Mice

[RJohnson]

Paul,
I had the same problem with rats in my chicken feed. After reading about a solution on the internet, the problem disappeared. They suggested you take a piece of 2 inch PVC, one tee, and two end caps. Cut two pieces of pipe one foot long and one piece 3 feet long. Put the one foot pieces opposite each other with the end caps on and the three foot piece on the stem of the tee. i didn't even glue them together, just removed the end cap and added the rat bait, laid in the bottom of the chicken coop and within days started picking up dead rats. The chickens couldn't get to the bait and it was down low where the rats liked it.
Oh, by the way. I have a funny story to go along with my rat contrapsion. I had one get in the garage so I moved the device in there. Couple of days later I decided to check it.I looked in the end and saw a dead rat, so I brought it in the house and started to disassemble it to dump it in the trash. The next thing I know it comes shooting out the long end, just like a cannon./w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif. Scared the crap out of me and the wife is yelling, the rat terrier we have is going crazy/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif. Well the rat runs under the washing machine and I said to just leave it alone and I would lay the PVC pipe back down by the washer and just wait out the rat overnight. Well to make a long story short, the terrier was more persistent than me, he stay after the rat until he caught him.
Needless to say I do not bring the pipe in the house any more/w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif. But I don't have any more rat problems.

Randy

 

[GaryM]

That would be priceless to see on a video!

 

[hayden]

The mothballs will work great. I had mice nesting behind my instrument cluster and chewing on the wire harnesses. I stuffed a sock with moth balls, tied the end closed, and left it behind the instrument cluster, and no more mice.

 

[pfoxy]

That "rat feeder" sounds like a heck of an ideer. If I get re-invaded, I'll give it a try!

 

[Slamfire]

Get a gallon milk jug and cut a couple of holes the size of a quarter in opposite sides. Put rat poision in the bottom, nothing else can get in those little holes and it is cheaper than pvc. Vector control in CA recommends that bait holder.

 

[Phred]

Paul,

I basically agree that killing spiders and mice is not ideal since they all have a roll to play.
However, the blasted things are no fun when they take over your garage.
Bottom line is they must go and the sticky traps are real effective without the need for posion.
Spiders and mice in the wild (ie. not in my house) are great as far as I am concerned. Also the ones I have killed in my garage are a very small percentage (aproaching zero) of the population that exists in my area.

Bats are also great and I would like to encourage them, just not in my closets.

Fred

 

[lrunge]

Well I agree with Soundguy. A barn cat sure keeps the critters out. My cat keeps the barn critter free. I guess you can have a garage cat. I have a 100+ year old house and when winter hits the field mice find a way in. I just let a couple of cats in for a while and the mice are cleared. Of course, my wife doesn't like it when the cat plays with them for awhile before eating them or the crunching sound. Hey, they have to reap their rewards before they go back outside.

Lary

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Last night about an half an hour before dark the roosters came running through the shop like the devil was on their tail.

They were chasing the lead rooster. He had a mouthfull of mousie.

Good rooster!!!

Actually they're doing a great job of training me to give them pretzels when they crow. They'll come up and crow. If I give them a pretzel they shut up for awhile. Mostly until they get bored. Then they come back to crow and watch the human attempt chicken talk and toss pretzels.

No wonder they cackle.

 

[cchoate]

I have another solution that has worked well for me. If you have electricity in your barn try a electric repeller. It works by using sound that small rodents hate. I store bird seed in my shed, so the mice would be in there all the time. Since I starting using the repeller, not one mouse has entered. Never have to buy poision, dosen't affect larger animals (cats, dogs) and is very inexpensive. They are at Home Depot for around $15 for one that will cover 700 square feet.

 

[Sedgewood]

My solution to mice in the kitchen involved a garbage can, a knife, and peanut butter. Put the peanut butter on the tip of the knife, balance the knife out over the edge of the countertop with the garbage can under it. Wait a few minutes in the other room for the crash, the silence, then the boing... boing... boing... of mousie jumping for the sky. Then watch in astonishment as it boings right to the very lip of the can! I tossed 13 out one night. Or one 13 times.