I don't remember if I told you or not but last winter and spring, a little field mouse moved in on our balcony (however he got up here) and ate all the suet balls we had hung up for birds. It was crazy: he climbed a hibernating raspberry cane, Mission Impossible style, all the way up to the suet ball holder, stuffed his cheeks with bits of the suet ball, and then climbed back down (imagine the M:I theme music), dumped the suet pieces in his secret hideout behind the pots of the hibernating plants - and then climbed back up again. This up-and-down foraging routine would continue every day from the moment we'd fill the suet ball holder until the suet ball holder was empty. (So about five minutes. He was quite effective.) The birds would be lucky if they got any of it, while the little field mouse could chill the rest of the day, fattening himself with the fruits of his morning labors in his hideout.
This was cute and funny enough.
But now that we've started hanging up suet balls again, he's back - and this time he brought his family with him.
Now, here's the dilemma:
- On the one hand, they're super cute. A little family of mice, climbing the raspberries like Ethan Hunt, munching on the suet.
- On the other hand, they're rodents. I can't hang out on the balcony anymore without the fear of them appearing out of nowhere and accidentally biting me. Furthermore, if we let them get used to an unlimited supply of suet now, they'll come back tenfold next time.
I don't want them to die, but I also don't want a colony of mice with their possible diseases and infections living on our balcony.
The solution we're trying now is hanging the suet ball holder so high that no raspberry cane reaches it. Perhaps this will force them to move out and find food elsewhere.
However, I'm worried that like Ethan Hunt, these mice don't have the word impossible in their vocabulary.
RK
