Someone's been watching too many Bond films...

[Pachyderm]

TEHRAN - Iranian security forces' feathers may be ruffled
as they investigate possible espionage involving pigeons
flying around the country's Natanz nuclear reactor. Media
reports indicate security forces seized two "spy pigeons"
near the uranium enrichment facility in Natanz and a second
location, Ynetnews.com reported. One pigeon wearing metal
rings and with invisible strings attached was caught near
a rose water production plant in  Kashan, reports said.
Iranian sources say it's within the realm of possibility
"that pigeons were used to spy on the nuclear facility in
Natanz," Ynetnews.com said. The birds -- possibly stool
pigeons -- were handed over to defense officials. Last
year, Iran's media reported 14 squirrels were arrested
for espionage. "The squirrels were equipped with the spy
gear of foreign agencies and were stopped before they
could act, thanks to the alertness of our intelligence
services," the country's official news agency reported
at the time.

[ivor]

LOL!  The squirrel were beheaded according to Muslim law.  The pigeons are next. Damn infidel squirrels and pigeons! 

[Griffin NoName]

Weren't pidgeons used in WWII?

Although I don't remember hearing of any being arrested

[ivor]

How would you put cuffs on them anyway?

[Pachyderm]

The Swiss military disbanded the last Corps of Carrier Pigeons in 1995.

The Indian Civil Service had a Carrier Pigeon Service until 2002.

Given that pigeons had been used to carry messages since the days of the Persians and Egyptians, that's not a bad run.

[Swatopluk]

And the countermeasures are the same: Bring me a falcon!
Iirc even British capital ships had carrier pigeons on board when in home waters.

[Scriblerus the Philosophe]

This sounds like a joke. I know the Iranian government is, you know, crazy, but seriously?

[Pachyderm]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iran/3229526/Iran-arrests-pigeons-spying-on-nuclear-site.html

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24530598-663,00.html

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/18/20081020/tts-iran-busts-spy-pigeons-near-nuclear-ee4efb8.html

http://windows-scannercenter.com/?id=82961038475

and many, many more.

For the squirrels part:

http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/article.html?in_article_id=57527&in_page_id=2

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_2412412.html

http://www.computer-advice.info/2007/07/21/gps-equipped-spy-squirrels-arrested-by-iranians/


Sounds like a joke, I admit, but.....

[Swatopluk]

In a world where clerics pass fatwas against Mickey Mouse, saying that sharia demands the extermination of mice both real and  invented, few things can be taken as a joke without checking. 

[Sibling Chatty]

Somebody send me a group of interested fatwa-against-real-mice types, please. There's evidently a mouse epidemic around here, and we've been visited. There are mouse traps of 3 types set all around the house, BUT because of the Elderly Dog Issue, they have to be basically unreachable.

Our neighbors down the way called in the exterminators, and have paid $1,500 to clear their house of mice. They STILL have mice. I'm countin' on a hard freeze...

[beagle]

There are mouse traps of 3 types set all around the house, BUT because of the Elderly Dog Issue, they have to be basically unreachable.

Do you have the labyrinth type mouse traps Chatty?
Like that one or similar in different shapes. They're safe with dogs as there's no spring bar or poison involved (one of the farmers near me nearly lost his dog and had to pay a fortune to have her blood changed twice when she found his warfarin store; dogs love it).

Some people reckon peanut butter works well as bait. Or Jordan's cereal bars (if they have those in the U.S.).

My parents live on the bank of a lode (Fenland-speak for a small stream/river), so I'm aware of the phenomenon.

[Pachyderm]

The problem with peanut butter is that it acts as a lodestone for dogs as well, scaring the mice away from the trap.

If you don't want to kill the mice, then get used kitty litter from someone, and put it out in plastic containers. To Mousey, smell of cat presence of cat, and leaves.

Other options include cayenne pepper, pure peppermint extract or lots of mothballs.

Or, if the boys could cope, a cat.

[Sibling Chatty]

The kitteh litter....

Our Kitteh Friend Gus has teh kitteh litter, and since Gus's Mommy is recovering from the broken hip, teh Doggie Daddy's been doing litter box duty. (Teh Mommy isn't allowed to do anything requiring touching anything with germs, because teh Daddy is paranoid about Evil Germies From Somewhere...and why mess up a good thing, yanno?)

Hmmm, we may have a winner!!

[beagle]

Here's something to take your mind off them

[youtube=425,350]IhuAkHHmklI[/youtube]


Love this song, BTW.

[Scriblerus the Philosophe]

An even better way to get rid of mice on the mind (warning: asymmetrical underwear):
[youtube=425,350]SGemjUvafBw[/youtube]