Hinckley

LEGO and mice

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As I'm packing up my LEGO lair to move across the country, I'm realizing the type of trouble mice can cause with LEGO bricks. Two of my creations: an igloo and a castle had become home to mice during the years I had them displayed on a shelf. Taking them apart to sort them out into my storage bins and drawers I found heaps of stored food, D-Con (mouse poison) and piles of mouse turds. Of course, the ugliest surprise came as I was dumping open sets, that hadn't been fully parted out, into a misc bin. Perhaps the last step in the packing process is that catch-all misc bin that you will just sort when you arrive at your destination. Unbeknownst to me, the final box I dumped into the bin had a great amount of D-Con stored in it and I basically dumped it all into a huge unsorted bin of LEGO bricks. Several hours later I am finally drying all of the LEGO bricks after separating the D-Con and washing the bricks, batch by batch, in a strainer in the bathtub. :sceptic:

Lesson to share: If you live in an area with mice, don't leave opened boxes at mouse level and check enclosed MOCs for uninvited rodent tenants.

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But mice are cute... :cry_happy:

Ahem, I totally agree with you on this. Luckily my house has only ever had a few mice infestations, but they did crawl through my then-table-town, bumping into the trams and knocking the civilians over. I had to call the army in :laugh:

A good warning :thumbup:

~A.S.

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Thats actually quite funny , well not for you at least :laugh: .

We don't really have any mice in our house except for the odd corpse at the front door that my cat left there.So the closest thing to this would be having my sisters hamster invade one of my castles and leave a few "suprises" , at least it smelt like a real castle after that...

Have you ever had ant problems before?

Edited by Black Rabbit

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Thats actually quite funny , well not for you at least :laugh: .

We don't really have any mice in our house except for the odd corpse at the front door that my cat left there.So the closest thing to this would be having my sisters hamster invade one of my castles and leave a few "suprises" , at least it smelt like a real castle after that...

Have you ever had ant problems before?

your sister's hamster invades your lego? that's not too bad... at least you can control/man-handle the hamster...

my sister invades my lego, and if i manhandle her she goes crying to our mother, meaning i get scolded...

spiders are worst than mice though, i live in vancouver, there are lots of spiders here... they build their webs inside those dank, dark castle walls of Lego Hogwarts.

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spiders are worst than mice though, i live in vancouver, there are lots of spiders here... they build their webs inside those dank, dark castle walls of Lego Hogwarts.

Spider are very annoying for me because i have a messy bedroom ( it's really cluttered :hmpf_bad: ) and it's hard to get at em.

I have them crawling around my desk making webs from Moc to Moc and Minifig to Decapitated Minifig...

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spiders are worst than mice though, i live in vancouver, there are lots of spiders here... they build their webs inside those dank, dark castle walls of Lego Hogwarts.

That sounds like a good thing. It would be difficult to create similar webs with Lego pieces.

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My worst mouse story is they killed my computer! Years ago (when I was a poor teenager) I had this rubbish computer that I used for everything; a super powered 8086 XT with a 20 MB hard drive. I had to go away for a week or two when a theatre production I was in was on tour and I came back and my computer was acting odd doing random resets. I opened it up and found that it was obviously used as a mouse home while I was gone. I cleaned it out but the rust was too bad and it was the end of my computer. :cry_sad:

The funny thing about the timing of this topic is I bought some mouse poison just today as I think we've got a few frequenting my house at the moment... :sceptic: I'll keep your story in mind and not stick any near my LEGO, especially since I'm moving soon myself!

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Don't you guys ever clean up? I mean seriously? :hmpf:

Luckily I live downtown on the fourth floor of an appartment building, so all we get here is the odd fly buzzing in from an open window.

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Have you ever had ant problems before?

Interestingly enough, there's a Carpenter Ant infestation in our house right now. We're winning, again by poison. They don't go into the LEGO boxes as they're not interested in shelter, just wood. But as I'm washing the LEGO all the ants are coming to the pipes for water because the poison dehydrates them. I have LEGO bricks drying on a towel in front of a fan and ants crawling all over them for the water and they're dying. I can't win, it seems. :blush:

Glue traps have caused another problem. I had one in the window by a display shelf. The sun melted the glue which ran down the back of one of my old MOCs. Some brasso took care of that. But then, I spilled my sand green tub onto the floor and a bunch of pieces got stuck to a glue trap there. I've saved the trap just to make sure I get the exact pieces back in an upcoming Bricklink order.

