Of mice and mulch

Help..I have mice, lots of them. The little devils appeared out of nowhere. One day, no mice, next day lots of mice. My DH saw them in the garage making a home in an old bag of coco hull mulch, I added the mulch to the garden and the next day went to remove a stray piece of trash from my garden AND THE GROUND MOVED. Scared the daylights out of me. It moved in several different directions at once so I know the little devils are constructing mouse condos.

Does anyone have any advice? Are they harmless in the garden? Will they eat my bulbs? Is the coco hull mulch the problem? I am in the suburban Denver area and our weather has been quite warm for this time of year. I am a new gardener and have no experience with these pests. I hate to kill them (but I will). Thanks for any help.

I suggest you get a cat. Or a trap, or D-con, if you don't have a dog or cat that might eat a dead mouse. Thet will eat more than bulbs. Good Luck, Sidney

Mice are quite destructive (but well fed!) in my garden. I use a live trap and I recently started spraying Liquid Fence. The spray seems to be really working well while the trap is hit and miss (there were four in it one day but often none). Borrowing a cat from someone works fantasticly if it's an indoor problem. Outdoors the cat might be in danger! We lose a lot of cats to coyotes in my area!

Good luck!

They are driving me CRAZY. I have noticed that people write alot about squirrel problems but not mice. I am afraid the darn things have eaten most of the bulbs I put out last fall. They have infested my garage and I keep "spotting" them in the basement. They are so fearless that DH killed one with his shoe. I am afraid of poison as my DD is only 2. These guys are not Stuart Little. Can you tell me where to purchase some Liquid Fence? I am afraid they really like the coco hull mulch as I haven't seen the little mouse holes in other parts of the garden. I have been holding off on getting a cat until DD was a little older, as I am afraid she might accidently hurt it. But now I am reconcidering as I have to get rid of these vermin. I am in the Denver suburbs close to lots of open space and the foothills but urbun enough that I don't think a coyote would be a problem, but may-be a racoon. They seem to have become a bigger problem in the past few years. If I don't get rid of these things I am going to have to build an addition to my house for them.

Get a kitten, your DD will learn with encouragement from you to be gentle. I put D-con in nonaccessable places to my dogs and they dont like dead rodents.

I got the Liquid Fence at ACE in the garden section. You spray it on and around your plants once a week for a few weeks then less often. It keeps them away (once you smell it you'll understand why!). I tell DH that I'm going out to pee on my plants, lol!

2, eh? My son at 2 was wonderfully gentle with the babysitter's cat... but DD took a few well-earned scratches. Maybe just borrow a cat for the garage for a night. :)

A kitten it is. This problem is escalating. My older DD got a kitten for her 1st birthday and was fine (she's 22, poor kitty lived to 21). Nothing else is working. The repellant from Home Depot was expensive and didn't seem to do any good. I read on another forum that used kitty litter might work so I am going to try. I would pee on my plants but they are in the front yard and no telling what my neighbors would think LOL. They already think I am obsessed with my yard. Funny how boys are more gentle with animals and we girls seem to have to learn things the hard way.