[at-l] Of Mice and Men (generically speaking)

[phil.heffington@oc.edu (Phil Heffington)]

There is something sick deep inside of me that somehow enjoys these
discussions of mice in the shelters.

Some thoughts to ponder:

1.  Why are mice in the shelters?  The answer is not because there is food
there.  It is one answer, but certainly not the only one.  Mice like nice
warm places as well as the next "person".  They weren't originally in the
shelters.  They didn't come there by being carried in by someone.  They live
in the woods naturally, and come in out of the cold and find a nice buffet
sometimes.  Most would probably starve if they had to live off of food left
at the shelters.

2.  They were there first, so leave them alone.  By that argument we could
also say that they were in the woods first, and building shelters there
destroys their natural habitat, so quit building shelters.

3.  Killing the mice takes away a food source for the snakes and owls.  Ever
see an owl catch a shelter mouse?  Not likely.  They swoop down on them
silently in the woods, and need a bit of flying space to do so.  The number
of mice in shelters for snakes and owls to eat is pretty minimal compared to
the number more easily available in the woods.

4.  Killing shelter mice will cut down on their population there.  Not
likely.  Ever notice how fast those little critters reproduce.  We had a
pair of pet mice once.  You don't have just a pair for long, believe me.
Looked to me like they mated back the same day the female delivered 9
babies.

Pro or Con, there is nothing much you can do about shelter mice.  Love em or
hate em, you'll just have to develop your own strategy of how to deal with
them.  Mine is to hang my food on the mouse string, and then open up my pack
so they can get in and explore every night without chewing holes in it to
get to the food smell left there.