Rat/ Mouse poop

[68vitesse]

Just spent some time trying to clear up one of my sheds, anyone know of a method for keeping the little blighters out. Not possible to seal all openings against them and to many bits for ultrasonic scarers, cats not an option.

At least I found things I forgot I had but will probably forget them again.

Regards

Paul

[Colin Lindsay]

They won't go near traps; I know as I've three in the stable and they're still sitting there, baited with peanut butter, chocolate sauce and raspberry jam. I used poison bait which may, or may not, have worked.

I cleaned the tack store out at the start of the week and they'd nibbled everything, even the hose pipe was like a sprinkler. Despite clearing the room right down to the bare floor we never saw one but droppings were everywhere - maybe the poison has worked hence the lack of live ones, but no bodies either. They were feeding on the horse feed and nesting in the bales of haylage, but it's all been cleaned out now and the feed is in sealed bins. I used gallons of Jeyes fluid on everything to disinfect it, so it's all fresh and clean but waiting for them to come back.

Thankfully the garage is quite far from that and there's nothing edible in it.

[NonMember]

6 minutes ago, Colin Lindsay said:

Thankfully the garage is quite far from that and there's nothing edible in it.

Tell that to the mice round here! They think fuel hose is edible, the hose on the PI idle air linkage was apparently delicious, insulation of roof lamp wiring makes a great snack...

[Colin Lindsay]

19 minutes ago, NonMember said:

Tell that to the mice round here! They think fuel hose is edible, the hose on the PI idle air linkage was apparently delicious, insulation of roof lamp wiring makes a great snack...

Build a stable! I have a sign on the garage that says: keep on walking, the food is over there by the horse...

[JohnD]

I have cats.

And no gnawed wires

[Pete Lewis]

we had a group take up residence in the bird room,  tried all sorts but the best was a plastic trap in a box , peanut butter on the trigger and kaboom !!

tried electrocution and untra sonic   waste of time ,  peanut butter and cheap box with a trap worked with  immediate effect 

all gone in a week   cnat find the make but cheap like £3 from garden centre  , might be Big cheese   but cant find alink

Pete

 

[JohnD]

I suppose a cat wouldn't fit in with your birds, Pete!

One of mine brings them in live, and plays with them before either killing them or losing interest, if they manage to hide somewhere inaccessible to the cat.    One of the funniest things I ever saw was Son putting on a training shoe that had a mouse in it!   His face and dance as he tried to shake off the shoe!    

So I have a "humane" trap.    It's a square tube of black plastic,  bent slightly in the middle     Empty, it sits on the floor with the front door wide open.    The mouse enters, goes to the far end where the bait is, it tips up and the door closes, click.   Caught.    But the thing is a mouse will see the dark opening and think it's somewhere to hide, where the cat can't go!    In it runs!     They do this even if I'm holding the trap, and the cat is nearby!

Like this: 

[mark powell]

Some years ago, my son's cat caught a shrew and let it loose in the bath...  Wall of death job!

[Colin Lindsay]

49 minutes ago, JohnD said:

One of the funniest things I ever saw was Son putting on a training shoe that had a mouse in it!   His face and dance as he tried to shake off the shoe!    

Ask 'er indoors about the day I tried to stamp on the mouse and it ran up my trouser leg. I caught it in the area of my inner thigh and battered both mouse and leg black and blue. The leg recovered, though.

[RogerH]

Over this last winter I had a plague of the 'mices' in the workshop. It was after my wild bird seed that occasionally got spilt onto the floor.

I bought some fancy plastic traps that were not much good. So I resorted to the old fashioned wooden cheapo traps.  These worked a treat.

You need them close to where the mice run.   

I also bought Mouse and Rat poison. 

This I put into a Jacobs cracker plastic box. Turn box upside down , place the sachet on the lid. You do need an entry and exit holes. Place the box across a Rat run.

In total I caught 13 pesky blighters. The most bizarre was to find three mice laying almost side by side in the middle of the workshop floor.

I still have two cheesy traps down but nothing for more than a month now.

 

Roger

[thescrapman]

As mentioned a cat is the best solution, particularly one with a very long attention span.

Second best I have found are the small metal traps, baited with peanuts, make sure you set the trigger as fine as possible (your fingers will hurt whilst you get this right) and place along walls etc. Mice rarely run across rooms.

I was more successful than our old cat in his latter years, the latest recruits outclass me many times over.

[JohnD]

One of our cats used to bring in rats!   Dead, fortunately.

Then a stray arrived, who was eventually adopted by our previously catless neighbours.   They burn wood for heat, and have a vast woodpile, that was previously alive with voles and mice.  Not now!   She has started on the rat colonies and our cat don't bring 'em in any more.      She has been named "Diana" the Huntress!

