Hey Guys,
Found some half eaten acorns on the floor of the T when I got it out. What works for off season storage to keep them out? I heard mothballs work
So does Irish Spring bar soap.
Ron Patterson
Sounds more like racoons, squirrels or chipmunks to me
Here is the best how many you want?
Picture from another forum member. Cool idea and re-load able with more peanut butter!
I like the peanut butter and can idea and I have used it in the past. What is really nice about that is if you have to work thru lunch you just lay on the board and lick some peanut butter off the can so you can keep working until dinner!
Hi John,
Here's some reading on the topic.
There is some truth to the saying "there's always a better mouse trap".
http://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/80257/92430.html?1242707865
http://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/506218/581452.html?1445787646
http://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/29/39615.html?1195591956
http://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/257047/318798.html?1353283528
http://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/179374/232545.html?1314902199
http://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/50893/70150.html?1230330553
There are more...
20 years ago my neighbor told me he had never had a mouse in his garage in over 30 years. When asked why, he replied "I always leave the radio on in my garage." Since that day I have left my radio on 24/7 and in 20 years I have never had any kind of rodent in my shop/garage.
Radio and TV don't seem to keep the mice out of my house, but the cats and the Decon do a pretty good job.
Since the 70's I have always found this useful:
Same principle applies to mice.
I made a trip last fall to Portland and put my work truck in the shop like normal. When I came home,
I discovered my "emergency roll" of toilet paper that I keep behind the seat had been distro'd about the
cab like fallen snowflakes. I got out the shop vac and cleaned it up and it seemed Mr. Mouse had beat
feet for other quarters.
I recently made another trip down, but this time took the truck to bring home some antique furniture.
It was warm and the wifeperson got to fiddling with the vents and suddenly POOF !!! .... we were engulfed
in a blizzard of flying toilet paper bits ! Said wifeperson was all bummed out, but I had a hard time driving
for laughing so hard at the way we were covered with fluff in a split second. We made it to Portland and
whatever had not become airborne in the big explosion was now jammed in the fan, causing all sorts of
bad noises to eminate from within. So, an afternoon spent taking the dash apart to get at the fan and get
everything in order. Now it works better than ever, but oh, what a mess that little mouse made !
Years ago I bought an old truck and a nest full of baby mice died somewhere in the seat stuffing, making
for a delightful smell of death every time a bump in the road caused one's body weight to fluff the seat
springs. Thank goodness that only lasted a couple years .... cough, gag, yech !!!
Decon seems to work the best for me. I have tried cats, but they seem to want to sit at the front door waiting for a handout.
Hmm, Jeff, what kind of music works best???
-David-
"Heavy Metal?" (Although 7.62 might be a little extreme?)
OK,
I was thinking maybe Andy Williams?? Or 1812 Overture?? (that might keep the humans awake though!)
The only problem with the 1812 Overture is that Tonto and the Lone Ranger keep showing up....
Or, is that the 'William Tell Overture'????
You might as well play some Prince music because that is all you are going to here for a few days.
Marv, I once heard that the definition of an intellectual is someone who can hear the William Tell Overture and not think of the Lone Ranger....
Guessing that I probably don't qualify for the intellectual label. :-B
Mouse poison and old fashioned mothballs.
Put a tray of mothballs (12) in the engine compartment and a tray under each seat. Cover car with a car tarp to keep fumes in.
Air out in the spring.
Irish Spring did not work at all.
Chuck,
Well of course not, you're in SD, not Ireland!!
Marv & Dick,
Do you know where the Lone Ranger takes his garbage??
scroll
scroll
To the Dump, Dump,Dump Dump! (Said to the tune of W. Tell. . . )
OK, I'm leaving now. . . .
Oh Wait, one more:
Did you hear about the florist who took a second job in a Bank in the Real Estate Division??
They Called her "the Loan Arranger. . . ."
Hey, who threw the tomato???
Steve.....easier keeping mice out of an 800 sq ft shop than a house.....Dave, Marv and all, usually just leave the radio on any station w/ 24 hour music. Some neighbors have adopted this plan for their garages and by all reports it has worked for them also. I tried everything mentioned here years ago w/no success, although pure peppermint oil (NOT extract) noticeably helped.
I have been using moth balls. The cars under the house, no problem but the two in the carport need the moth balls to keep critters away. Its closed in on the sides and back but has a open front so anything can get in to the carport. It seems to work. Tim
The only thing that has been foolproof for me..
http://www.carid.com/car-capsule/indoor-bubble-car-cover-14-l-x-72-w-x-60-h-mpn- cc12.html?gclid=CjwKEAjw9OG4BRDJzY3jrMng4iQSJABddor1RJr2jQFldVezRJR8p_HxS-TrxaPN V5-zTVNXqFQu6hoCSBnw_wcB
Dead rodents don't breed. Dryer sheets, soap and moth balls don't kill rodents, they smell good like perfume for their date to make more rodents, play a radio so they can dance first. Traps, glue boards and mouse bait kill the population and then there are no more being born.
