A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2004 Mouse Nest in Plants????

Hi Everyone!
Now this is very bizarre....I bought several plants from a local nursery & brought them home. A few days later I bought all the pots to transfer them into.
I repotted about 7 of them with no problems, but then when I carefully pulled the anthurim out of it's pot.....OUT CAME A MOUSE!!!! Then another one and another one.. FIVE IN TOTAL!! all scattered on my floor... UGHHH! I was horrified as mice are my biggest phobia! All the soil was gone. The family of five were living in a cozy nest of roots in my plant! Needless to say the plant was chucked outside! Has anyone ever experienced anything like this or even heard of it?? I went back to nursery & they have never heard of this happening before. They were very cooperative & gave me two more plants & repotted them for me.
I'm hoping this is a very rare situation because now I am paranoid about transplanting anything!!
Thanks,
Isabella

wow! that must of been a big anthurium to hold 5 mice. i have never heard of anything like that, ever. i'm lucky if i get some grotesque centipede or roly-poly bug, but then again, i like mice. i'm sorry you had such a scare, and i think it's great that the nursery was so cooperative. so where did the mice go?

Hi Amy,
I don't think you're going to like this (since you like mice) but fortunately for me my husband was home and he... uh ... well let's just say he caught them all & disposed them.

hey, you gotta do what you gotta do, right? i have an irrational fear of cockroaches(over the edge, really), which is really convenient as i live in tucson. and if i found a cucaracha in one of my plants(let alone 5), it might put me off gardening for life! so, no worries, i emphathize with you completely.

I usually check out my favorite photo site every day, Wunderphotos, and one of my favorites is of a mouse who had just nibbled off a zinnia and is holding onto the main stem with the flower head in his other paw. Don't go if you don't like mice, but I thought he was adorable. Just don't like anything, whether mouse, snake, or bug appearing out of nowhere when I'm not expecting it! :p
Flower Power

It almost looks like it is faked, but here is a picture of him/her before successfully severing the flower part.
Mouse Nibbles

He's even cuter than Jerry of Tom and Jerry fame. Maybe similar to the Potter's Tailor of Glocester

Ann

I simply ADORED the picture of the mouse holding the flower stalk

G-Mom

I've never had that happen but I used to work in a pet store and we had 5 people come in over 3 days with 7 total little green anole lizards that they found in plants from White rose.. I guess whoever was shipping the plants from Florida wasn't looking very carefully, I can only imagine the number of them that went to other pet stores or were killed.

We set up a terrarium for them at the store and adopted them out free to good home Apparently it's become a yearly thing..