plant as normal as in a trench, cover ,water and grow off the ground (in green house on a shelf or on stakes hammered into the ground, and the gutter screwed to them). When they have germinated and growing well, make an identical trench in your bed and slide the soil and peas straight into the trench.

4. A bit late now but I have found they don't go for autumn planted pea's,

[ina]

I've known somebody briefly soak the peas in paraffin before planting... Probably not the most environment friendly method, but seemed to work.

[SarahJane]

Well you could do them in newspaper pots aswell then plant them out. Better still what about getting a cat?

My cat is hopeless! He just brings them in the house alive and lets them go!! Not good for someone with a phobia for mice!!!!

[Bluemoon]

We chit them first. The process gives the peas an unpleasant taste as a chemical is produced on the surface- which is one of the reasons you have to keep rinsing beansprouts and the like - then we scatter them in a shallow drill and cover the top with netting. The peas germinate within a couple of days and you seem to lose fewer to rots this way too. We went from 99% failure to 99% success using this method.

[chadspad]

I had broad beans and peas eaten last year too so this time ive put them in pots to start them off and placed the pots on a metal table outside with nothing nearby for the mice to climb up and eat the peas/beans. Its worked so far!

[red]

We chit them first. The process gives the peas an unpleasant taste as a chemical is produced on the surface- which is one of the reasons you have to keep rinsing beansprouts and the like - then we scatter them in a shallow drill and cover the top with netting. The peas germinate within a couple of days and you seem to lose fewer to rots this way too. We went from 99% failure to 99% success using this method.

I might try this next year

[MINESAPINT]

I grow my peas up supports made from pig/sheep wire rolled into tubes about 3 foot 6 inches diameter. This way they are self supporting if dug into the ground a couple of inches. The point is I have 8 or 9 of these which gives me the opportunity to try the various methods suggested. I have planted 70 newspaper pots with 3 seeds in each. So experiment no 1 is underway and at the moment the mice are safe.

Will have to start thinking next about how to persuade the rats to leave my carrots, beetroot & potatoes alone!

MINESAPINT