Mice in toolbox

[glsmaverick]

So up until this past summer I had a small C-man top box that I just left on the garage floor tucked back behind my larger box and never used it. I left in the drawer liner and screwdriver foam. So when I brought it out I was not surprised to find that a mouse nest existed. I killed the three mice inside and the few little babies. I gave it a thorough cleaning with simple green and rinsed it all out.

Fast forward to this fall and I now find that the new cork liners are getting ate up by mice and they are leaving nice little nuggets and pee stains. Its only in this small box where their home was.

How do I get rid of this?

PS. I have killed I think a majority of the mice but I am sure they're still around because I live in the country and you're pretty much guarenteed mice.

 

[autopts]

Get a Garage cat? Maybe?

 

[Outlawmws]

How are hey entering the box to begin with?

De-con. Works for me.

 

[xj31]

Moth balls

 

[Squankum]

Get a toolbox snake?

 

[tube_guy]

 

[zruvalcaba]

Look at the bright side...they seem to be contained to your toolbox. The mice we had a problem with were also in my garage however, our mice were burroughing in my wetsuit about 3 shelves up near the garage ceiling. After we caught the mouse, we took everything out of the garage, thouroughly cleaned everything with soap and water, and that's when we discovered the nest in my wetsuit of all things. We found scraps of Christmas stockings, the kids' fruit sacks, crackers, and get this....36 crayons. The little booger was carrying crayons up 3 flights of shelving and storing them in my wetsuit....for what? Only thing we could come up with was he was an aspiring artist.

At any rate...the glue traps worked wonders for us. We still keep them in the garage just in case Michelangelo's cousin decides to pay us a visit down the road. We found that the normal snap traps weren't working. He would lick the peanut butter off of the trap and the trap would never snap.

 

[Outlawmws]

Moth balls

So Moth Balls make good Mith Balls?

 

[ZRX61]

Moth balls

That.

 

[alex71]

the mice in my shed now laugh at mothballs. no matter how many I spread around, they still come back.

 

[Skyline]

Ideally, you want to prevent mice from entering your garage. I would get a few rat sized bait traps, and put one at the base of each outside wall of the garage. I would then get some mouse sized bait traps and put them inside. I would recommend Contrac Blox Rodentcide as bait. Mice like to move along the walls, so that's where to put the traps.

Here's a Rat sized trap:
http://www.pestmall.com/protecta-lp-rat-bait-station.html
Here's a Mouse sized trap:
http://www.pestmall.com/protecta-rtu-mice-bait-station.html
Here's the bait:
http://www.pestmall.com/contrac-blox-rodenticide-mice-poison.html

This is exactly the material that a professional exterminator used to rid my home of rodent issues. I keep these bait stations filled, and no rodents for several years now. The need to be filled every 4-6 months, but especially at the beginning of winter when kritters look to come insiude for the warmth.

 

[fatfillup]

Skyline's suggestion sounds good. We use DCON at the shop and that works well too. we don't have a lot of mice but we do get them.

 

[JASTECH]

I have the same problem with my snappy bottom, didn't know they could get in there!
Was going to try moth balls, caught a bunch by the light but they must all be female!

 

[Charles (in GA)]

If you have a cat, do not use rat poisons as the cat can eat the mouse and then itself die from the poison.

Charles

 

[chopper1]

I have the same problem with my snappy bottom, didn't know they could get in there!
Was going to try moth balls, caught a bunch by the light but they must all be female!

We're trying to figure out how they get into our microwave at the club garage.

 

[jjjrmx5]

Mice traps with peanut butter and a small piece of peanut to catch those that are alive.

Bounce fabric softener sheets keep them away if you keep one in the box and refresh every 3 months. Mice cannot stand the smell.

Trust me.
I keep bounce sheets in the engine bay, interior and trunk of every car I do winter storage on.
BTDT with the best story with a car stored long ago I pulled the car out of one of my storage garages and kept seeing this quick dart back and forth to the car. Here it was a mouse saving her babies one by one and from a nest in the engine bay.

Even better was when a co-worker with a 67 e-type jag coupe that had a chipmunk nesting in is tailpipe. A quick start of the V-12 and ka-blooey. Shot that mo-fo up against the wall and dead faster than a racquet ball.

Bounce sheets FTW.

 

[Lindlandco]

Toolbox snake. HAHAHAHA!

When i was in college one my buddies went to get a wrench out of toolbox in an old van that wasn't used much. A snake was in the toolbox. Boy, was that van rocking. Broke a window out and tools were everywhere on the ground. LMAO.

