Mouse Research in Suffolk

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THE WHITE-MOUTHED DIGGER WASP A C T I V I T I E S C U R T A I L E D BY W E A T H E R ,

185

1952.

T h e unsettled weather which set in on the 12th of July and continued for the rest of the year brought a sudden and early end to the activities of this wasp. They made three attempts to continue their work between the 12th and 18th of July, but each time they were overcome by the cold winds. T h i s was shown in the evenings when I observed one or two crawling about and was able to pick them up. They eventually succumbed to this weather and none were observed after the 18th. HENRY J.

BOREHAM.

MOUSE RESEARCH IN SUFFOLK ALTHOUGH the house -mouse (Mus musculus L . ) is one of the best known mammals in the world, surprisingly little is known about its habits. Volumes have been written about laboratory strains used for physiological experiments, but until the outbreak of war in 1939, the wild mouse received almost no attention in this country. Then it became clear that large stocks of c o m and flour would have to be held for long periods, often in makeshift buildings from which mice could not be efficiently kept out. T h e rapid increase in numbers of mice living in these stores became alarming, and damage to ricks also became a problem of national importance. Throughout the war biological research on the mouse, and on the brown and ship rats, was carried out by the Bureau of Animal Population, but after 1945 this work was taken over by the Infestation Control Division of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. Members of the Society may be interested to learn that the Ministry's mouse research is partly being carried out at Rougham near Bury St. E d m u n d s in an ex-R.A.F. building. T h e s e buildings erected in East Anglia for the services have been put to some odd uses since the war, but surely one of the queerest conversions has been this development of a building designed for the training of bomber pilots into an official residence for a colony of wild house mice. Here the mice can be watched without disturbing them and information about their innate behaviour is being gained which may assist in designing intelligent control measures. T h e structure contains a ground floor room 20 feet Square and fifteen feet high, in which the mice are ailowed to roam about freely, and an upper room, fitted with Observation holes in the


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Mouse Research in Suffolk by Suffolk Naturalists' Society - Issuu