Getting Rid of Mice in my shop ?

[JerryK]

RatZapper...in the 70's I was working in a pressed metal plant [electrician]..some boring nights as we watched the roaches and mice wander around our crib...we would take plastic wireway scraps and weave bare copper wires zig-zaged across the bottom of them...and attach two 110 to 440 volt transformers [ backfed from the 110 sides to produce about 1700 volts ] to the wires. We put a pushbutton on the cord going to the outlet, and would zap the critters when they tried to walk thru our trap. Amazing how high they can jump, and how fast they can move, but did not kill many...

 

[sixdogs]

Search ratzapper on the internet and you will be amazed.

I.....

I did search this and they seem to be battery powered.
Anyone know of a plug-in model?

Incidentally, I have occasionally left an empty hydraulic fluid bucket around---with the lid removed--and mice seem to go out of their way to get into it and get stuck. Maybe the sweet smell?

 

[Gary Fowler]

I dont know if they have the same Ratzapper that was discussed here, but here in our mess hall they have those so called noise generators that rats and roaches are supposed to not stand the sound. One morning a few of us watched a large rat run around all over the back of the dining hall, then finally he crawled up a table, jumped up on a shelf and finally perched on top of the ratzapper, stood on his hind legs and sniffed the air, looked around for a few minutes and then crawled back down and ran into the kitchen. Ratzapper didnt seem to faze him at all. By the way, I havent seen a cat in Nigeria in the 2 years I have been here. I guess the big rats ate them.

 

[forgeblast]

I think the electronic item is the ultrasonic units that scare the mice. I found that i have to use these items.
1. glue traps, work great caught some big spiders this year too.
2. ultrasonic helps keeping some away.
3. i also throw some mothballs behind some of my workbenches.
I have heard that if you use the wrong type of pepermint, oil vs something else it will attract the mice.
I think im going to try the bucket trap, sounds good and easy and fast to clean.

 

[LetsRoll]

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/owning-operating/188379-keeping-out-mouse-2.html#post2163988

Picture of my mouse trap bucket
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/...1291086751-keeping-out-mouse-mouse-trap-1.jpg

Dead mice in the bucket
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/...1291086751-keeping-out-mouse-mouse-trap-2.jpg

More dead mice in the bucket
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/...1291086751-keeping-out-mouse-mouse-trap-3.jpg

I use green antifreeze to kill the mice and it wont freeze. Plus it controls odor as well.

 

[JD2720]

This bucket thing sounds like a winner. I think I'll give it a try in my out building.

When mice wanted to live in my little tractor, I used clove oil and peppermint oil. Mice do not like it, and will avoid it. A dozen or so drops of each on a golf ball size wad of cotton rag. I wrapped it with a couple of turns of copper wire, and secured it inside the tractor, behind the belly screen where the rascals would nest. Voila' no more mice and an unusual, but not unpleasant aroma. I just add a few drops of the oils now and then.

Buy the oils at a health food store or some pharmacies.

JD

 

[hr3]

Sixdogs Go to any hardware store and in the mouse trap section they have them,, Got my at lowes,, It's by Global ind. about 20 bucks,,

 

[Johnbro]

I did search this and they seem to be battery powered.
Anyone know of a plug-in model?

Incidentally, I have occasionally left an empty hydraulic fluid bucket around---with the lid removed--and mice seem to go out of their way to get into it and get stuck. Maybe the sweet smell?

The Ratzapper costs about $40 and one is all you need per building. It takes 4 D cell batteries, they last months and months. You put 6 pieces of dog kibble at the BACK of the zapper, put it on the floor or wherever you get mice and rats, and turn it on. The light flashes red if you've caught one. They don't even get to eat the bait, so all you have to do is dispose of the corpse and turn it back on. I've caught maybe a dozen mice and one rat in my shop so far. My neighbor has one in his well house and it works great.

the only place I haven't had luck with it was in my chicken coop--the rats were eating the eggs and not going for the kibble in the trap. So we got a sealed poison trap and that did it. It has a sealed lid, you put poison on some posts inside, and the holes to get in and out are too small for a chicken, kid, dog, cat, or whatever. We know it got rid of them because the egg production went way up. Now we don't know what the heck to do with all the fresh eggs!

 

[jimmer2880]

Get a cat man.

I used to hate them, not anymore.

I live in a hundred year old house........no mice

100% agree. Fought with mice for 10 years. Brought a cat home from the woods where I work. 3 days later was the last time I saw a mouse sign

 

[sixdogs]

Sixdogs Go to any hardware store and in the mouse trap section they have them,, Got my at lowes,, It's by Global ind. about 20 bucks,,

Thanks---I'm on it.
Great thread.