 

[Outlawmws]

I don't blame them Bounce leaves an awful stench...

Mice traps with peanut butter and a small piece of peanut to catch those that are alive.

Bounce fabric softener sheets keep them away if you keep one in the box and refresh every 3 months. Mice cannot stand the smell.

Trust me.
I keep bounce sheets in the engine bay, interior and trunk of every car I do winter storage on.
BTDT with the best story with a car stored long ago I pulled the car out of one of my storage garages and kept seeing this quick dart back and forth to the car. Here it was a mouse saving her babies one by one and from a nest in the engine bay.

Even better was when a co-worker with a 67 e-type jag coupe that had a chipmunk nesting in is tailpipe. A quick start of the V-12 and ka-blooey. Shot that mo-fo up against the wall and dead faster than a racquet ball.

Bounce sheets FTW.

 

[jjjrmx5]

I don't blame them Bounce leaves an awful stench...

And that's just it Outlaw, the Bounce sheets are so odiferous and overwhelming it's like walking into ur crazy Aunt's house and the smell of her perfume cancels out the smell of oven roast turkey and stuffing during a family GTG. Ickkkkk.

Can't smell food or predators means "this is not the place for me" most mice think. So far so good for a decade +.

Voila.

BTW--I seldom use drier sheets, but I triple bag my Bounce stash, meaning I put the open box of Bounce sheets in a zip-lock freezer bag and then that bag inside a second zip-lock freezer bag and then inside a standard plastic grocery bag that is twist tied shut , and after one day i can still smell the bounce in my basement.

Yep.

Strong shiz it is.
-Yoda

 

[Buckgnarly]

BTDT with the best story with a car stored long ago I pulled the car out of one of my storage garages and kept seeing this quick dart back and forth to the car. Here it was a mouse saving her babies one by one and from a nest in the engine bay.
.

I hope you made her effort futile!...

I HATE mice...they chewed upmy phone lines in the house, and get into the walls every Fall.

None this year in the house, because it was war this summer in the garage....I found the new fake plastic cheese snap traps are AWESOME. I used peanut butter before, and even have the mouse "Wheel of Death" installed in my garage, but those little bastards can't resist that fake ****. One trap alone this Fall has gotten at least 10, and it's still working on em!

 

[Boost Creep]

i use dryer sheets. works pretty good for me. inside things i don't want mice in and usually a bunch along the walls and on the shelves in the barn. seems to work well

 

[Jagmandave]

Even better was when a co-worker with a 67 e-type jag coupe that had a chipmunk nesting in is tailpipe. A quick start of the V-12 and ka-blooey. Shot that mo-fo up against the wall and dead faster than a racquet ball.

That's amazing, cause I had one this past winter make a nest in one of the rear pipes on my '69 E-Type, but he had packed it so tightly that it wouldn't run on those three cylinders - the Jag exhaust is split all the way from the head to the end of the car, it started and revved up but had no power, and it could not force the nest out of the pipe. I had to remove the resonator and dig the **** out with a long screwdriver. I also set some live traps and got the little bastiches!

About the bait, you don't need to worry about the cat eating a mouse that ate the bait, it won't hurt the cat or a dog.

I'm having a problem with mice in my basement, I can not figure out where they're getting in, so I set sticky traps and snap traps and keep killing them, but they still seem to come back, I didn't want to use bait indoors cause I didn't want one to die in a wall and stink us out of the house but I may have to before it's all over with if I can't get them with the traps.

 

[jjjrmx5]

I hope you made her effort futile!...

I HATE mice...they chewed upmy phone lines in the house, and get into the walls every Fall.

LOL.
It all goes back decades ago when I scolded the %^$ out of my now deceased sweet and always behaved Yellow Lab retriever for taking bites out of the new and fresh peaches I had in a basket in the kitchen one fall. Came to find &^% mice were doing the damage in my kitchen whenever I turned the lights out and I can never forgive myself to this day.

Mice are pesky critters but always are suckers for peanuts, peanut butter and the like.

I keep detached garages, so vigilance is necessary, and even more so than theft by humans. &^%ing mice.

 

[Butters]

"My name is Inigo Mousetoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die."

 

[j.c.whitney]

Exclusion and snap traps or glue boards baited with a chunk of Chocolate. D-Con is a bad idea imo.

 

[Greatbear]

Too many cheesy tools?

 

[Outlawmws]

"My name is Inigo Mousetoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die."

