I have to tell you, my last article was back at Christmas and… I missed you! It’s been a month since I last wrote an article—not a real break because I’ve been working on lots of other projects, but still, I missed writing. Did you miss me? I hope so, otherwise my ego will take a hit!
So for this big comeback, I had a choice: talk to you about the upcoming seedlings, the seed catalogs piling up on my desk, or… make a nice, embarrassing confession. Guess what I chose?
This year, I have a mouse problem. And not just one or two stray mice. No, no. We’re talking about a “situation.”
The reality of country life
Okay, let me give you some context. I live in the countryside, next to the forest. It’s beautiful, it’s quiet, it’s a lazy gardener’s paradise… and it’s also an animal kingdom. Usually, I have one or two mice per winter that get lost in our house, we catch them, end of story. Nothing to panic about.
Except this year? One or two PER WEEK.
Yes, yes, you read that right. Every week, new mice. I was starting to wonder if I had accidentally opened an Airbnb for rodents!
Before you think I live in a rat-infested slum, let me explain something: when you live surrounded by nature like I do, it’s NORMAL to have mice around. In Montreal, where I grew up? Never saw a mouse in the house. But here, with the forest just a stone’s throw away, it’s a different story.
Mice need hiding places to live: piles of rocks, tall grass, quiet corners. I have plenty of all that around my house. It’s perfect for them! They spend the winter there, nice and cozy, and normally, only one or two happen to find the little hole that leads to my house.
The key word here is “small hole.” Did you know that a mouse can squeeze through a hole the size of a quarter? That’s tiny! It really doesn’t take much for them to get in.
So having a few mice every winter is to be expected. But having one every week? That was clearly a problem.
The investigation begins
If I was catching so many, it must have been because the entry hole was particularly inviting. Like a luxury mouse highway, with “Welcome to Audrey’s” written in neon lights all around.
So I went around the house with my partner. We inspected, we searched, we played detective… And we finally found THE problematic ventilation outlet under the porch. Paradoxically, this air outlet isn’t even used!
When we removed the small plastic cap (which was supposed to be there to prevent precisely this kind of situation), we had our revelation. Over time, whatever was blocking the edge of the ventilation duct must have deteriorated. The result? A HUGE hole. Not just a quarter of an inch wide. A highway to my kitchen. Mouse Boulevard. The Rodent Expressway. You get the picture.
I was so shocked that I forgot to take a picture and just plugged the whole thing up!
The ridiculously simple solution
To solve my problem, all I needed was steel wool. That’s it. A whopping $10 at the hardware store.
Mice can’t gnaw through it or dislodge it with their teeth. We stuffed the hole with it, and since then, no more mice have gotten in. We had really found THE entry point, and a simple physical barrier was enough to solve the problem. We also put some in the heat pump, where starlings usually nest in the spring: we’ll see how that goes!
No need for complicated products, no need to exterminate the entire local population (okay, I admit I had a brief moment of “oops, I’m emptying my forest of mice,” but in the end, everything worked out). The mice simply went back to living outside, where they are very happy.
Yes, but… what about the garden?
Okay, you’re going to say to me, “Audrey, your mouse story is all well and good, but we’re here to talk about gardening!”
Don’t worry: I’ll be seeing my mice again this summer in my vegetable garden. But this time, they’ll be welcome. Well, “welcome” is a big word… Let’s just say I’ll tolerate their presence as long as they don’t eat all my lettuce seedlings.
Because yes, mice in the garden in summer are normal and not even that harmful. They’re part of the ecosystem, they have a role to play in aerating the soil and cleaning up a bit. In winter, life goes on for them too—not all animals hibernate in Canada—and we just have to make sure they stay outside rather than moving into our homes.
The moral of the story: make the outside of your home inviting so that rodents stay there… but still keep some steel wool on hand, just in case!
In any case, I’m really happy to be back on the blog! What would you like me to talk about in the coming weeks? I’m open to suggestions!