Mailbox Mice

Cathie G

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I live in the city at see it all! The James River runs from. The blue ridge mountains to Richmond so everything follows it! Black bears, coyotes, otters etc! People are so enthralled they forget they are wild animals!
We have a good size population of deer living in our city and that scares me most. Most other animals around here try to stay hidden. The deer will graze right out in broad daylight in an open grassy area with heavy traffic going by. Bucks in rut can be really nasty. It's a fact you can never forget. They are wild. Remembering that keeps both human and animal safer.?
 

Cathie G

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I was thinking grizzlies and their immediate brown kin. Not a problem here in the East, but something to think about out west
Both are omnivores. I'm not saying to play with them but I've dealt with both of those. Brown bears are also in Ohio and from this thread I've remembered another encounter I've had in Southern Ohio. There was one living on a cliff that overlooked my backyard. This has been around 40 years ago. One day all the birds were sounding an alarm and then went totally quiet. So I went to my back door and looked to see what they were talking about ? I watched a brown bear walk across a ledge into a cave and thought oh crap! My elderly neighbors and I got to talking and they had seen it and evidence of a bear also. No one believed us at that time but many years later they've been spotted even farther north in Ohio then I live now. The bear stayed reclusive even though it was pretty much living in my backyard.?
 

Jan A

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Both are omnivores. I'm not saying to play with them but I've dealt with both of those. Brown bears are also in Ohio and from this thread I've remembered another encounter I've had in Southern Ohio. There was one living on a cliff that overlooked my backyard. This has been around 40 years ago. One day all the birds were sounding an alarm and then went totally quiet. So I went to my back door and looked to see what they were talking about ? I watched a brown bear walk across a ledge into a cave and thought oh crap! My elderly neighbors and I got to talking and they had seen it and evidence of a bear also. No one believed us at that time but many years later they've been spotted even farther north in Ohio then I live now. The bear stayed reclusive even though it was pretty much living in my backyard.?
People in Boulder, CO living West of Broadway & the downtown mall have to have bear-proof garbage bins. Up in the mountains, any teenager or adult stupid enough to leave food remnants in their unlocked cars often goes out to find the inside of their car totally ripped apart by a bear(s).

Deer butting or rubbing their antlers on your trees will eventually kill the trees. I've encountered coyote roaming the subdivision in broad daylight with packs in the back yard howling at all times of the night.

I've had racoons come down the chimney into the house, big piles of poop on the roof; rabid skunks.

Boulder had a moose living amongst the old mansions close to downtown Boulder until a couple of cops shot it for its rack. One of them was a taxidermist & didn't think the residents, who texted each other about where the moose was so no would disturb it or encounter it unexpectedly, would miss it. And they killed it while on duty & later tried to make it look like a resident called it in. Boy did that open a can of worms.

An elk walked into a store on the Boulder mall one night. Luckily, he wasn't shot. He left without shoplifting or knocking anything over.

Yes, our wildlife has paid dearly for mankind's development. Mankind loses every once in a while. But I still get a thrill out of seeing deer even though they hit my little sport car running across the road.
 

Cathie G

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People in Boulder, CO living West of Broadway & the downtown mall have to have bear-proof garbage bins. Up in the mountains, any teenager or adult stupid enough to leave food remnants in their unlocked cars often goes out to find the inside of their car totally ripped apart by a bear(s).

Deer butting or rubbing their antlers on your trees will eventually kill the trees. I've encountered coyote roaming the subdivision in broad daylight with packs in the back yard howling at all times of the night.

I've had racoons come down the chimney into the house, big piles of poop on the roof; rabid skunks.

Boulder had a moose living amongst the old mansions close to downtown Boulder until a couple of cops shot it for its rack. One of them was a taxidermist & didn't think the residents, who texted each other about where the moose was so no would disturb it or encounter it unexpectedly, would miss it. And they killed it while on duty & later tried to make it look like a resident called it in. Boy did that open a can of worms.

An elk walked into a store on the Boulder mall one night. Luckily, he wasn't shot. He left without shoplifting or knocking anything over.

