This probably sounds pathetic to some of you, but I am really struggling to work out the logistics of this.
I have a huge antique wardrobe that I lined with a cheap lining fabric - just stapled to the inside. I’ve had it for several years and it’s a godsend.
It holds all the spare linen for the gite piled on top of each other - pillows, towels, sheets, duvets, duvet covers, pillow slips. Some time over this winter mice got in it. I discovered this when I took out the bedlinen for our first guests a few weeks back - mouse poo on the duvet covers. I was a coward. Too busy to deal with it there and then and appalled at the ramifications, each time I’ve needed something I’ve taken it out and washed it, ironed it and put it straight away in the gite. In fact this is a routine I do anyway because stuff gets musty in the cupboard, so they all get a quick wash before the next guests arrive.
At changeovers now I am not putting anything that I wash back in the cupboard but storing it round the house for the next guests. This is far from ideal as I now have piles of linen in the bedroom, on chairs in the dining room and our house (dog, gardening, etc) is far from clean.
I know this sounds silly, but if you were faced with this scenario what would you do? And how would you keep mice out of the cupboard in the future (assuming I can ever get to the stage where I can reuse the cupboard)
I could lend you Alice, one night just before I went to bed I couldn’t find her. She was fast asleep on my bed but on the far side, so no need to disturb her, but as I prepared to fold the duvet back ready for my entry, I saw a large brown leaf on it, As I brushed it off I realised that it was a large brown, and very dead, mouse.
I suppose she thought that was the rate for a night’s sleep.
Not quite sure where they came from (possibly vide grenier), but we have a couple of large metal boxes in our cave for flour, rice, and other mouse delicacies for same reason. Could fit quite a pile of linen in each.
Is there anything that actually repels mice? (Apart from Alice of course.)
Starting this thread has got me thinking. This is what I’m coming round to - comments please.
Open up dining room table to maximum size.
Take out each item and take a view on what happens to that item: either straight into black sack for the decheterie (eg any pillows that have been stained, anything that’s been eaten). Or onto table for washing.
Sort stuff into piles on the dining room table that can be washed: single bedding /double bedding / super king bedding / towels in matching sets. I won’t get it all on the table at one go.
Wash and dry everything that’s on the table and then put into very large plastic boxes (just seen your comment below @wozza thanks) by category. Seal boxes, pile in dining room.
Repeat this until cupboard completely empty.
Put several mouse traps in the cupboard and in the surrounding hall which is mouse paradise at the moment. (I’ve got the electronic ones, they are expensive but seem a humane way - I’ll get more.)
Now, what do I do with the fabric I lined the cupboard with? I fear it will be stained with mouse urine (ie a trail for new mice to follow) and will have to go and then the cupboard washed and fresh fabric stapled. If they were ants, I’d stand the legs of the cupboard in bowls of water. Anything similar I could do that would act as a barrier to the mice? Hammer fine grid wire to the underside of the cupboard? Or will they just chew through it?
Mrs W uses sealable plastic trunks to store seasonal linen and clothing etc, they come in all shapes and sizes some have wheels so you can store them under the bed. No mice here the house mouser makes sure of that
We store in trunks like these below, they’re stored in the attic, linen clothing, winter / summer quilts pillows etc don’t need re washing they come out as fresh as they went in. Try to find ones that fit in your cupboard.
Apparently Peppermint and Cinnamon essential oils deter mice and other rodents. Do an online search for ‘Mouse deterrent Spray’ and you will find lots of products to choose from.
Once the wardrobe is empty it will obviously be a good idea to block the holes that the mice are using for entry, perhaps with some plywood that has been treated with repellent. Prevention being better than cure, I think you also need to try and identify where and how the mice are getting into the house from outside.
Also, have you considered adopting, or even temporarily fostering a cat from one of the many rescue centers ? Some of them will enter into an arrangement whereby they will take the cat back for a while if you need to travel.
Do you mean the electric ones called The Big Cheese? The ones I had great success with some years ago, caught dozens over the course of a few days and never saw more until relatively recently, so I set it again and caught one the same night. I know there is at least one which might or might not be the one Alice caught. But they aren’t expensive just a small battery which lasts for months unless you catch hundreds of them. Completely humane, they are electrocuted instantly.
Mice like to travel incognito. They really hate walking over tin foil. If you can access the base and rear of the cupboard, where mice may be getting in, line it with tin foil.
This worked very well when we moved into a house that plainly had a history of little visitors.
Thanks everyone for some excellent (and amusing) suggestions.
Unfortunately I have an OH who hates (no exaggeration) cats (precisely because they are killers). So that won’t be happening any time soon.
@Robert_Hodge I love the thought of blocking holes! The wardrobe itself is an antique and rickety so nothing quite fits together and our 300 year old house has gaps and holes everywhere. The cupboard is in a part of the house that is a 4 meter high space up to the loft and we have wattle and daub walls, a roof where you can see daylight between the tiles, and holes under the eaves where the redstarts get in and nest. On reflection, it’s perhaps not surprising the mice have found the wardrobe. It was only a matter of time.
But I am realising I need to tame this space at least a bit - it’s huge - a whole other project in addition to the part of the house we live in.
so do we… just the one, up in the attic/loft…
I love it and was horrified when the Builder who was helping us offered to rip it out and replace it with something “modern”…
Perhaps something was lost in translation, but he roared with laughter at my vehement refusal to allow such sacrilege
I’m wondering if there is any way that the wardrobe could be relocated to a less ‘rustic’ part of your home.
Alternatively, perhaps a ‘mouse proof’ area could be constructed around the wardrobe in the attic.
We do the same. When we had a cat we had no mice… except those he brought to us on the doorstep as gifts. Since then we used bins on wheels for the linen and have not had mouse problems indoors.
Thanks for the thought Robert. Interestingly it’s not in the attic - it’s on the ground floor but in a space that goes up four meters to the roof, with a balcony that leads into what was the hay-store (ie attic) above the house.
The wardrobe is HUGE - one of these vast old black pieces of furniture that fill trocs these days. It took the 2 guys from the brocante all their muscle strength to get it to where it is.
I need one of those makeover programmes to come and sort me (us?) out!
I’m realising we MUST clean up this whole space if I’m to use it to store stuff that matters - and I do. At the moment I might as well be storing stuff in the wood store!
This may sound like I’m being negative, but I’m not. It’s a wake-up call for me. I come from a genetic pool that includes an aunt who stored old newspapers in a room, floor to ceiling where it was impossible to get in the door. It’s a slippery slope.
Interestingly it’s not in the attic - it’s on the ground floor but in a space that goes up four meters to the roof, with a balcony that leads into what was the hay-store (ie attic) above the house.