I like all these ideas because later people call me about rodent damage and pay me to get rid of rodent problems after they have had costly repairs. Please keep it up so us exterminators have a client base and our charge is way less then your loss.
Simple fact, kill the breeding population and generations don't exist. If you try to keep them away with "smells" that will go away they will be back before your nose tells you it is gone.
I hang a photo of Hillary
Hillary has left a trail of bodies for as long as she's been in the national spotlight !
Next question .... what product will kill off the politico population ???
Got three of these pesky critters today with my snap trap and peanut butter I like this setup
The first year i had my T in my little shed, the mice had infiltrated the stuffing from my seats and made a cozy little nest for themselves in the storage compartment under the seat. Last winter i bought a box of Bounce dryer sheets and stuffed them everywhere, and when i went out this Spring i was pleasantly surprised to find no critters. A few weeks later i started finding pistachios scattered all throughout the shed and in every nook and cranny of my T. I wondered how the local mice were eating so well, until i remembered seeing a big bag of nuts that were outdated, sitting on the kitchen counter. I asked the wife what she did with the bag in question, she said she put them beside the shed to feed the squirrels.
I have a barn cat and a shop cat, no mice, pack rats or squirrels. PK
I never had any mice in my barn until my wife ran over the huge rat snake that lived there with the lawn tractor. Since then I've been controlling them with moth balls and Decon. Believe me, the rat snake was the best control.
I had a big bag of sunflower seeds in the trunk of my car that I left parked in the yard for a few days. When I finally had time to move it I found that a rodent had discovered it because there was a pile of empty sunflower shells next to the bag.
It could have been either a mouse or one of the chipmunks that frequent our yard.
Mice do not survive inside our house because our two cats (well one of the cats - the other is stupid) make sure they have a short stay.
If you end up with moth balls, which are very effective, do as Chuck L. says and put them in a tray or open plastic sandwich bags that are removable as opposed to just tossing them into the car. They work because of the smell and it's an odor I personally can't stand so having the car stink of them isn't an option for me. It was done by the former owner of my last 23' Touring and it took repeated washings of the sheet metal under the seats and the floor boards until it was (almost) gone. I'll be damned if I couldn't occasionally still get a wiff of them.
We have an old cabin and for years I've tried it all. Mothballs, dryer sheets, peppermint, music, lights you name it. I even tried this product called Fresh Cab that people swore by...the chewed it up! The ONLY thing to do is to seal up where they are coming in. The bucket traps work best if you can't do that.
Tim is right, you need to control/kill the breeding population. My sheds are out in the ‘wilds’ surrounded by grass/trees. So I have an unending supply of white-footed mice. So decon kills what gets in the shed and the moth balls keep them out of the car. Works best to cover the car with a car-cover and keep the smell confined in the body of the car. It is a never ending war with critters.
I don't understand why more folks don't do what tim moore says. Get rid of them, don't just scare them away.
I am a way from my garage for months on end and used to use poison but the poison quickly gets devoured and then the critters start coming back. I now use the bucket/peanut butter set up to supplement the poison but I put anti freeze in the bucket because it keeps the place from smelling like dead decaying mice. I think that there are usually a certain number of mice within a given area so if you kill them all off you get a reprieve for a time until the population replenished itself. It is a never ending battle
My aunt and uncle had a summer cottage on Cape Cod that was attacked by mice every winter.
One winter the mice got into the medicine cabinet and feasted on exalt.
I will not explain the results!
David Dewey - Just now got into this thread,....a little late,....but just thought I'd mention that knowing my wife as I do, I knew she'd absolutely love your "Lone Ranger" one! She's still giggling as I'm typing this,.....harold
That >>> http://www.circlecsupply.com/tomcat-32444-rodent-bait-chunx-1oz.html?gclid=CKO50 -i3o8wCFQwxaQodgdYNaA
I replenish my 40' × 80' shed with 1 chunk about every 16' around the inside perimeter maybe three times a year.
Zero rodent problem.
It is my understanding that cement mix and corn mill mixed 50-50 works well. Put it in a tray about 5 feet from a tray of water.
They eat the cement-corn mix and get thirsty. Well,the cement sets up and they can't get rid of last nights meal. So they are miserable and go out and eventually kick the bucket.
Mack - add abut of Exlax to the mixture and you will get a small explosion!
Harold S.
Thanks, I never know if ANYONE appreciates the jokes I sometimes post (I know, some folks think they aren't jokes! )
The best bait are PEAS.
Set them around the inside of the shed.
When the mice come out to take a pea/pee; you club them in the head !