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The secret to a squeaky clean shed - 26th January 2024

A fastidious door mouse has been captured on film bringing order to an untidy workbench in a Welsh garden shed. The shed’s owner, pensioner Rodney Holbrook, made the discovery while investigating the mysterious disappearance of peanuts intended as bird feed.

Rodney Holbrook: “I noticed the nuts that was in the box that I had in there had suddenly disappeared. And I thought well I haven’t used them to feed the birds. So I thought I’ll put some nuts back in again. Next morning, the nuts were gone again. Strange. Someone’s pinching the peanuts.”

Determined to apprehend the peanut pincher, Holbrook, an amateur wildlife photographer, rigged up a night vision camera and motion sensor, hoping the culprit would show their face.

Rodney Holbrook: “When I looked at the uh– at the videos I captured, I thought that is amazing. Even though I’d seen it before, similar to it in uh, in uh, 2019. I could not believe this is happening again. I really could not. It was amazing.”

Holbrook’s astounded that this is his second encounter with a rodent that keeps things shipshape, having filmed a mouse in England organising a pal’s shed years earlier. He’s decided to distinguish between the two diligent tidiers by assigning his own visitor the moniker “The Welsh Tidy Mouse”.

The seemingly indefatigable door mouse has proven an assiduous tidier, devoted to leaving Holbrook’s workspace squeaky clean night after night. Piling clothes pegs, cable ties, scraps of paper and plant pot trays into the peanut box, it leaves the workbench spotless. When asked what motivates this nocturnal housekeeping, Holbrook has a theory.

Rodney Holbrook: “It’s picking up all the items on the deh- on the uh, on the uh top there, to hide the nuts. Hide the peanuts. I think it’s, it’s actually just hiding them from any other mice. So he, he’s kinda saying that’s mine peanuts. So you’re not– no one else is having them.”

Footage captured by Holbrook’s been taken up by press agencies globally, giving Rodney and his wife immense satisfaction that the tidy mouse has cut through the doom and gloom of more typical news stories. And Holbrook reports that their bashful janitor’s been rightfully compensated.

Rodney Holbrook: “It’s a bit of a joke to say this, but I pay him peanuts. Which ain’t a lot. But I pay him peanuts.”