My worst mouse story is they killed my computer! Years ago (when I was a poor teenager) I had this rubbish computer that I used for everything; a super powered 8086 XT with a 20 MB hard drive. I had to go away for a week or two when a theatre production I was in was on tour and I came back and my computer was acting odd doing random resets. I opened it up and found that it was obviously used as a mouse home while I was gone. I cleaned it out but the rust was too bad and it was the end of my computer. :cry_sad:

The funny thing about the timing of this topic is I bought some mouse poison just today as I think we've got a few frequenting my house at the moment... :sceptic: I'll keep your story in mind and not stick any near my LEGO, especially since I'm moving soon myself!

Ew, that computer story is hilarious and gross. Luckily mouse pee can't rust LEGO. Yes, I'm not sure the D-Con is worth it. Our dog likes to catch mice and she was grabbing them so easily one day and I realized it was because they were in shock from the poison. I had to take her to the vet to get the charcoal treatment in case she had swallowed one... :cry_sad: We have used other traps that are more humane anyway. Not ridiculously so, we want them out of the house for sure, but better than slow agonizing death of poisoning... :sick:

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Don't you guys ever clean up? I mean seriously? :hmpf:

Aye yay yay yay! :hmpf_bad: I'm not going to take that lying down! :grin: For one, I have two messy kids and I clean the carpet every day, and two, the place that I'm renting has a cracked slab so there are holes everywhere; I'm surprised we don't get stray kangaroos in here! :tongue: It's one of the many reasons why I'm moving soon.

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Don't you guys ever clean up? I mean seriously? :hmpf:

Luckily I live downtown on the fourth floor of an appartment building, so all we get here is the odd fly buzzing in from an open window.

:hmpf: Seriously?

Living in the forest and having a basement LEGO room makes it hard to keep the critters away from things.

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Ew, that computer story is hilarious and gross. Luckily mouse pee can't rust LEGO. Yes, I'm not sure the D-Con is worth it. Our dog likes to catch mice and she was grabbing them so easily one day and I realized it was because they were in shock from the poison. I had to take her to the vet to get the charcoal treatment in case she had swallowed one... :cry_sad: We have used other traps that are more humane anyway. Not ridiculously so, we want them out of the house for sure, but better than slow agonizing death of poisoning... :sick:

Indeed it is gross! I've been using traps and catching a few for a while... but I'm still seeing signs. So it's out witht he big guns for me! :devil: Luckily we don't have any pets.

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I'm surprised we don't get stray kangaroos in here! :tongue:

Don't get me started on those guys. Always crawling into boxes and nesting up, having babies. Then they come out every spring wearing sunglasses and boxing gloves and just WHAM! scare the crap out of you as you innocently walk through the door. We had an infestation this last April and I couldn't get rid of them until I took those boxing classes...

:devil: Luckily we don't have any pets.

You doofus. Kids are pets.

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Then they come out every spring wearing sunglasses and boxing gloves and just WHAM! scare the crap out of you as you innocently walk through the door.

I'm having Atari flashbacks. :wacko:

*waits for an obligatory "A dingo stole my baby!" reference next* :wink:

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I am safe for now, with my LEGO on the top floor in my LEGO room. :thumbup: However, we do have mice somewhere in the garden. :look: The only time animals have come in contact with LEGO was when I had a MOC outside and my chickens were investigating it. It happened to have a road down the middle and they followed it looking in all the buildings. Then a building fell over and they got scared. Ofcourse, they flapped like hell and they managed to destroy the whole city! :sadnew: But it was soo funny. :laugh:

Greetings,

JD

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:hmpf: Seriously?

Living in the forest and having a basement LEGO room makes it hard to keep the critters away from things.

I was referring more to the cobwebs and such.

I guess if one really lives in the forest like you do, one's bound to get some extra pets in their household. :grin: That's one of the reasons I could never move outside the city.

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This sounds like a big mess. I've had it happen to me before when moving things that hadn't been moved in a long time. ICK ICK ICK. You don't have to be dirty or messy to get a pest problem. I grew up in a rural area and every year when the property behind us was cleared, we would have pest problems (mice, bugs, etc) because it stirred up everything outside. There was no real way to prevent this or we would have. My parents still live in the same place and the cat helps with the pest problem now, but it still happens. I lived in a city apartment as well and we had a rat problem (big rats). Luckily, I lived on the third floor so I never saw one inside. My cats are lazy and are useless when it comes to killing pests. I live in a place now that is also in the city but a more residential area. There are 3 stray cats that live outside and I havent seen a mouse since I moved in.