Yes, our wildlife has paid dearly for mankind's development. Mankind loses every once in a while. But I still get a thrill out of seeing deer even though they hit my little sport car running across the road.
Oh yea ? when I saw that herd of deer just grazing in the city like they owned it ? I wanted to stop and get a picture so bad. There was just too much traffic going on for picking up children from school etc.. and no place to pull over.
 

COmtnLady

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I'm just a couple mountains/counties over from Jan A.

Add in big horn sheep to the critters she was talking about. They wander around town here during rut (the rest of the time they stay up on the hillsides away from people) and aren't very pleasant during that time (think the nature documentaries and beer commercials you've seen of them crashing heads together). Two years ago I came out of a friend's house and a small group of younger males were around my car and in her yard. I almost stepped of the porch (they generally scatter when people come close) before I remembered what time of year it was and how much they each were in the mood to challenge anything walking nearby. Glad I didn't have a time constraint. It took them a half hour or forty-five minutes to decide to leave.

We live with several bears that have regular routes through town. The one I see most often comes from the mountain on the east side, goes to the dumpsters and grease bins behind each of the restaurants that face onto the main downtown street, then loops around to check the trash bins and dumpsters of various stores and a few homes. Two nights ago he was rattling a locked dumpster so loudly that it sounded almost like when a trash truck bounces the dumpster upside down into the back compartment to dump the contents. We keep our dogs inside after dark, though if a bear was serious about it, "inside" doesn't make a lot of difference. A few years back one of the bears tore the wall off the walk-in cooler of the restaurant beside my house to get at the goodies inside. That walk-in cooler had heavily insulated sheet metal clad walls inside and out that the bear peeled like a banana. The puny wood-siding on my house wouldn't take any time at all to rip through if the bear was so inclined. People think houses are solid, bears just think its an annoyance that needs removed to get to the food they can smell inside. Most of the time they will run away if you make noise, though. But because they can be pretty severe if they want to be, Colorado has a "two strike law". If a bear gets too comfortable around people, starts getting into trash, cars, trailers or houses, it gets tagged and sometimes relocated. If it gets caught a second time, the officials put it down. 4-500 pounds of grumpy-to-angry and/or scared-and-frantic bruin is just something I don't want to be up close and personal with.

But at least we don't have alligators here o_O Mooses, and (Mountain) Lions, and bears - oh my!
 

COmtnLady

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I wrapped the base of the mailbox with tin all the way around, for about 18 inches, which I'm assuming will render it too difficult for mice to climb (or at least hard enough that they seek out softer targets....

Jamie
With the coyote urine suggestion - would a container of used cat litter (replaced every week or so to keep it "optimal"), clear in the back of the mailbox do the same thing?

Mothballs always have worked for me, but you said you'd already tried them.
 

TammyJ

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The evolution of this thread is most interesting and I am enjoying it.

What I have discovered breeding both mice and rats, is that rats are far more likely to accept a stranger into their colony or territory, than mice. A female rat with babies a few days or even weeks old, will accept a batch of babies whose own mother has died. The rats are a lot more "human" in their behaviour.
 

Cathie G

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The evolution of this thread is most interesting and I am enjoying it.

What I have discovered breeding both mice and rats, is that rats are far more likely to accept a stranger into their colony or territory, than mice. A female rat with babies a few days or even weeks old, will accept a batch of babies whose own mother has died. The rats are a lot more "human" in their behaviour.
Rats aren't like humans at all then.? That's interesting though. The saying. The best laid plans of mice and men ? I like the domestic rats. Most are a nice pet depending on their personalities.?
 

TammyJ

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Rats aren't like humans at all then.? That's interesting though. The saying. The best laid plans of mice and men ? I like the domestic rats. Most are a nice pet depending on their personalities.?
Yeah! You are right that rats are not like humans. That's why I put quote marks around "human". Rats are nicer than humans, far as I can see. There are still a few nice humans, though!
 

Cathie G

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Yeah! You are right that rats are not like humans. That's why I put quote marks around "human". Rats are nicer than humans, far as I can see. There are still a few nice humans, though!
Yes there really are a lot of nice humans. A lot of them I've met here on TFO. Not in person here but a lot of others I've met in person too. I actually feel that most are good at heart. Sometimes we can't stop the few that aren't and they are able to sway things.?
 
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