I hate mices

[ChefRex]

Started to drive me crazy, changing codes and readings. Little bastards.

 

[Skyman]

Rodents can be horribly destructive. I declare thermo-nuclear war on them whenever they invade my structures or vehicles. I absolutely refuse to tolerate the damage and messes they create, and the diseases they can carry. It's a war I've yet to lose.

 

[RivennHewn]

Easy.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DWGAHM0/?tag=atomicindus08-20

 

[andyvh1959]

One thing I do with any of these devices is read the negative and less than positive reviews before spending any money. When I see 27% of replies giving less than 3-stars for the product, like for this product, I pass. Other options probably do better.

Best Rodent Repellents for Cars

Top 10 Rodent Repellents for Cars - Compare the best-rated products and get the best rodent repellents for cars.

buyersguide.org

 

[Ray-CA]

I used shed snake skins form our ball python and corn snake. Just scattered it around the edges of the shop and near the doors. Never saw any signs of mice after that. I did sweep it up and replace it with fresh shed thought.

 

[gizardlizard]

I’m a big Toyota/Lexus guy and love them, but in their infinite wisdom, the engineers used soy based insulation on wiring harnesses. How dumb was that? Honda has the same issue and even came out with Honda anti rodent tape for wires. Google it. I’m dead serious.

 

[paredown]

We've had them in the house this year--it is unbelievable the damage they can do! Caught three this past week, and the war continues!

 

[ChefRex]

Easy.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DWGAHM0/?tag=atomicindus08-20

Is that a disco?

 

[ChefRex]

I’m a big Toyota/Lexus guy and love them, but in their infinite wisdom, the engineers used soy based insulation on wiring harnesses. How dumb was that? Honda has the same issue and even came out with Honda anti rodent tape for wires. Google it. I’m dead serious.

I know of it but warrantee tends to frown on paying.

 

[kbuhagiar]

 

[Wallyman]

I'm a huge fan of these... initial investment ***** (get rechargeable AAs and a charger too) but smokes those little wire-eating pricks quite nicely.. biggest problem in summer is the ants eat the peanut butter I put in it so now each gets an ant bite next to it.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B099X9F9CD?tag=atomicindus08-20

 

[Skyman]

Try a peanut instead of peanut butter. One nugget, out of the shell, is all you need to attract the little bastards. Less messy, too.

 

[csp]

I'm a huge fan of these... initial investment ***** (get rechargeable AAs and a charger too) but smokes those little wire-eating pricks quite nicely.. biggest problem in summer is the ants eat the peanut butter I put in it so now each gets an ant bite next to it.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B099X9F9CD?tag=atomicindus08-20

We've had great luck in our barn with these too. I don't even bait them anymore. There are two placed in the places they use to travel and their curiosity seems to get them in the door. I don't see mice running anymore when I walk into stalls or where there might be feed but I do have one in the traps every few weeks.

 

[landrover bodger]

if they are in a barn or garage start a smokey old car in there and leave it running it will gas them out.

 

[johninct]

I lately have been having better luck with those sticky traps.

 

[PelicanPines]

I have no mices... Get a cat.

 

[bbxlr8]

Hate them. Cats are great but not ideal with an additional detached garage & tractor shed & large coop. A regular proactive approach keeps them at bay but it's a constant battle year-round

 

[Shiftless]

My neighbor had a $7000 insurance claim when the rats chewed up the wiring on his couple year old Prius parked out in his driveway. They left his early 70’s Cutlass alone.

 

[Skyman]

Cats can be great for rodent control, but can do damage themselves.

A layered, multi-step approach is best.

First step is to seal the perimeter of all structures to the greatest extent possible, bearing in mind that a mouse can squeeze its body through any opening that is large enough to pass its skull through. If you can fit a pencil through it, it's large enough for mice to get through. Steel wool and caulk can be effective for small openings. Aluminum sheet can help with larger openings. Whatever is used to seal needs to be chew-proof.