 

[mark powell]

No rodents here fortunately, but we do have 2 kittens coming on nicely.

[thescrapman]

8 hours ago, JohnD said:

One of our cats used to bring in rats!   Dead, fortunately.

Then a stray arrived, who was eventually adopted by our previously catless neighbours.   They burn wood for heat, and have a vast woodpile, that was previously alive with voles and mice.  Not now!   She has started on the rat colonies and our cat don't bring 'em in any more.      She has been named "Diana" the Huntress!

 

Plenty of rats as well, always dead, which is nice.

one is also a bit of a master at catching squirrels, first one of those found on the carpet was a nice "surprise"

[poppyman]

Living rural we always get mice in the garage despite number of cats nearby. I use traps baited with rat poison. The mice love it   Always catch 7 or 8 in the traps each season then nothing. Job done.

Tony.

[poppyman]

Bloody cats......

[Colin Lindsay]

You'll like this one, then.

 

[PeteH]

Hi. I am currently baiting with this. Seems to be working. Next door have horse feed stored in their garage.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07TKXYDDG/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Pete

[Ascalon]

On 23/04/2020 at 12:46, 68vitesse said:

Just spent some time trying to clear up one of my sheds, anyone know of a method for keeping the little blighters out. Not possible to seal all openings against them and to many bits for ultrasonic scarers, cats not an option.

At least I found things I forgot I had but will probably forget them again.

Regards

Paul

Try mothballs.  They were banned by the EU, but can still be found, especially in old fashioned hardware shops.  Mice hate ‘em.    I put about a dozen on a plastic tray right next to each tyre.  Alternatively, if it is just the car you are worried about ( some years ago I had to have a Daimler Dart SP250 largely rewired because either mice or rats had lunched well on the plastic insulation ), you should put a largish square of chicken wire mesh under each tyre where it touches the ground.  The little buggers just won’t even try to clamber over it.  That’s all it takes. A friend of mine wired his mesh squares into the mains.   Quite unnecessary, all he succeeded in doing was was electrocuting his wife’s Siamese cat.

[Colin Lindsay]

46 minutes ago, Ascalon said:

Try mothballs.  They were banned by the EU

No doubt a breach of the moth's rights or the like.

[daverclasper]

1 hour ago, Colin Lindsay said:

No doubt a breach of the moth's rights or the like.

Maybe, though don't we need moths etc, as well?, as part of the whole thing?. I understand a bad infestation needs sorting, rather than, "eek, a moth".

Hard to know what is relevant or not, and of course all subjective?.

 

[RogerH]

I had an army of mice last winter. Moth balls were useless - utterly and totally.

The best remedy was a simple cheap 'Little Nipper' mouse TRap from B&Q.  I also used some ready baited boxes.

I had an assortment of mice with a broken neck and others with sudden death syndrome in the middle of the workshop floor.

13 in total was my tally.

 

Roger

[PeteH]

Our neighbour, keeps her Tack and Feed in her garage. So I am baiting regularly. I used to be able to get the "proper" stuff, but that now needs a "licence". I get results though, but it is cyclic, They take the hit and the bait gets left, then a week or two later it starts all over again, But none in the back of the tumble dryer in recent times!. I had less success with Traps.

Pete

[Jeffds1360]

I had rats a couple of years back.

I advised the council and a guy put poison down. 3 weeks later, such a stench in back room. Had to lift carpet and floorboards to drag the carcass out. Few years before that my hot water smelt funny!??. Found a drowned rat in feed tank in loft! Got a combi now

 

[Peter Truman]

This one not car related we had a baby skink get into our big (9kw) split air conditioner in the external fan part on the ground section and shorted out the fused connection and there were also tracks across the circuit board the AC was toast, replaced under household insurance (no argument) because the repair tech specified fusion failure, final bill probably because it was an insurance job > $3k.

We had possums in the roof, had them removed twice now, Peter the Possum man advised when possums are removed rats move in, a month or so later yep we heard scratching, so now the pest eradicator came threw Ratsac around in the roof esp around the perimeter over the next month 4 dead rats, a couple of years ago we had a relatively minor termite infestation laundry floor not in the structure appears they love Tasmanian Oak, Termite solutions treated the house internal and external continuous barriers and annual inspections, during their initial inspection they found a couple of dead rat skeletons in the roof space around the perimeter. The termite problem came from the 2 acre council  reserve we back onto, old rotten trees, also the 18 hole golf course that surround our small housing estate, so it'll be an ongoing inspection & 7 yearly treatment cost to ensure there's no re-occurrence, they say in our area 1 in 3 houses will incur termites!!!  We had a good run we've been here 43 years.

A country club member had his Stag seats demolished within a month by a mice plague!