I think I may have finally got the better of the mice in the kitchen. I might have trapped the last one today. Interestingly enough, even though this happened only a few hours ago, the smell of mice is much less noticeable already. It must have been a very pungent mouse. 'Catering strength' perhaps. The cats have been pretty useless. They catch mice, and then play with them, during which the mouse scuttles off under the furniture and lives to squeak another day. In the past, I've found that once a mouse has been chewed by a cat it tends to expire, but not so these. Either we've got very gentle cats or very tough mice. I've left a trap behind the fridge which seems to be one of their favourite places, just in case any more show up.
I'm sure you have a reason, but why can't you chuck poison under or behind stuff where pets can't get at it?
and do you bait your traps with peanuts?
 
Hi Dip's well YES & NO.
It gets a "good talking to" every year with its firebox vacuumed out and the heat-exchanger brushed through.
The problem occurred IMMEDIATELY after the recent re-work of the rads with TRV's everywhere and the addition of the filtering unit.
I think it is the filtering unit reducing the flow significantly that is causing the problem, because whereas the heating was largely silent before, now we can hear the "rushing" of water around the system and this noise emanates from the filter unit itself. I may have to remove it and then see if the problem goes away. :)
Rushing watta makes me fink its got air in the system.

Before when we talked about opening up at least two valves to stop the boiler from kettling, where it can't dissipate it's heat after the burner switches oft... do yer trv's stay open if set to max or does they close when really hot?
 
I'm sure you have a reason, but why can't you chuck poison under or behind stuff where pets can't get at it?
and do you bait your traps with peanuts?

I don't want the poisoned mice expiring anywhere where the cats might eat them. I can keep the poison out of reach, but not the tiny corpses, I'm afraid. I've been putting cheese on the traps which is a bit of a cliche I know, but it's what we have available.
 
Got up lateish, Andy Saunders and his burd came round to look at W's Chesil Speedster that they might want to buy. They had a good look and picked up on all the faults, they know what it's like mechanically. We discovered a feckin mouse had got in and nibbled on a side panel on the squab of a leather seat, fortunately where there was already a small split.
They are "thinking about it".
They will make an offer below what we could get for it if we spent a bit of money on it and put the gearbox back to manual.
Waste of time really, but then it had to be done. :(:rolleyes:
 
Energy use for us £9 per day. So similar to some then. There is no getting away from the fact that even though we have shut rads off in most of the house, it is still a 4 bed detached, so the heat will pass through the walls and under the doors.
We are cooking more economically, never using the oven, or hardly at all. Can't think of the last time we used it.
"hot water" not very hot.
I think we are all doing all we can.:rolleyes::(
 
I don't want the poisoned mice expiring anywhere where the cats might eat them. I can keep the poison out of reach, but not the tiny corpses, I'm afraid. I've been putting cheese on the traps which is a bit of a cliche I know, but it's what we have available.
I thought that might be the problem.
Do try peanuts, we as students had the same problem and tried everything, or so we thought. Tried peanuts (unsalted) out of desperation and in one evening had killed the lot!
Pest control peeps I have talked to since say peanuts are good. I think at least some of the reason is that they cannot eat them without setting the trap off, unlike other foodstuffs! Their teeth need a little edge to nibble on, something hard and smooth is more difficult, as well.;)
 
I don't want the poisoned mice expiring anywhere where the cats might eat them. I can keep the poison out of reach, but not the tiny corpses, I'm afraid. I've been putting cheese on the traps which is a bit of a cliche I know, but it's what we have available.
We had several phases ov mice at wuk. They moved the poison pellets to a location ov their choice. Then ate them from that location. Could be a problem fer peeps with pets.
 
Rushing watta makes me fink its got air in the system.

Before when we talked about opening up at least two valves to stop the boiler from kettling, where it can't dissipate it's heat after the burner switches oft... do yer trv's stay open if set to max or does they close when really hot?
Hi, AFAIK when set to MAX they NEVER close no matter what.
The system has been bled (several times) including the filter unit that has its own little bleeder ( ;) ).
Whenever the pump is running the filter unit makes a lot of noise as the water is forced through the baffle and past the magnetic separator tube before exiting out the other side.
Prior to the filter being installed this system was "silent" and had no overheat issues. So I think I will try to take it out of circuit as a next step. This will be a pretty binary test I think. :)
 
We had several phases ov mice at wuk. They moved the poison pellets to a location ov their choice. Then ate them from that location. Could be a problem fer peeps with pets.

Under other circumstances I love the way rodents run away with food and hide it. Indeed, the term 'hamster' is said to derive from the word 'hamstern' - to store. When we had pet rats many years ago, one of them stole a Blue Riband chocolate wafer bar off my plate and ran with it across the room. She climbed up the back of a chest of drawers and put it in the top drawer, which I thought was quite an achievement, with such little legs.
The cheese seems to be working very well so far, and I seldom have to wait long before a trap goes off. I think I've killed everybody now, because the guns - or at least the traps - have fallen silent on this murine Passchendaele.
 
Under other circumstances I love the way rodents run away with food and hide it. Indeed, the term 'hamster' is said to derive from the word 'hamstern' - to store. When we had pet rats many years ago, one of them stole a Blue Riband chocolate wafer bar off my plate and ran with it across the room. She climbed up the back of a chest of drawers and put it in the top drawer, which I thought was quite an achievement, with such little legs.
The cheese seems to be working very well so far, and I seldom have to wait long before a trap goes off. I think I've killed everybody now, because the guns - or at least the traps - have fallen silent on this murine Passchendaele.
"murine" wot a lovely word!
Just remember at Christmas to put Stilton in them!!:D:D:D
 
I'm sure you have a reason, but why can't you chuck poison under or behind stuff where pets can't get at it?
and do you bait your traps with peanuts?
Had two instances where poison was not a good idea. Had a rat problem on a site, dying rat got under my site office where it expired and rotted away for weeks - HORIBBLE stink. Same again when I was working in Devon and had digs in an old farm house. A poisoned rat crawled under the floor boards of my bedroom ( through a hole in the ceiling below) where it scratched away for a couple of days before it expired. Again, the stench was there for weeks, plus the flies which invaded the kitchen below.
 

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