General > General Technical Chat
Genius critter or human sabotage? Perplexing finding!
DrG:
--- Quote from: edy on December 14, 2020, 11:46:25 pm ---
I looked up "mouse food cache" and did find evidence that sometimes they will also store food, like squirrels. It's the only explanation for the photos I showed previously, since only something of that size could possibly have climbed into the drawer and created the little caches of food (although I am still shocked that it could have carried so many thin fragile strands of spaghetti into such tight spaces and lined them up... that's just unbelievable).
--- End quote ---
Many small rodents, including mice, will, in fact hoard food. It has been studied quite a bit...e.g.,
https://www.nature.com/articles/nprot.2006.171
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF03192618
I believe that mouse food hoarding behavior is different than squirrels, for example, in that their caches are close to their home nest.
I am less impressed by what a good job that they did than I am wondering how many were at work to get all that done. Time will tell I guess.
Here is a good pop article on it https://www.skedaddlewildlife.com/blog/mice-are-storing-food-for-winter/
james_s:
That sounds like exactly what happened when rats got into my mom's garage. She had extra food stored out there and they got into that, took the uncooked spaghetti out of the packages, ate most of a box of granola bars, they even nibbled into about a dozen cans of diet Coke and made a mess on the floor with that. Later I found they had chewed up a garden hose and left green vinyl sawdust on the floor, and they got into several boxes of documents and pulled a bunch of the insulation out of her attic. Peed all over the place and left droppings everywhere. Made a real mess by the time I discovered what had happened and started trapping them.
Kjelt:
--- Quote from: edy on December 14, 2020, 11:46:25 pm --- (although I am still shocked that it could have carried so many thin fragile strands of spaghetti into such tight spaces and lined them up... that's just unbelievable).
--- End quote ---
Yes indeed, the stuff I always saw from mice were always broken to transport fast and easily. Nests were made of all kind of stuff, paper, carton, pieces of cloths, the vilt of the hammers of the piano, all torn to little bits to make it fluffy.
It makes little sense for such a small rodent to transport the strands in their entirety so I can understand your doubt.
james_s:
When I was a kid mice got into our garage and stashed a bunch of dog food somewhere in the exhaust system of my dad's classic Jaguar. They also ripped a hole in the leather and pulled some of the stuffing out of one of the seats, which I remember he was very unhappy about. He found out about the stash after he started up the car and it backfired and shot a bunch of kibbles up the driveway.
coppercone2:
does that spaghetti not seem a bit long to be carried by a mouse?
From experience mouse = piles of shit. Like alot. Like Jurassic park triceratops shit. If you just found 1 mouse turd and all that its a little suspicious. Maybe they have toilet training near food stores (maybe to hide it from other mice or prevent themselves from being sick).
Check for damage to the door seals near the bottom leading to the area. A common entrance is a slightly bowed door. They will remove the gasket in a inconspicuous place near the bottom of the door and squeeze through even if it makes a seal that seems decent enough for a human.
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