On Mon, 14 Sep 2009 14:26:10 -0700 (PDT), mike
wrote:

On Sep 14, 2:18*pm, mm wrote:


Mike, the truth is I haven't used bags for years. *They don't want us
using bags, or even cans with bags but no lids, I thought because the
mice would get at it in the days before it's put out. *When it's out,
I've noticed seagulls, I think I saw, pecking through the bags. *(This
is Baltimore, which is 60 miles from the sea! *But there are flocks of
30 or 50 birds at a lot of big parking lots. *Maybe they only come
here on garbage day. )

Of course, maybe if the bags are well sealed, the mice and birds can't
tell what's inside.

No bags allowed?

They're allowed, but we're still supposed to have lids.

No wonder you have such a stink problem!

We don't have a stink problem.

You must
have to hose out your cans pretty regularly!

I throw almost nothing that is wet into it, and if I do have something
that could rot, I put that only in a plastic grocery bag. The can
does get dirty, but not much, and it dries.

I have birds around in the form of crows.

Maybe I meant crows. I havent' noticed them lately, so I forget what
they were. The parking lots definitely have seagulls.

As long is the bag is
closed, they don't bother it. Mice can't jump very high (~12"). I
wouldn't be suprised if garbage cans are the height they are just to
keep rats from jumping in.

Maybe mice aren't a problem. I live next to a stream, with a sewer
following the path of the stream, and there was once a rat in the
front yard. He was tough. I threw shoes at him but he didn't move.
Then I had no shoes.

And I couldn't go to work without my shoes.

I missed him with the shoes, and I think I went back inside for a few
minutes and when I came out, he was gone and I got my shoes. I don't
think he got into the garbage. It's just that I assume the whole
design is to keep out rats., maybe including the height like you say.
In 1970, when I hitchhiked to Costa Rica, a friend's mother let me put
all my stuff in her basement. I bought a galvanized garbage can or
two, and put the clothes in them, so the mice wouldn't bother my
stuff. She probably had no mice. It just occurs to me now, 40 years
later, that I might have offended her. I think I gave her the can
six months later.

It was a raccoon that oncce got in the garbage can, but that was more
than 10 years ago, and I probablay didn't put the lid on well, just
laid it on top. He was something though. I took flash pictures of
him, but the flashes didn't make him move.

Rodents are tough.