Mayday 34°35'S 150°36'E

RIP.

En tiedä kumpaa säälittää enemmän, hiirtä tai ihmistä! Huviksi käypä lukemassa tätä tarinaa -

http://poplarroad.ca/archives/2006/01/hickory_dickory.html

Kiitos linkistä Marja-Leena, se oli hauska (ja opettavainen) tarina!

Rodent problems are so universal! Thank you for your comment on my blog. At least we KNOW we have mice problems. Friends only found out they had a rat problem when they arrived home to a waterfall coming out of the recessed lighting in their kitchen. A rat had made its home in their attic and developed a taste for PVC pipe. It chewed a hole right through their water line! The resulting downpour ruined their kitchen, their dining room carpeting, and their vacation, which they cancelled in order to deal with the mess. They caught the rat, but despite the disaster it caused they didn't kill it; they let it go in a park area an hour's drive from their home. Cute as my mice are, like you I can't get that sentimental. Good luck!

Thanks for stopping by, Anita! I completely agree. Catch and release is not an option in this business.
For the record: Andy killed it, not me. The operation involved a piece of stiff cardboard to lift the bucket, and another bucket filled with water.

BTW, there is an additional dilemma concerning rodents Down Under. You are not supposed to kill Australian native rats and mice. Not sure how one can tell the difference, but I remember reading that, when they were catching rats around the Sydney opera house, they used traps that were too small for the native rats to fit in. The natives are bigger, apparently...

Jos hiiri kerran oli jo nauttinut myrkkyä, sen olisi varmaan voinut päästääkin ulos: kai teillä siellä jotain pöllöjä tai muita jyrsijöitä syöviä petoja on, jotka olisivat tehneet Mikistä selvän.

En tiedä, mitä myrkkyä käytätte, mutta me olemme käyttäneet suht menestyksellisesti Hiiribaari-nimellä myytävää difenakumi-valmistetta (engl. difenacoum). En tiedä, mikä natsi tämän on kehittänyt, mutta se tuntuu toimivan. Tappaa jyrsijän sisäiseen verenvuotoon. Lisänä sympaattinen nimi: voin kuvitella, kuinka pahaa-aavistamattomat hiiret lähtevät baariin... eivätkä koskaan palaa! Muahahaha!

We were always taught at school to check for pouches (marsupial mice, a la The Muddle Headed Wombat's 'I am not a house-mouse. I'm a fat-tailed pouched mouse'). But I have never found a teenage girl - any girl - in whom ecological altruism is developed to the point where they will willingly handle a wild rat.

We did have a native mouse in the house once - Jessie the cat, bad girl, brought it in. It played dead and hid under the television before escaping. Hooray! It came in that very distinctive colour, Australian Furry Animal Brown. (A bit like a miniature wombat)

Minulla oli samanlainen ongelma kerran. Olin Ruotsissa kesätöissä. Asuin kolhoosissa, jossa jokaisella oli oma huone, mutta keittiö oli yhteinen. Eräänä aamuna, kun olin aamupalalla ennen töihin lähtöä, tiskikaapista kuului rapinaa. Roskaämpärissä jätteitä syömässä istui hiiri.

Nostin ämpärin kaapista, hiiri istui ja tuijotti minua pikku silmillään. Oli kiire töihin, joten sitaisin roskapussin solmuun. Sitten ajattelin, että hiiri jyrsii pussiin reiän, joten laitoin leikkuulaudan ämpärin päälle. Ja paistinpannun leikkuulaudan päälle (jos olisi sattunut olemaan superhiiri).

Ruokatunnilla tulin katsomaan tilannetta. Hiiri oli kuolleena (tietenkin tukehtui, raukka) pussissa ja hätäpissa haisi kitkerälle.

Tunnen edelleen itseni murhaajaksi.

Muahahaha tosiaankin.

Angharad, I am very hard trying not to think about the native rodent possibility. But I have noticed recently, that teenage girls are surprisingly willing to handle rodents, as long as the said rodents have cute names and live in little cages with toys to play with.

Myy, minä olen päättänyt päästää omatunnon kokonaan lomalle tässä asiassa. Roskapussi-leikkuulauta-paistinpannu yhdistelmä nauratti kyllä!

This is so hard. The more you live with animals the harder it is not to recognise the kinship. Rats which have seemed scary and evil when scrabbling around the roof at 2.00 am look pretty and delicate in the trap next morning. I was going to suggest drowning, but I see you you've arrived at that method already. If you try to belt the animal with a lump of wood, well that seems clumsy and brutal, and it can seem to go on forever. Hold it under water, and you know for sure when its life has gone - but that seems to take forever, too, and you feel the pulse of its struggle through your hand. Nothing's easy is it - just as well.

My (older than teenage) sister wants a ferret.

Apart from anything else, they're supposed to be 'hypoallergenic' - as if that's the first quality that anyone looks for in a pet!

I am still giving thanks that you do not have hand guns at the ready, to use in such a domestic crisis. Somehow it does not meet the criteria of "appropriate technology".

For the record, in addition to introduced species of Mice and Rats, Robertson has native rats "Bush Rats", which are rodents (not marsupials), and Phascogales, which are Marsupials. They look just like mice, are a bit tubbier, and have slightly coarser fur. Males are blessed with huge testicles (their mating practices are legendary). Females (only) have pouches. They have very different teeth from rodents (not the classic rodent incisors), but that is not always easy to assess "on the run". I know this because of phascogales fondness for cheese in traps, unfortunately. However, for some people, if it looks like a mouse, eats cheese like a mouse, then ...

The bush rats live in burrows in my garden, but the phascogales are fond of coming into sheds. Some people have them dwelling in their letter boxes, which, of course, seem a lot like a hollow log to a Phascogale.

Slight amendment: Phascogales are now known as "Antechinus". Neither name flows off the tongue does it?
The Australian Museam has a very useful "fact sheet" for distinguishing these various creatures.
http://www.amonline.net.au/factsheets/rattus.htm

Voi voi pikku-Anni, luontoa vastaan on taisteltava luonnon keinoin! Siispä ottakaa kissa tahi kaksi, eivät hiiret enää häärää keittiössä. Tai muuttakaa naapuriimme, herrat Lewinsky ja Runeberg huolehtivat hiiristä (ja pikkulinnuista)

Kiesus.
Elä pois vaikka kivellä päälle, niin minä tapoin jyrsijät jo 6-vuotiaana.

Minä olen ehdottanut että Lapin poromiesten pitäisi haastaa Walt Disney oikeuteen ja viedä niiltä tuhkatkin munista, siitä vahingosta, mitä ovat bambilla, petteri-punakuonolla ja muulla roskalla tehneet bisnekselle.

Colin, your description about drowning an animal is heartbreaking. I don't think either of us could face the idea of holding the creature while drowning it - in any case Andy used another bucket to keep it under the water. Now you know it all.

Thanks for all the info, Denis. Luckily it looks as if our situation is a bit too urban for native rodents.

Rebekka suggested getting a cat or two. That would sort it all out I am sure, but I do like the birdlife too much to go for this one. (Kiitos kuitenkin!)

Petja, onko Petteri Punakuono Disney-hahmo? En tiennytkään.

Petteri tosiaan ei taida olla Dinseyn alkujaan, mutta yhtä kaikki, tämä inhimillisten ominaisuuksien massatyrkytys eläimille on myrkyttänyt monen ihmisen mielen