Well anyway i've been getting on top of the problem.Thanks for your advice on ''Talon'' cryptocarpa, works a treat! Unfortunately couldnt use in the house where the cheeky varmits get warm by my heating pad, and dance on my seedlings. So i have been patiently baiting the old fashioned type traps which week after week have just been providing a free feed ,until they eventually they gain enough weight to set off the trap. I have been putting their carcasses with my cacti as a warning to other mieces, and to give organic fertilizer when it breaks down..hehe...

lately almost everyday i come home to find several more nibbles, usually on tbm's and bridgesii's. no aborted growth yet but the missing chunks are getting bigger and theres seemingly more each day.
ive been thinking it was slugs or snails maybe.. there's plenty of earwigs around too. but no, its gotta be mice.
i'm off to get some 'Talon' then! i assume this is a poison, but hey mice: this is just not cool.

Blowng,

I don't think leaving the dead mice in your cacti pots is a good idea. I think it would encourage bacteria, bugs and pests ?

Best mouse trap I have ever used was a 'humane' trap I got from eBay, basically a long tube which tilts at the back when mousey runs in and the lid snaps shut. You can put a hole in the lid (I did) if you don't want to kill them.
Everyone told me they would come back because I let them out down the street, but they never did. I am sure being trapped in a dark box for hours would put them off.
Just a thought for anyone who doesn't like using poison.

Okay, weird thing happened.
I put down some snail pellets in greenhouse, came back the following morning.
All snailpellets gone.
mouse droppings everywhere.
For a second I thought maybe I got rid of another problem viz. mice,
my rationale being; metaldehyde can't be good for a tiny mammal, I remember watching RSPCA animal rescue and some dog consumed a whole box of snailbaits and died, and so a small rodent's body would therefore have a very low tolerance.
alas
quick Google:
''Rodents (rats and mice) eat slug baits and seem to have a high tolerance to metaldehyde [slug baits].'' so I'm feeding him lol.

I've been having issues with rats recently. They've taken chunks out of several Lithops, usually ending with them dying, as well as having eaten a whole Lithops. Also took a bite out of a Lophophora williamsii, but never went back. Had to get all my plants up high.

Anyway, I've had enough of them, both of them attacking my plants and eating making a mess throughout the house. It's war! I really don't want to resort to poison though, as it's a slow and painful death. I tried the trap Olga mentioned, but they didn't bother (probably because they're rats, not mice). Then I tried a snap trap. Got one large male, but not the little bastard that's been getting into the house. None of the others have fallen for it. So now I've got two humane cage traps off Ebay. Hopefully they'll work...

Try and find out what they like to eat mate (besides the cacti) Yeah the internal bleeding and slow horrible death thing bothers me.
Mine were in the house and they attacked the biscuits all the time, so we actually baited with chocolate. Worked really well. The traps I used were not rat-sized, those cage traps sound like the thing.
I am still finding it bizarre they would even want to eat cacti

Just in case anyone is interested this is the one I purchased on eBay, item number 140361520286.

What original fertilisers you come up with blowng!
emus, snakes, mice, guinea pigs, what next? lol.
Definitely seems to work for you.

Add me to the list of people at war with mice.

I have noticed they prefer Astrophytum asterias ( about 10 plants munched)


and not so much but still keen on Lophophora. (15 – 20 but
not as much damage as the astros.)

Tomorrow I go against my own rules and bring out the poison.

ick!

It's the only way, unless you want to play the never ending ''put the bait on a mouse trap'' game lol, my mice were living inside the compost bin out the back , a few generations of them ...so I placed the bait in there safe from the pets .They haven't come back yet.

I went out this morning and the greenhouse has a bad slug/snail problem too.

I couldn't believe the amount of damage just done overnight. I'm hoping both pests will soon be in the past...

i have recently had a problem with mice and discovered by accident an humane trap which seems to work every time. All i do is cut about a 3cm opening in a chip packet ( i prefer to use toobs they love them ) then place on the bench or where ever the mice are causing a problem. go back and check regularly making sure you are in stealth mode... then when you hear them rustling away in the packet simply karate chop the opening and whalla!!! then its just a matter of decideing how you are going to dispose of them. BOL

Thats funny i had a problem with mice or more my dog chasing them a running over all my haworthias so i fenced of this area in three weeks if found four half eaten mice thanks to my dog. And if had no more mice problems.American staffy she loves mice birds or anything that moves.