Bulgarian Cat And Rat Saga

The rats are still having it all their own way after the new trap system was installed. It just didn’t work. The rats just aren’t interested in circus acts before being drowned in the sunflower seed covered water so it was back with another plan and another trap.

There are many types of trap they use here including the conventional spring loaded baited plate, but a favourite is the sprung door which is snapped shut when the bait is tampered with inside the metal cage. We set up one each of these traps for a few nights to see if we could any success. The bait I feel it the secret so every day we change the food that lures them.

Chicken, salami, sirene, chocolate, sunflower seeds, cake where some of the food we tried and then success! Some Bulgarian salami on the bait the metal cage did the trick and got its first rat. We were at the farmhouse at the time so it was left for Baba to do the business of drowning it in a bucket of water.

When we arrived Baba had saved the drowned rat for us to see. Not a pretty sight and brought about more worries on assessment. This was not the rats we had seen scampering in and out of the garage, but a baby rat! Rats don’t just have a single ratlet but a litter, there must be many other and the parents still have the run of the place. This rat was so to speak a drop in the ocean!

We decided there and then that enough was enough we should use poison. Galia and Baba were against this as they argued that there would be the smell of rotting rats that they would have to put up with through the warm weather we are having right now. What was the alternative? Well there wasn’t a case to answer really for not putting down poison now. Me being the man of the house was asked to make the decision even though they weren’t that keen on the answer.

The poison laid that night and the following morning it had all disappeared. This was a good feeling as I topped up the little plastic trays for another night of toxic feasting in store.
That same day we met up with some family and were dragged into their home for some beer and salami. They live on the 4th floor of an apartment in Yambol centre, we also met their cat! Mmm, the idea of borrowing a cat seemed on so I asked. The next thing I knew was the cat had been packed away in a travel cage with some cat food in a plastic bag and we were off home with a cat that wasn’t too happy about being shoved around.

The cat spent the night in the yard in his confined space and the following morning we opened the cage ready for it to check the garage for vermin after we had cleared all the poison away. No poison had been eaten, probably because the cat was in the area. As the door opened the cat sprung out scaled an 8-foot wall and landed in next doors driveway where a big guard dog was waiting. All we could hear was continuous barking and hissing.

As we ventured next door there was the confrontation, the dog wanting to attack but every time he when near the cat hissed and the dog stopped. That was how it was for quite a while. We managed to get the dog away, but the cat was now wild and would not let us anywhere near it. I got clawed and bitten trying to get the cat back into the travel cage. The only answer now was to get the owner, who we rung. He was due to arrive lunchtime and did. The cat was now in the box after the owner did the business and he was to collect it after work later that day.

The evening ended up with a party as the family came to collect the cat. I was a good idea but just didn’t’ work with this particular cat. We all got together to tell the story and catch up with other news. An excuse to bring out the Rakia, home grown salad from the factory farm picked earlier in the day and another sirene dish that I will have to write up about it was that good.

So more poison put down in the garage before bedtime as we have now run out of ideas. It should do the job as it does in the farmhouse where it is laid down permanently in hidden areas. No problems at all there.

Skalitsa Snake Talk

You see them on the Bulgarian roads you here stories about them every day in the village and to be quite honest most Bulgarians absolutely hate them. Were are talking about snakes. There are many varieties of snakes in Bulgaria, but two species are poison. Most that are seen are the non-venomous ones but they are frightening as they can grow to over two metres in length.

Now the reason I’m talking about snakes is that this last weekend we had our beloved neighbours Rosa and Sacho to sit with us in the garden on this very warm Saturday night. They work so hard it makes you feel guilty about stopping working yourself at around 8:00 in the evening! It is summer time and the work clock starts at 5:30 and finishes at around 9:00 in the evening. If you know about Bulgarians and what they call work then you know it’s not 100 mph throughout that time, but just doing things either at work or on the farm, it the duration that kills not the effort.

They agreed to come around at 21:00 but I knew that was not going to happen. So, I started some kyufte (minced hamburgers) on the barbeque at exactly 9:00 and Galia started making the salad at 9:30 both of us knowing that we had another hour before they turned up. Well I was wrong they turned up at 10:10, they were ten minutes late from their Bulgarian 9:00.

The talking eating and drinking commenced for the rest of the evening but the dominating talk was about snakes.