Second step is traps of whatever type or types you prefer, and plenty of them, especially placed in locations that are difficult to completely seal such as the corners of garage doors. Mice tend to travel along the bases of walls and beneath furniture, etc, so traps set in such places can be very effective. Placing traps just inboard of, or surrounding, the tires can help to keep them out of parked vehicles.

Poison bait can be very effective, but presents danger for other forms of wildlife, pets and children, all of which must be taken into consideration.

Constant vigilance follows the above.

 

[fritz29]

Poison can also cause secondary poisoning
One year I found more dead adult barn owls than I banded babies
There’s generally two things that kill the adults raccoons and poisoned rodents
Pretty easy to tell the ones that raccoons got as the heads are ripped off

 

[BombShelter]

My car storage guy recommends clothes drier sheets, lots of them everywhere. I also use Jawz or Tom Cat Glue Boards, not the trays but the cheap flat white cardboard with glue on it. The black trays with 1/4" of glue are pretty much useless.

There's a video on YT, the poster claims mice don't make holes in buildings but if there's one, they'll easily go through it. He put up night cameras to find the holes on his house and sealed them up.

 

[Mick56]

I mix half flour and half plaster of paris, put it a little dish. The rodents eat that and die later when the plaster sets up in their stomach. Not dangerous if an animal eats the dead mouse later.

 

[Shiftless]

There's a video on YT, the poster claims mice don't make holes in buildings

I beg to differ.
A rat chewed clean through a half inch of Sheetrock to get from the crawlspace into a finished basement room. I patched the hole with a piece of sheet metal and some drywall compound. The little bastards have pushed their way through steel wool barriers too. I now smear some caulk or liquid nails adhesive with the steel wool. In other places I use quarter inch steel mesh hardware cloth held in with either staples or screws.

 

[Wallyman]

We've had great luck in our barn with these too. I don't even bait them anymore. There are two placed in the places they use to travel and their curiosity seems to get them in the door. I don't see mice running anymore when I walk into stalls or where there might be feed but I do have one in the traps every few weeks.

I definitely have to bait mine, once the ants ate the bait the mice weren't getting zapped.

Try a peanut instead of peanut butter. One nugget, out of the shell, is all you need to attract the little bastards. Less messy, too.

OH! might try that! Miata buddy likes to use hard candy but he doesn't have the ant issue like I do.

I have no mices... Get a cat.

Allergic, and have dogs.. plus cats are a pain to deal with.. ****, walking on cars, all that nonsense.

My car storage guy recommends clothes drier sheets, lots of them everywhere. I also use Jawz or Tom Cat Glue Boards, not the trays but the cheap flat white cardboard with glue on it. The black trays with 1/4" of glue are pretty much useless.

Dryer sheets that have been tried don't work. Plus it is a ***** to deal with overpowering smell in a tiny car in the spring.

I used to do glue boards, until I found one displaced a decent distance away with four tiny mouse legs attached to it. Never figured out what happened, but after than I wanted something more.. definitive.

 

[bakmopar]

Easy.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DWGAHM0/?tag=atomicindus08-20

I have to ask. Does this actually work?

 

[Wallyman]

So, in case anyone needed another project. .. here's the mouse zappers with a visual mod that makes it easier to pick up on camera for those of us that run security cams in our spaces. It was fairly simple, and I didn't over complicate it with fancy 3d printed mounts or anything. Basically the concept is an extended light pipe. I bought some 0.4" Acrylic Dowel Rods off Amazon and cut each rod down to around 5" long, and beveled the end using a belt sander. Drilled out the original LED light pipe and stuffed the rod down in there.





It works well, I just happen to have a little victim in the shed so you can see how well:




Smallest visitor to date, he's just taking a nap..

 

[four.cycle]

Mice hate lavender.

The Ranger Station up on the Queets was infested with mice. I stayed most of one summer up there doing trail work. I went over to my Mom's and clipped her lavender and hauled it up there and stuffed it in drawers, put paper bags of it in the corners, stuffed it into holes.
Mice moved away and didn't bother me the rest of that summer.

I mix half flour and half plaster of paris, put it a little dish.

