Mice v Beans

Alan4711

Can anyone explain how the parrafin or any other deterent works for beans versus mice as we have lost the second 2 rows to these pests ,they eat the actual seeds in the ground, I was told an old remedy was parrifin ,if so how long does one soak them for please,many thanks Alan/Kate

Pete.8

I seem to recall my Dad soaking the seeds in a mix of paraffin and red lead!
It's not something I'd do now.
I sow mine in pots and when they're big enough I plant them out - then it's just pigeons and slugs to worry about

Nanny Beach

I never direct sow either. We have mice in our top green house,thanks to our neighbour,can't put peas, beans, sweet corn, sunflowers in there. Luckily they haven't got as far as my bottom green house in the veg plot they get planted out at about 6 inches high and nothing else eats them then.

Buttercupdays

I have mice in my greenhouse, so I stand anything vulnerable, like peas, beans and it now seems, cosmos, on a table or stool that they cannot climb or reach by jumping.

It is probably only a matter of time before they work out a way to reach them. Parachute maybe?

raisingirl

I always start mine in modules too, on a metal grille which is three feet off the floor on a metal frame. Stops both mice and slugs - so far. The slugs have made an attempt at climbing the polytunnel walls and dropping onto them but they are easy to pick off the walls so so far I haven't lost too many that way. I think the mice may have a plan involving very small ladders.

The only direct sown remedy I've tried that worked was my grandfather's trick of sowing peas and then laying pieces of gorse on top of them before covering them over. I don't have a handy gorse bush here but it did work the one year I tried it.

StephenSouthwest

holly over the beans under the soil sometimes works...

Buttercupdays

@raisingirl I might try that one - there's some gorse bushes only a short walk away at the end of the sheep field!

Last year and again this year though, I think it is the uncertain weather that is the problem, as in the past I've just bunged peas in and left them to get on with it until it was time to pick them. It has been too dry at the wrong time and germination has only been sporadic and growth very slow.

Nanny Beach

Mine were on metal staging,that didn't stop the mice getting up there,even with lids on the seed trays

Alan4711

many thanks for the comments (I,m not alone in this problem then) I have for the 4th time now re-sown the beans BUT in the greenhouse as advised ,many tars for that, in toilet rolls which worked very well for the sugar snap peas, I did purchase 12 mice traps for £7 of the net and keep them handy with a jar of peanut butter just in case, right many thanks for all the advice, bye the way Sugar Ann suger snaps are many and sweet very good for stirfry. 

Busy-Lizzie

My mother used to put them in paraffin for about 5 mins before sowing, just enough to make them smell nasty. I tried it once for peas and it worked.

Alan4711

thanks Busy-Lizzaie,Alan