Rats and mice

[JSM]

All,
Hello. I am hoping I can get some help/suggestions. Ever since I have had my tractor, I have been paranoid about rats/mice getting into it and destroying something. Well, this weekend, I found a nest and chewed through tubing on top of the engine.

I keep it in an old haybarn. I have gone through an entire bucket of the bait bars from tractor supply. I can literally put out 10-12 of them and they will be gone in a week. I then tried the pelletized bait. Put out 4 trays of it, gone in a week. I found most of the pelletized bait in the rat's nest on top of the engine. Unreal.

I have tried baiting the old victor mouse and rat traps with cheese and peanut butter. It will be gone overnight, without the traps getting set off. I think ants are doing that.

I tried gluing whole peanuts in the shell to the traps. The rats traps are untouched. The mouse traps get set off, the peanuts are stolen. Found two of them in the rats nest today.

I went and got more bait bars from tractor supply today as well as 2 rat glue traps. I put the bars in a location that forces the rats/mice to walk through the glue traps to get to them.

Does anyone have any suggestions? I am at my wits end with this (all of this is almost laughable, although after I found that line chewed through today, laughing would have been my last response).

Thanks in advance!

Joseph

 

[Clint S]

I use these or a variation. Making a 5 gal. bucket mouse trap. - YouTube
fill with non toxic antifreeze in the winter and they will drown. The most I have caught 15 in a week. Best part is keeps working and working and working.

 

[SSdoxie]

This may sound straging but worked for me. I got a rat infestation in the dog kennel. Started putting out the TSC bait bars and killed a few here and there. Then one day ny hired helper mentioned he had put the bait pail out and had signs of the rats trying to chew at the pail, I told him to keep baiting but leave the lid off the pail. They ate everyting in the pail, and nibbled on the distributed bait. End of story, cost about $80 for big pail of bait but they ate almost all of it and no signs of rats or mice.

 

[Buckgnarly]

Agree with the mouse "wheel of death"...
The Wheel of Death

Every Fall I battle those liitle pests, best traps I have come across are the ones with fake plastic cheese. I have the old metal ones baited with peanut butter right next to the fake ones, the mice go for the fake ones everytime! My traps from last year still pull them in, something about the plastic I guess. The plastic trigger has settings to make them super sensitive too.

Pre-Baited Mouse Trap | Victorｮ Easy Setｮ Mouse Trap Bundle, 20 Pack

 

[RaydaKub]

Hey JSM, :welcome: to TBN!

 

[vegaome]

I use a hair triggered number 1 long spring for rats, baited with peanut butter.

 

[JSM]

Thanks for the welcome! Thanks for the tips about the bucket trap as well. I am going to build one this week. Now, I just hope that my dealer doesn't charge me an arm and a leg for that line that got chewed through.......looks like it would cost $10 to make, but something makes me think there will be a 5x multiplier on the price.......

 

[gwdixon]

Keep up with the poison from Tractor Supply - buy the expensive stuff and lots of it. If it is disappearing then it is doing its work. Keep putting it out until it no longer disappears. It will take a while.

I used to raise hogs and you have not seen rats like that business will produce. Unfortunately, poison can't be used since the poisoned rats will be eaten by the hogs.

We would turn on a light at night and the floor of the pigpens would actually look like they were moving with the number of rats.

After getting out of the business something had to be done with the vermin. Poison blocks were the only solution. Now there is not a rat to be found.

To keep the poison from dogs or other animals use 4" plastic pipe. Use two, two foot long sections with an elbow in the middle. Then just put 3 or 4 of the small blocks in the "tunnel". Shaking it will tell you when it is empty. Place it where you know there are runs. It works.

The pelleted bait in the nest was actually what went through the vermin...and killed them.

Most poison blocks have a hole in the middle. Thread some bailing wire through it and wire it to the top of the engine where nests can be made.

 

[savageactor7]

LOL on the 'wheel of death'...I'm gonna try that.
We use moth balls up here in and around static equipment.

The mice don't seem to bother the stuff you use on a frequent basis.

 

[PineRidge]

For years we have put mothballs in the control boxes on condensing units that sit outside. The mothballs keep critters including chipmunks away from the wiring.