All our married life Peter and I have liked a nice car. For some people it’s an exotic foreign holiday, for others eating out at fancy restaurants, but for us it has always been owning a good car. Our current one is a Mazda MX5 and we both love it to bits, in fact it’s the 4th MX5 we’ve owned in the the last 20 years, and this particular one will celebrate it’s 3rd birthday in a couple of weeks time.

Being almost 3 years old it is now due for it’s first M.O.T, and just in case you think I’m turning into Jeremy Clarkson, don’t worry I’m not. Read on and I’ll explain why.

As the car is now out of warranty, we no longer felt tied in to the dealer for servicing etc. so decided to get the M.O.T and annual service carried out by the chap across the road who looks after my mower.

When he brought it back he said all was well, but did have a word of warning. ” I think you should get a mouse trap for your garage”. It seems that during the winter a mouse has been chewing away at the sound proofing insulation  under the bonnet and has used it to make a nest in the engine.

The idea of a mouse in the garage was not a surprise, as he had already had a go at eating his way through the seat on my lawnmower, but this was more serious. When he ran out of insulation he would move on to wires and rubber hoses  etc. which my neighbour said could be very expensive. I know from my sister’s similar experience a couple of winters ago, that they found it very, very expensive, when a mouse ate through the fuel pipe in their cars engine.

Then there’s the safety aspect. Suppose you’re driving on the road, or God forbid the motorway, and a mouse-weakened part failed? It could prove fatal, so as much as I hate killing things I’m afraid this was too serious to ignore.

We considered a humane trap, but to be honest, there would be nothing to stop him or his friends returning. So the very hard decision was made to use rat poison.

We had a rat problem in the winter of 2008/2009 and about 12 months later we thought it was starting again. I went out and bought some rat poison, but never actually used it as the rat moved on of his own accord.

I put the packet of rat poison, un-opened in the shed and thought no more about it until today. Imagine my surprise when I went to get it.

The top of the box was nibbled and once inside I discovered that all 3 sachets had also been nibbled and in fact 2 of them were completely empty. The 3rd was almost empty.

It really upset me to think that the poor mice were so desperate for food during the harsh winter that they were eating  rat poison out of the box.

I hate killing things, and will only do it when absolutely necessary. I’m happy for mice to live in my shed and would never harm them there, but I draw the line at them eating my car. As a result I feel pretty rotten about things and the next rat poison I buy will be stored in a screw top jar.