Anyway, I said all that to say... Poor you! It's disgusting to have to clean up all that stuff. :sick:

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This story was totally gross. :sick: Just finding that stuff in an old MOC would be bad enough, but then dumping it into a big big of pieces... it makes my skin crawl just thinking about it. I will be extra careful when handling MOCs that have been on the shelf. Allow me to reiterate :sick:

The only experience I've ever had with mice and lego was last year in my old apartment. I had a couple mice which I killed using the old fashioned traps, but one night in particular I saw a mouse scurry across the floor in my computer room. But when i went to the corner to see where it had gone I just found a couple of bricks. So either the mouse turned into lego or it was actually a lego fairy showing my where my lost pieces were. :wink: Either way, a much more pleasant experience than yours.

I've never really had mice problems, just spiders. The basement where my lego collection used to live was just crawling with spiders, combine that with the fact that the bricks were just sitting there unused for months at a time while I was off at college and it's no wonder that I was always finding webs and exoskeletons scattered about. The worst for me though is when they use the inside of a brick as a nest. I don't know how many times I've turned over a piece to find webbing inside the tubes or in the space surround the tubes. :angry:

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I was referring more to the cobwebs and such.

I guess if one really lives in the forest like you do, one's bound to get some extra pets in their household. :grin: That's one of the reasons I could never move outside the city.

Cities are actually very bad for rats and other vermin, although some countries are tidier than others (Ireland isn't one of the tidy ones - the odd occasion early Sunday morning street cleaners haven't tackled the city centre, it is like a bomb site). In general even with proper disposal there is a lot of waste to be dealt with though with so many people, and that is a magnet for rats and such. Historically cities have been centres of disease and pestilence.

One positive thing about the country mice we get here every Autumn/Winter (looking for warmth) is that they are not particularly wily and are easily trapped (no mucking about with poison that has the potential to result in dead mice in inaccessible places). Just like that kid's story about the town mouse and the country mouse. Peanut butter works better as bait than cheese in my experience.

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My only experience with vermin has been the odd cockroach (seems to have gone away after I added some baits) and a pile of hairy caterpillars which turned into cocoons and then moths. Never leave enclosed-but-not-sealed items around (e.g. computers with the side panel off or suitcases that are not 100% closed) or else the caterpillars will make their cocoons in there and its a nightmare to get it all out.

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Cities are actually very bad for rats and other vermin, although some countries are tidier than others (Ireland isn't one of the tidy ones - the odd occasion early Sunday morning street cleaners haven't tackled the city centre, it is like a bomb site).

The cities in Finland don't have much of a vermin problem, all we get here are seagulls and squirrels and stray bunnies. :tongue:

I'm not afraid of mice or rats, really, it's just the thought that something filthy could come and nibble my leg as I'm sitting here at my computer that creeps me out.

Hmm, my MMV has been sitting on a shelf for a few weeks now, perhaps I should check it in case there's any unwanted visitors... See, you guys are making me paranoid! :laugh:

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The cities in Finland don't have much of a vermin problem, all we get here are seagulls and squirrels and stray bunnies. :tongue:

I'm not afraid of mice or rats, really, it's just the thought that something filthy could come and nibble my leg as I'm sitting here at my computer that creeps me out.

Hmm, my MMV has been sitting on a shelf for a few weeks now, perhaps I should check it in case there's any unwanted visitors... See, you guys are making me paranoid! :laugh:

Seagulls?! Better check for nests too while you're at it... :wacko:

I've never had a rat problem myself, though with a bunch of old, opened LEGO boxes stored under my bed I'm a little afraid to check what's moved in. :sceptic:

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My cat has knocked figures over and jumped on a MOC, but who can't forgive that face? :blush:

curris1.jpg_thumb.jpg

Edited by JCC1004

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Have you ever had ant problems before?

Ants are the worst. If it's really severe, sometimes, you'll wake up in the middle of the night to find ants crawling all over your face. :tongue: Okay then, to get back on topic, Lego lairs aren't suitable for basements, because that's where all the centipedes and spiders and mice hide. Lego bins and things are good places for them to hide.

2nd lesson of this topic: Don't have a Lago lair in your basement (or your garage)

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The cities in Finland don't have much of a vermin problem, all we get here are seagulls and squirrels and stray bunnies. :tongue:

Stray bunnies? :wacko:

Anyway, here in this small, very low-populated, town of mine, we don't have much of a pest problem except the occasional spider tip-toeing across the carpet. Thank goodness! :laugh:

Sure, if you leave homes abandoned for thirty years, you're sure to have some "leetle friends", but if you keep things clean, which most people around here don't, you'll be fine! :sweet:

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