Re: pacing, mice ,ants and dissection (Mice & Vole control)

In a message dated 9/5/98 11:03:12 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
brocfarm@pacific.pacific.net writes:

<< Subj:	 pacing, mice ,ants and dissection
 Date:	9/5/98 11:03:12 PM Eastern Daylight Time
 From:	brocfarm@pacific.pacific.net (brocfarm)
 Sender:	owner-pumpkins@mallorn.com
 Reply-to:	pumpkins@mallorn.com
 To:	pumpkins@mallorn.com
 
 I taken to pacing the patch.....put in ten miles today......lost a few
 pounds on me and the pumpkins ....I am having a major mouse attack ...they
 first were in the tomato crop and now have there sites on bigger and better
 things.....i have a question for my God....why are they only munching on
 the 600+ i have plenty of small 200 hundred pounders and they don't touch
 them......but i literally lost 5 pounds of pumpkin and sides of many of the
 other 500-600...i fear there are 50 or more banding
 together................or are they pocket gophers??.....well I did what
 most conscientious pumpkin growers would do..... I freaked.... went to the
 store and bought 30 mouse traps....and just smiled at the clerk as she said
 "oh you must have a mouse problem".......yeah there eating my 600 pound
 pumpkins....she just smile and said  "next"..............realizing i wasn't
 making any points i hurried home to set them....so I whipped out the ole
 peanut butter and started baiting the traps...........a couple of hours
 later i checked them and there were nothing but sugar ants devouring the
 butter.....so i'll have to re bait them........it was there on my knees
 that it hit me.......i have lost it! It was then I had the idea to dissect
 a smaller pumpkins stem and vine junction....in my findings i found that
 the pumpkin is only being fed by half the vine and the other half goes back
 to the main root.......after 29.ft of examining its is conclusive ....are
 the secondaries solely on the same side as the pumpkin feeding the pumpkin?
 ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,yours truly brock
 
  >>
Brock, I have had a severe mouse problem most years around here and the
following works great.

Buy several repeating mouse traps, they have a tunnel through them with a
flipping mechanism.  (Home Depot sells them) Mice & Voles will go in them even
without bait.  When you have several just drop the sheet metal trap in a 5 gal
bucket of water.  Add the little bodies to the compost for personal
satisfaction. I use them all winter too, by putting a wooden box over them.
This keeps the population under control for the next season.  I use this
method in my Orchard too.

Emergency protection for your Pumpkin.  By some wax blocks for mice.  Take a
little wooden box with a couple of holes in it and put the bait in it.  Place
this beside the Pumpkin, they will always eat this before your Pumpkin.  Keep
replacing the bait until it doesn't disappear anymore.  Never use a Decon type
the birds will eat it.

George
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