Rosa is absolutely petrified of snakes; no matter how big or small venomous or non-venomous she is 'out of her pram' just at the mention of them. Then there’s Sacho who just shrugs the fear by putting his head back and doing the traditional Bulgarian call of ‘Aaaaaaayyyyyy!’ This means lots of things but in this case because it wasn’t a very convincing call I know he’s not keen on snakes either.

I’ve seen him before when confronted with one, he is a nervous wreck but his Bulgarian manhood is at stake as he tried to defend his fearlessness with them. We often joke about the snakes that Rosa is so scared off and when the topic comes up, and it does quite often, we ask whether it is big enough for barbeques doing the slicing action with our hands. Each time Rosa never finds this funny but we still say it every time with both Sacho and myself cracking up.

Today Rosa found a very big snake in her house. Sacho was summoned and on the scene within minutes but on their return the snakes had disappeared. This snake had been in another neighbours house earlier in the day. This was known as Rosa described the snake as being over two metres in length and slightly blood stained around the head, she though it had just finished a meal. This was not the case as Sacho was called to help at the neighbour’s house, in the kitchen; they were just as scared as Rosa.

Sacho plucked up the courage to get a long stick and whack it a few times to stun it and grab hold of its tail and drag it outside. Then in a lasso fashion he tossed it into the field giving actions sitting down nearly hitting Rosa sitting next to him in the process as he explained.

This thin man who stood well over 6 feet high, then stood up and put his hand another half a metre above his head showing how long this snake was. Just like showing me how big the fish he caught last year that had apparently shrunk in during the freezing process in his chest freezer a few days later, I knew this snake might be a bit smaller than he made out.

Mice in Bulgaria - Revisited

Mice in Bulgaria - Revisited

Mice in Bulgaria revisited has a double meaning. You will never really get rid of mice in Bulgaria, especially in the Bulgarian country regions. Once one clan of mice have gone other clans of mice will revisit. Whether they stay of not is down to the surroundings and environment, just like house Bulgarian hunting really.

Bulgarians in the main, especially in village locations of Bulgaria live with the mice and look at it as a minor inconvenience. They do try and take sensible steps with traps and poison but the odd mouse or two is not deemed a major problem. They accept that mice are a part an parcel of their living space, especially in the village locations and live not quite happily alongside them but content enough in any case. Rats are a different story and are looked upon in a very different light, this requires another chapter.

Mice in Bulgaria are very simple creatures and you have to put yourself into their frame of mind before knowing how to cope with them. Survival is the key element, not only from the point of an individual mouse but from a mice family perspective.

Imagine you're a mouse just out of nappies on your own with hormones running wild.... what do you need? Well let's list a few things for starters.

A warm, safe and draught free home
A food supply
A water supply
A family

This short list of basic requirements is not to dissimilar from our own needs therefore the problem of ridding you house of mice give us a slight edge as to changing the environment they would favour..

The first step it to ensure that all food in the house is not left out and floors are kept clean and free from food. There is no particular favourite place for mice in houses as each room has its own attractions.

The kitchen or kitchen/dining room it well known by mice for scraps of food or plentiful supplies from cupboards that don't have stocks containerized effectively. Tupperware and glass containers are the answer, not only does it prevent mice gnawing away at cardboard based containers it helps keep the food stocks fresher for longer as well. I invariably use these plastic or glass containers to store food direct they are bought and stored away, all recycled of course!.

Kitchen draws are another favourite haunt where mice can find resources they need for their home. Drawers or cupboards where tea towels or aprons are kept should also be stored away thoughtfully and checked periodically. Mice look upon this as a good bedding or bedding material if not there making the drawer their home, for their own homes elsewhere. If the draw is not opened for a couple of weeks that is time enough for a generation of mice to have been brought into this world with the help of your tea towel/apron material. Of course the likelihood of this is less if the food source in the kitchen has been sealed off in the first place.

Bread bins seem like an obvious and practical place to store bread but many types are not mice proof and the remains of crumbs invariably stay there for ages. If you do get a bread bin try and get an actual bin with a tight fitting lid and not a flap designed one. Make a habit of tapping out old bread crumbs for your for your neighbour's chickens each time a new loaf is placed in.

Keep plastic bags stored in a containers with a sealed top, plastic is a favourite bedding material for with the added bonus sometimes of traces of food still left in the bags, i.e. bread crumbs, etc. Not good tactics for putting mice off from coming in.

Bedrooms are another good place to find bedding naturally, it a bedroom! But not just for us, men and mice alike want the best conditions for our homes and beds. Again look in the bedroom drawers and wardrobe shelves as sometimes the mice gain entry from the back of the furniture where the material is maybe just hardboard or plywood, easily nibbled for entry.

