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mice in S central montana

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redheeler

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Is it just my place or is everybody in south central MT being plagued with with all these damn mice this year, seems like everywhere you look anymore they are everywhere. Packrats too :cry: :frowns:
 
Its not just MT. They are everywhere over here as well. We also have more hawks than ever before as well.
 
Here in east Colorado, we have huge numbers of the rodents as well. I was laying it onto the tumbleweeds we've had the past couple of winters. Lots of snakes, and are they fat! Bulls and rattlers both. We do seem to have had the plague go through, and Prairie Dogs took a hit. Wonder if that will affect mice?
 
Last year was THE year for mice here.......we had hawks sitting on hay bales eating them....I think some were too full to fly away... :D

What we do have is moles and voles. The moles are digging up the yard. We managed to drown a couple....I read about them...
interesting that voles eat insects and they are hard to poison, but can be caught in traps. Moles eat grass and roots and can
be poisoned........our cat is a KILLER.......I can't begin to count what he has killed.......of course, he eats them then pukes them up :shock: ...but that's a small price to pay for the job he does....he's always on patrol. Just need a few more like him. My mom always said a good mouser is a good mouser regardless, so we always feed our barn cats because they can't live on just mice and live very long. However, we don't have any barn cats :( as they got a disease and they all died a few years ago. We've tried getting cats vaccinated before bringing them here, but for some reason they won't stay; or get stepped on, etc. City cats don't work very well in the country. Go figure...... :D

At any rate, the Bible tells us this would happen......
 
I think we may have more mice than usual, too. I know earlier in summer, I could see cats going out into the taller grass across the driveway, and soon return with a mouse for their little ones. Often returning within ten or fifteen minutes several times in a row. That was in an area about a half block in size, more or less.

FH, I'd sure like to share some of our 'cat bounty' with you, but they are feral cats which I supplement with a little cat food to keep them on mouse patrol around the buildings. Can't get near them, which is fine, as they don't trip me when I try to walk around the yard like the family pet kind of cats do. They are fun to watch, and I don't believe the enviro's who claim they decimate wild birds, as we have tons of those around. Having a nice wild plum thicket near the garage, and lots of other wild fruit in the area is a real drawing card for the birds, not to mention quite a few crickets and a few grass hoppers. Which reminds me, I haven't seen the wild turkeys in a few weeks now. Usually they really clean out any grasshopper infestation around the buildings. Maybe they move up to higher ground this time of year, or just don't see them as easy this year with all the grass and weeds our bounty of rain has created.

Isn't it interesting how 'nature' is ever changing?

mrj
 
Went out to Clarence's place to do a little work. When around the fuel barrels I smelled something dead. Investigating, I found a large bull snake that had gotten above the hinge on an old refrigerator cabinet used for storing things. He was so full of mice that he got stuck. There were a large number of "endangered" Carrion Beetles feeding on him. Maybe as many as 50.
 

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