 

[wade simpson]

I tried the bucket, It froze and they ate all the peanut butter. I also tried the tractor exhaust thing. Will never know until the place starts to stink of dead mice. Mice won't chew on closed cell foam, So I finally went around my camp and foamed every crack I thought a mouse could crawl through. Then I set my traps as a backup. Been a year without mice.

I found they froze to death on the ice or half in half. Kinda a grisley death but evolution favored my relatives this time.
I have used that spray foam everywhere and the little buggers still get in.
I like the one where the guy had a big snake. We don't have big snakes up here or I would move one in.

A few years ago I woke with a mouse sitting on my chest..no more mr back to nature environmentalist. They started it(smile)

 

[Egon]

Note: some mouse droppings can give a hantavirus which can be deadly.

Use a gasoline engine if you go the exhaust route. The diesel will not work. :thumbsup:

The bucket thing works well.:thumbsup:

No idea about the ultra sonic emitters.

http://http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hl-vs/iyh-vsv/diseases-maladies/hantavirus-eng.php

The first case in Alberta happened just a few miles from where we lived.

 

[E/S]

"I have used that spray foam everywhere and the little buggers still get in."

I had the same problem with pack rats, my dad told me to put a layer of steel wool in the foam. They chewed through to the steel wool and stopped. This has worked for 14+ years.

E/S

 

[petegoud]

Whatever you do, don't poison them, unless you enjoy smelling rotting mice in walls, etc. Stick to traps, that way you can dispose of what you catch, and you'll know what you're trapping.

 

[yomax4]

I reluctantly bought a couple of those plug in units that Mice Supposedly hate. We they do.. I have never had a mouse since plugging them in. Pisses the Cat Off because he used to like a little mouse meat in his diet.

 

[Deere Dude]

Wire up about 20 or 25 pounds of C-4 military grade plastic explosive around your building, add another 5 or 10 if you have snow in your driveway. This will get rid of all problem critters off your property, and, clean the snow off your driveway at the same time.....

That sounds good, but where can I get some homeowners grade plastic explosive. I don't need the really good stuff.:laughing::laughing:

 

[Deere Dude]

Does anyone know if the Ratzapper will kill more than one at a time. If it kills one and another walks through an hour later, will it get that one to, or does it shut off after a kill.
Thanks

 

[buck12]

I reluctantly bought a couple of those plug in units that Mice Supposedly hate. We they do.. I have never had a mouse since plugging them in. Pisses the Cat Off because he used to like a little mouse meat in his diet.

My wife bought a couple and I laughed. They actually worked. She reminds me every so often that I was wrong

 

[Deere Dude]

The Ratzapper costs about $40 and one is all you need per building. It takes 4 D cell batteries, they last months and months. You put 6 pieces of dog kibble at the BACK of the zapper, put it on the floor or wherever you get mice and rats, and turn it on. The light flashes red if you've caught one. They don't even get to eat the bait, so all you have to do is dispose of the corpse and turn it back on. I've caught maybe a dozen mice and one rat in my shop so far. My neighbor has one in his well house and it works great.

the only place I haven't had luck with it was in my chicken coop--the rats were eating the eggs and not going for the kibble in the trap. So we got a sealed poison trap and that did it. It has a sealed lid, you put poison on some posts inside, and the holes to get in and out are too small for a chicken, kid, dog, cat, or whatever. We know it got rid of them because the egg production went way up. Now we don't know what the heck to do with all the fresh eggs!

Will the Ratzapper kill more mice if left unattended for a week or so. Or will it kill one and then quit until reset

 

[Mounted Madness]

If you don't like cats, get a terrier. Our Irish Terrier hates mice, and kills 'em any opportunity she has.

She and her brother Sam kept the mice from ruining our brand new lawn at our old place the first winter. My wife and I figured the 2 dogs were 'playing' when they'd dive into the snow and plow lengthy furrows with their muzzle, or stand stock still, listening, then going head first into a snow drift.

Come spring, I was looking at the front lawn and the FENCED back lawn and noted the tunnels that crisscrossed the front lawn. Voles, mice, whatever...they'd been chased out of the back yard...not one tunnel in the back, but along the outside perimeter of the fence, wherever the dogs couldn't reach them, the tunnels were there.

A mouse got into the house once, and the 2 of them were fit to be tied...in fact they had to be tied so that I could catch the little critter. It was cornered behind the stove. Her brother's gone now, but Gertie still keeps the yard clear of mice. We know she's been successful, usually comes into the house smacking and licking her lips...then an hour or so later she goes outside and pukes. Better then any cat that I've ever met.