Topic: broad beans & mice

[TEL]

 After a six week wait my beans were just popping up & in just 1 night the mice have had them all. 

[Digeroo]

The squirrels like mine.  I have waited in the past for them to emerge only to find nothing but a slight dip and a few scratch marks.  Now each of my broad bean seeds gets a bottle cloche.   

I have more or less given up on Autumn sown ones because so many things think I have provided a free meal.  I sympathise with your frustration.  February is not far away so you can get some more going.

[gardentg44]

Hi Tel.
try soaking the beans in parrafin,will mice will leave well alone

[davejg]

Hi Tel.
try soaking the beans in parrafin,will mice will leave well alone

I will be doing that this year (or next) I February i lost most of mine  and they were in pots in the greenhouse. Caught 11 of the little pests in all. I do smile thinking of them taking a bite of a paraffin soaked bean and spitting it out

[TEL]

Hi Tel.
try soaking the beans in parrafin,will mice will leave well alone

Thanks i will try that

[Digeroo]

Does the parafin stop the critters chewing the growing tip once they have germinated?

[daitheplant]

Does the parafin stop the critters chewing the growing tip once they have germinated?

No, it just protects the seed, so not really worth while doing it. I don`t see the point in sowing broad beans in the autumn anyway as you gain very little. Much better to sow the seeds in pots in the early spring and plant them out when conditions are better.

[planetearth]

The paraffin to use is not the stuff that you burn in a heater, it liquid paraffin from a chemist.  It also works on peas.

Though I must confess I have never tried used "burning" paraffin!

[Aden Roller]

The paraffin to use is not the stuff that you burn in a heater, it liquid paraffin from a chemist.  It also works on peas.

Though I must confess I have never tried used "burning" paraffin!

"Burning" paraffin may well work well as long as you are nearby to set light to it when the micky-mice appear. (That's not a serious suggestion RSPCA please note!!)Might not do the seeds a great deal of good though. 

As someone else has said: starting beans off in pots in a greenhouse or cold-frame (free of mice) is a pretty good bet for success.

Autumn sown are a gamble - can look wonderfully advanced then the weather changes and knocks them for six.
When successful you gain a coulple of weeks over early spring sown.

Good luck either way.

[green lily]

Actually I think the 'original' recipe was swill the beans in [burning] paraffin.
I've done it the past also scattered solid meths in the rows. That didn't work it has to be the smelly stuff on the seeds. Got that from the 'father' of organic growing whose name escapes me now,   [don't get old it gets embarrassing..]

[Robert_Brenchley]

My father used to use paraffin (the burning kind) and red lead. Not recommended! I'd have thought the smell of the paraffin alone would be enough. I once had my fuel spill inside my rucksack when I was walking in Scotland. The taste of my food was indescribable (I was ten miles at least from a shop, twenty unless there was one at Rannoch, which there probably wasn't) so there was nothing else. My sleeping bag was soaked, and by the following morning, I was itchin all over from the stuff.

[davejg]

Digeroo, not convinced they bother with the growing tip, on my potted ones lasy year they burrowed down & ate the seed the tops were still there but had withered away by the evening.

[Digeroo]

Have to agree that squirrels only eat the beans. I  have watched them do it.   So far they have not managed to remove well dug in plastic bottles, but they have no problems with wire or plastic netting.   Not personally keen on the paraffin.

[planetearth]

"Burning" paraffin may well work well as long as you are nearby to set light to it when the micky-mice appear. (That's not a serious suggestion RSPCA please note!!).

And well you might seek dispensation, the RSPCA seem to have been hijacked.  More and more it looks like they have been infiltrated by class warrior political activists who are obsessed with foxes and badgers - rats and mice next!

No more from me in their collection tin, there are plenty other charities to choose from!

[Aden Roller]

And well you might seek dispensation, the RSPCA seem to have been hijacked.  More and more it looks like they have been infiltrated by class warrior political activists who are obsessed with foxes and badgers - rats and mice next!

No more from me in their collection tin, there are plenty other charities to choose from!

Oooh that's good. Do you think they would like a few more foxes for their collection? I've plenty and would so like to see the back of the mess they leave all over the garden and paths 

Broadbeans..... mine are in the packet. Soon they will be in pots in a cold greenhouse minus mouses... if necessary the cat can sit in there as guard for a while. 

[realfood]

Mice and voles find the beans by smell, so I think that the paraffin smell disguises the location of the beans.

[Aden Roller]

Mice and voles find the beans by smell, so I think that the paraffin smell disguises the location of the beans.

That makes a good deal of sense but my 97 year old father believes after having sunk their teeth into one and not liked the taste they *toddle off. (*not quite my father's choice of words)

[Digeroo]

if necessary the cat can sit in there as guard for a while. 

Sounds good to me, I seem to have a cat in the garden.  It is here most days, not sure who it belongs to.  Lets hope it know the score.

[Vinlander]

I used to get good results using paraffin (the stinkier the better) but the last few years it was worse than useless - I think the hard winters made the rodents so hungry they were using the smell of the paraffin to find the seeds!

I even used even stinkier white spirit one year but that winter was even harder and it made no difference. I tried a mulch of broken windscreen the same year but it made only a slight difference 

I don't think liquid paraffin from the chemist would put mice off eating them - it's the same stuff they use on dried sultanas to put a shine on them - you can't taste it.

But it might make them harder to find - maybe the 'seal' it puts on the seed  reduces the scent - just a guess.

Talking of other rodent damage - I usually find the f@g-end of the broad bean harvest makes a good crop of dried beans (for next year) - but when I plant the better-tasting green-seeded types I find that any odd pods I leave after the main harvest simply disappear.

I'm sure this is gourmet rodents - though I'm only 90% sure they all have four legs...

Cheers.

[ipt8]

start in pots and then plant out. I found Witkiem Manika excellant and never got black fly. Also Aquadulce Claudia was similar.