My grandfather would take slices of day-old bread and carefully spread a very thin layer of peanut butter on the bread (with gloved hands) and then sprinkle Plaster of Paris over the peanut butter.
The slices of bread were then placed up in the attic. The rats would eat it, and then go find some water. Took care of quite a few of them.

 

[Wallyman]

I have to ask. Does this actually work?

If it did, I'd think wall powered would be the right answer instead of battery draw on the car that is likely in storage.. with the battery disconnected. I've replaced many a $150-200 battery because they died over winter, now they all get disconnected so that's a no go in my situation. Plus I'd be concerned about household pets like dogs hearing a constant annoyance. Reading reviews, it's actually audible to humans... so I guess that would also be a problem (I was super amused by one review where mice ate the unit's wires, heh).

I'm all for nature, but I've given up trying to "discourage" them. Chipmonks that destroy the flower beds go swimming in a bucket of death(if they somehow outrun the Corgi Murdermachine ), birds that aerate my T-111 siding get high speed lead pellet poisoning, and the mice chewing up and ******* all over the cars and inside the shop wall insulation get one final disco dance.

The plaster idea intrigues me except for dead things in my walls.. I've dealt with that in the house is it *****. Better to empty the trap, plus knowing one got smoked helps me to feel better that infiltrators aren't making it very far. When I first deployed the traps I was getting one very few days. Now after months and years, it's pretty sporadic and they are almost always little scrawny things. The chipmonk trap is the same way. Deploy in spring, and eventually you've killed the breeders and you don't get many.

Mice hate lavender.

The Ranger Station up on the Queets was infested with mice. I stayed most of one summer up there doing trail work. I went over to my Mom's and clipped her lavender and hauled it up there and stuffed it in drawers, put paper bags of it in the corners, stuffed it into holes.
Mice moved away and didn't bother me the rest of that summer.

Lavender might be nice, tho.. have to see if the wife wants to add some to our flowerbeds for my use!

 

[four.cycle]

The plaster idea intrigues me except for dead things in my walls..

^ I had a possum get under my house. He got all tangled up in the nylon string they used to tie the insulation up between the floor joists.
Got it wrapped around his neck several times and strangled himself.

Months later, after the weather had warmed up, I went out to drop something into the trash can. Came back inside the house and asked girlfriend if she was putting empty cat food cans in the recycle bin without rinsing them out first.
Could not figure out what the smell was, but it seemed to be worst right in the vicinity of one of the crawl space vents.
I crawled under the house and removed a very dead, very mummified possum carcass.

I just had a lenghty conversation Sunday with sister and brother-in-law, who told us they have squirrels invading their house. I told them do not use "D-Con" - they will end up with dead animals in the attic or in the walls - I told him where to find some Conibear 110's cheap.

The thing that Grandpa did with the peanut butter and Plaster of Paris did not result in dead rats inside the walls - they went out looking for a water source. Ergo: no dead animals inside the walls.

As noted, I have removed dead animal from under my own house - I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemies, and I wouldn't give out advice that might potentially lead to that.

Try the lavender - it's amazing, and it's actually kind of funny that people don't know about it.

FTR: Sequim, Washington touts itself as The Lavender Capital of the World
All kinds of outfits up there that can ship it directly to you.

 

[gmoss]

I used shed snake skins form our ball python and corn snake. Just scattered it around the edges of the shop and near the doors. Never saw any signs of mice after that. I did sweep it up and replace it with fresh shed thought.

I have mice in my attic, and war is on, but I found a nest in the insulation they made with a snakeskin...

Any tips on getting rid of them, let me know. I have killed several with poison baits and traps, but now they are ignoring them. Next will be some sticky strips I guess. They navigate between the insulation and the sheetrock. Want to take a shotgun to the ceiling when I hear them scurrying.

 

[Fixr]

I definitely have to bait mine, once the ants ate the bait the mice weren't getting zapped.


OH! might try that! Miata buddy likes to use hard candy but he doesn't have the ant issue like I do.


Allergic, and have dogs.. plus cats are a pain to deal with.. ****, walking on cars, all that nonsense.