Mice can squeeze through the most minute gaps and using filler to seal all the gaps can reduce risks, a great deal needed in the case of many Bulgarian styled rooms. Again this is another problem that mice will look at an seek alternative easier entry points elsewhere.

You need to bare in mind that mice will also seek new places to visit and search for suitable places that can provide the list mentioned earlier. So even though you may not have mice now it is always going to be open for investigation at a later date. The secret is to keep one step ahead and make the environment unattractive to inquisitive mice on their constant quest for raising their families.

Bathrooms and toilets are usually mice free as they are usually tiled and free from wood based fitting and food isn't usually found there unless you leave traces dropped eating your meals on the toilet. So there shouldn't really be any worried there. Towels and spare toilet rolls stored usually are untouched but there could be a problem in airing cupboards where these are sometime kept, especially int he winter. Put yourself in their position, what a lovely place to raise a family and worth doing a bit of commuting for food and water.

Living rooms are also a favourite haunt for mice, sofas and settees are sometimes looked as a either a place to nest within or just a supply of material, perhaps the foam stuffing or cotton based covers. These are attacked from the back with the runways along the skirting board and even in the wall paneling. Again sealing the gaps that they can gain access is a option and making sure that the seating areas do not have dropped food laying behind and under the cushions. We all know how this can sometimes be overlooked. When vacuuming alway make a point of covering the settees and sofa cushion confines.

Use the long adapter extension that comes with the vacuum to get into the crevices that food (and money form visitors if you're lucky) hide.

If you have dogs or cats this doesn't always prevent mice in fact in many cases attracts them! Why? well there are so many instances where dog or cat food is left out only to attract the mice naturally of course. There is a free food source just waiting, just think of 'Tom and Jerry' and you will see why this is so, Tom is always around but so is Jerry, the food source is always there!

As is the case of dogs... as ex pats dogs (and cats) in the home means pet food in the home on the kitchen floor and lays there for hours on end. Even with the bowl empty there is sure to the traces of food left, more than enough to satisfy a few mice fro an evenings feed. The secret is to feed the animals and take away, clean and store the bowl until next feeding time. Your pets soon learn that feed time comes and goes at certain time during the day, or even more Bulgarian, feed your pets outside away from the house. Water of course should always be available.

Just a short point about traps, they don't work, they are not sensitive enough, precarious to use and quite often just attract the mice with the food bait which is taken off the trap and their there the next day looking for more! Used outside, it catches hedgehogs, sparrows and other non vermin creatures in but no mice!

Moving on, it remains that all these procedures may still not guarantee your house being visited by mice and that where the insurance plan comes into play. Not pleasant but the trump card is the poison!

Place mouse poison at all times in places where mice would tend to investigate. Under kitchen drawers, behind fridges and freezers and right at the back of food cupboards at ground level in the kitchen. In the bedrooms, under the bed, behind wardrobes and dressing tables. In the living area behind the sofa and cabinets also behind hi-fi units with trailing wires, another favourite bedding source for mice. finally at the back of the airing cupboard if you have one.

Finally keep some poison laid out in the attic, again bedding there is usually very attractive to mice and just another precaution in place.

There is a a whole new chapter to the problem of mice in garages, outbuilding and livestock areas and this actually does link up with mice in the home. A degree of mice in these places is the norm it is just a case of laying the poison out of the reach of domestic pets. In my garage I use a couple of heavy Bulgarian slates leaning again the wall with poison behind. They cannot be moved by cats and solely accessible by the vermin. this was done in the barn where the hay and straw is kept, checked once a week and topped up if necessary and it works for me.

Can I also point out that this out of home system works very well for rats and many time the poison bait has suddenly completely disappeared but I am safe in the knowledge that this has been taken away by mice or rats and a generation will not return. But there will always be this search by other vermin on their search for suitable places to live.

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Mice! - In Bulgaria

In Bulgaria, how do you get rid of mice in the house?
A cat, traps, poison or other methods unknown. A cat is a no, no in the home and the BG traps are too big an not sensitive enough for the wee mice that infest the house. Poison had to be resorted to and the wonder of whether there is another method unknown to me at present that could be used. Every house I know has mice problems right now! Any ideas?

www.bulgarianrealestateonline.com

www.ourbulgarianworld.com

www.self-catering-breaks.com/Properties/Prop42149.htm