Serving up the truth about Wimbledon donating balls as new homes for threatened harvest mice
Claim:
Some of the 55,000 balls used during the Wimbledon tennis tournament are annually upcycled into homes for threatened harvest mice.
Rating:
Rating: Outdated
As the annual Wimbledon tennis championships played out from June to July in 2025, social media users claimed that the thousands of tennis balls used at the tournament get second lives as homes for tiny mice facing habitat loss.
For example, one Instagram user shared an image (archived) with text that read: “55,000 tennis balls are turned into homes for harvest mice after Wimbledon.”
The caption of the post, which had amassed nearly 20,000 likes as of this writing, claimed that the balls “are donated to conservation groups” that cut out small entrances for the mice to enter in “grassy meadows and hedgerows.”
Similar iterations of the rumor appeared on Facebook (archived) and Reddit (archived).
In short, while Wimbledon has previously donated some of its tennis balls for conservation groups to use as homes for harvest mice, these donations appear to have been one-offs. For this reason, we have rated this claim as outdated.
The oldest source for the alleged donation appeared to come from a 2001 BBC article, which at the time stated that some of the tournament’s 36,000 tennis balls were donated to The Wildlife Trusts — a British federation of wildlife conservation charities — to be recycled as homes for harvest mice. A 2003 BBC article featured a small follow-up note to that story, stating that Wimbledon had donated 350 tennis balls to The Wildlife Trusts two years earlier.
Snopes contacted The Wildlife Trusts and Wimbledon to confirm if the tournament has continued to make such donations and, if so, for details about what is included in them. A spokesperson for The Wildlife Trusts said: “Unfortunately, the tennis ball story is very out of date as we haven’t worked with Wimbledon in this way for some time.” Similarly, a Wimbledon spokesperson confirmed that the story about harvest mice was an old one.
In 2011, The Guardian newspaper reported that Wimbledon again donated tennis balls to house mice, this time at the request of an aquarium in northern England. The Guardian did not say how many tennis balls were donated at the time.
It was not possible to find more recent articles about the tournament making such donations, although other tennis clubs in the U.K. have reportedly gifted tennis balls for the same purpose.
While not endangered globally, harvest mice are considered “Near Threatened” in the U.K., according to the Mammal Society, a British charity. Harvest mice are Britain’s smallest rodent, which means a tennis ball with a hole cut into it can be a place for the mice to rest safe from their predators.
During the tournament, Wimbledon sells its used tennis balls on-site, and the proceeds go to the Wimbledon Foundation, its charity organization. Wimbledon has been selling its used tennis balls for the last several years, according to the tournament’s spokesperson.
Wimbledon’s website did not include any information on the fate of unused and unsold tennis balls, but Keith Prowse, a sports hospitality company that partners with Wimbledon, said they are donated or recycled in the weeks and months after the tournament finishes. Keith Prowse’s website added: “Previously, some of the balls have been donated to the UK Wildlife Trust who cut them up and used them to make homes for harvest mice!”
Sources:
“Harvest Mouse.” Mammal Society, mammal.org.uk/british-mammals/harvest-mouse. Accessed 16 July 2025.
“Having a Ball at Wimbledon!” BBC, 2003, news.bbc.co.uk/sportacademy/hi/sa/tennis/features/newsid_2997000/2997504.stm. Accessed 16 July 2025.
“‘New Balls, Please’ for Mice Homes.” BBC, 25 June 2001, news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/1406612.stm. Accessed 16 July 2025.
“The Championships, Wimbledon Facts and Figures.” Wimbledon.com, www.wimbledon.com/en_GB/atoz/faq_and_facts_and_figures.html. Accessed 16 July 2025.
Wainwright, Martin. “What Happens to Wimbledon’s Used Balls? Ask Cumbria’s Mice.” The Guardian, 29 June 2011, www.theguardian.com/uk/the-northerner/2011/jun/29/wimbledon-tennis-balls-lakes-aquarium-mice-slazenger-barnsley. Accessed 16 July 2025.
“Watermead County Park Mice to Live in Tennis Balls.” BBC, 26 Apr. 2013, www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-leicestershire-22314712. Accessed 16 July 2025.
“What Happens Post Wimbledon | Tennis | Keith Prowse.” Www.keithprowse.co.uk, 16 Aug. 2022, www.keithprowse.co.uk/news-and-blog/2022/08/16/what-happens-post-wimbledon/. Accessed 16 July 2025.
