Howdy, all.
This past weekend I noticed something rather interesting, and I thought I
would share it.  Actually, it is part of something that started some time
ago, so I will back up and give you the background.
 
When we moved into our current house in the early 80s we had problems with
mice coming in our house in the fall when the weather turned cold.  At the
time, we had 4 cats, but that did not seem to deter the mice.  The worst
part was that they would not stay in just the basement, but would invade the
house proper.  After several years, they seemed to stop invading us.  From
time to time I would see evidence of a mouse in the laundry room, but
nowhere else.  Then, last fall, it became evident we had mice in the laundry
room.  We dragged out the Hav-a-Heart traps, and in one 48 hour period,
caught about 20 mice.  We were suprised that there were so many, because we
had not had them anywhere else in the house.  I didn't think much about it
though, until I read in an organic gardening pamphlet a suggestion for
keeping moles and gophers out of a garden.  The suggestion?  - get some
domestic ferret dung and turn it into the soil around the edges off the
garden.
 
This got me thinking - the laundry room is the only place in our house that
the ferrets never go.  Also, although I can't say for certain, it was around
the time that we first got ferrets that the mice did not invade our whole
house in the fall.  Could there be some truth to this gardening suggestion?
The most recent evidence came this weekend.  I had noticed we had some rats
in the yard, and while I wanted them gone, I couldn't decide on a way to get
rid of them without also hurting the chipmunks and squirrels that I enjoy
watching.  On Sunday, my son was cleaning our ferret cages.  We have cages
with a wire bottom, and a pan underneath.  As a result, sometimes the ferret
poop gets stuck to the wire bottom.  My son has found that the easiest way
to clean the cages, therefore, is to take them outside and hose them down.
After he had finished cleaning the cages, I happened to be out in the yard,
and say a rat poke its head out from a hole under our sidewalk.  It ducked
back down, and so I stayed where I was, standing very still.  After a few
moments the head poked back up, watched me for a moment, and then came out
of the hole with something in its mouth and ran around to the other side of
the house.  A few moments later, it came back, and repeated the proceedure.
This time I was able to establish that the rat was a momma, and what she was
carrying was babies.  I watched as she moved 4 babies, and when she didn't
return, I went over to explore the area she had left.  What I found on the
grass around the area was a lot of dried (but now partially rehydrated)
ferret poop.
 
Now, I realize this is not enough evidence to go marketing ferret poop as a
rat and mouse deterant, but I was wondering if anyone else had experienced
anything similar.
 
BTW, my SO now insists that something must be done.  Either I get larger
Have-a-Hearts and get rid of the rats, or he is putting out rat poison.
 
Danee DeVore [log in to unmask]
[Posted in FML issue 1653]