Dryer sheets that have been tried don't work. Plus it is a ***** to deal with overpowering smell in a tiny car in the spring.

I used to do glue boards, until I found one displaced a decent distance away with four tiny mouse legs attached to it. Never figured out what happened, but after than I wanted something more.. definitive.

Glue traps seem horribly cruel. Trap the critter and keep it helpless until something happens to come along to kill it, or it dies of dehydration. Might be days of terror. I'm an advocate for a quick and reliable kill if possible.

 

[Skyman]

Glue boards are highly effective against mice. If it troubles you to use them, snap traps are a fairly effective alternative.

 

[gmoss]

I don't give 2 snaps about a mouse life. Squirrels neither.

 

[Fixr]

Glue boards are highly effective against mice. If it troubles you to use them, snap traps are a fairly effective alternative.

I once watched several guys in a shop gleefully chasing a rat with propane torches. It was quite badly burned and skreeing when I crushed it with a sledge hammer. I've disliked cruelty even more since then, and those who enjoy it.

I have no problem with killing rodents. But I have a problem with torturing them to death.

Correction. It was actually carb spray and lighters as improvised flamethrowers. And the guys giggled.

 

[Firebrick43]

I mix half flour and half plaster of paris, put it a little dish. The rodents eat that and die later when the plaster sets up in their stomach. Not dangerous if an animal eats the dead mouse later.

Hey bob, this one is extra crunchy

 

[four.cycle]

It was actually carb spray and lighters as improvised flamethrowers.

Ahh yes... the old "Gumout Jet-Spray and BIC lighter" trick.... used it many, many times.
Definitely lets raccoons know they are not welcome. Only problem is I'm hesitant to do it under the deck in summer when things are dried out. Otherwise - it's game ON.

No reason to chase rats with carb spray and a lighter, though, if you can push a lawnmower fast enough.
Funny thing: you know when you flip over that pile of logs out in back and find the rat nest under it with Mama Rat and her newly-born litter, Mama will RUN AWAY and ABANDON her own babies!
Took two passes to catch Mama.
The babies - well... they didn't have a chance against a 21-inch Snapper.

C'est la vie.

I'm makin' no apologies.

 

[Wallyman]

Funny thing: you know when you flip over that pile of logs out in back and find the rat nest under it with Mama Rat and her newly-born litter,

I still recall as a youngster of 10-12ish, my brother stomping on a mouse with cowboy boots and a litter of pinkies squirting out.. and that was 40+ years ago.... that **** scarred me.

 

[knightfire83]

I put a giant planter on either side of my big garage door filled with catnip to attract the neighborhood cats.
No more mice in the garage or the house.

 

[JunkYardDawg]

I use the B.O.D. method, or BUCKET O' DEATH.

I take a homer bucket, and fill it up with water to about 4 inches from the top. Then sprinkle a cup or two of sunflower seeds on the surface of the water. I'll use a narrow piece of wooden trim board or make some 2" strips of wood on my tablesaw - about 36" long, and lean that up on the side of the bucket. Sometimes I'll run a small screw into one end of the "plank" to keep it on the rim of the bucket. I then place a few seeds at the base of the board and a few along the board up to the top. Theory is that the mouse will run up the board, see the seeds floating atop the water, think its a solid surface, and jump down to get some more. He'll swim around until he drowns.

Its not the most humane way of eradication, but it works very well. I have problems with not only mice, but loads of chipmunks that burrow under my walks and cause them to sink. I'll put out the buckets once or twice a year, and it will kill whole families of these wee buggers. Sometimes I'll check a bucket and it'll have 6-8 chippies and a few mice in there as well. Many times there will be pregnant ones in there too, so I know I'm getting a lot of them.

I usually pluck them out with a pair of tongs, placing into a gallon ziplock baggie, then trash. I pour the scummy water/seed mixture into the compost pile and start over.

 

[gba2331]

I’ve avoided the bucket trap because I’m not around to monitor it and I figured it would stink by the time I cleaned it, but I got a tip to add oil (maybe vegetable?) to contain the smell. I haven’t actually tried this but it seems plausible