 

[Outlawmws]

That's amazing, cause I had one this past winter make a nest in one of the rear pipes on my '69 E-Type, but he had packed it so tightly that it wouldn't run on those three cylinders - the Jag exhaust is split all the way from the head to the end of the car, it started and revved up but had no power, and it could not force the nest out of the pipe. I had to remove the resonator and dig the **** out with a long screwdriver. I also set some live traps and got the little bastiches!

About the bait, you don't need to worry about the cat eating a mouse that ate the bait, it won't hurt the cat or a dog.

I'm having a problem with mice in my basement, I can not figure out where they're getting in, so I set sticky traps and snap traps and keep killing them, but they still seem to come back, I didn't want to use bait indoors cause I didn't want one to die in a wall and stink us out of the house but I may have to before it's all over with if I can't get them with the traps.

Part of Dcon is that it makes the vermin thirsty. Mice often live off of condensation off of pipes and such, which is why they sometimes get into a wall. Set up a place for them to easily get a drink in the middle of the basement floor. I'd give long odds ones established, that is where you would find them in the AM.

 

[Super Sport]

I've heard that a 5 gal bucket with some water or even antifreeze in the bottom with a board leaned up to it will do the trick. They climb up the board, fall in, and either drown or the antifreeze kills them. Never tried it myself, but I've considered it.

 

[dwm]

About 10 years ago, I bought a home in a semi-rural area. 20 empty acres behind my 3.2 acre lot. Field mice were RAMPANT, and they breed like crazy. When winter came around, I would sometimes see dozens of them jumping into the snowdrifts when I drove down my private road and driveway. The house had been unoccupied for a year, which didn't help matters.

They're industrious little critters when it comes to finding winter shelter. When they started finding their way into my house and garage, I tried just about everything. But it gets old emptying 5 traps a day and feeling like you're not even keeping up with the population growth. I bought 6 cases (24 boxes each) of poison, and used most of it outside. Initially, all 6 boxes would be empty each day. I'd place more each day. I had to buy another 3 cases. Eventually, it dwindled to the point where nothing was eating from any of the boxes. I had to wipe out almost the whole population just to get things to the point where it was under control.

When I first bought the house, 4 hawks were daily visitors/campers to the huge oak tree behind the house, along with a family of foxes. No wonder... plenty of easy pickings. When I finally moved out, I hadn't seen the hawks in 2 years and the foxes had moved about a mile down the road.

 

[osborn.ozzy]

 

[wellpoison]

i had chimpmunks in my attic and garage for sometime. bought this little device that plugs into a receptacle and sends out a high frequency tone, i guess they dont like it. put one on either side of the house and one in the garage and i havent seen signs of them again. couldnt tell ya where i bought them or what there called at the moment but they work. i was worried when i bought them that they would annoy the **** out of my dog, but they dont.

 

[Al Bundy]

I've heard that a 5 gal bucket with some water or even antifreeze in the bottom with a board leaned up to it will do the trick. They climb up the board, fall in, and either drown or the antifreeze kills them. Never tried it myself, but I've considered it.

I left a 5 gallon bucket half filled with water that I was using to rinse the tools I was cleaning in the garage. I returned after a couple days to find one of the critters floating face down in it. The only sign I've had of them this season. There's never any food or water for them in there (except that time) so I don't usually have a problem with them.

 

[ctb]

I live at the end of a village where corn and wheat is grown around me. First of all , that dimwit who said a poisoned mouse won't affect your dog or cat is talking out of his ***! My dog just about died from eating a poisoned rat from the neighbours corn fields. A cat will die a cruel and agonizing death from eating a poisoned mouse unless it's taken to a vet real quick!

I've had a mouse move into my van, nesting in the engine compartment. I found his nest and threw it out. My heater motor had been making a thumping noise for a few weeks. After taking it apart, I found a mouse missing three legs!

Mice keep getting into my house no matter what I do. I've got a 9 year old cat that's no help anymore. (It's missing it's 2 upper teeth) and we've found that the only thing that works (eventually) is the rat glue. I thought I had them all licked when I came home from work tonight. My wife had put out two more rat glue traps in the bathroom. Seems she'd seen another mouse!

 

[Brad54]

I live on an acre that's half forested (the shop butts right up to it), and have an empty, overgrown lot next to me on once side.

And three outdoor cats. Two fixed males, and a female.

They're friendly, they're pets, and we feed them twice a day, but they also hunt. We have no squirrels in the buildings, no mice, no rats, no moles in the yard and no rabbits in the garden. (I wish I could teach them to keep the deer out of the garden!)

I have to put up with foot prints on the hoods of our cars, and a neighborhood tom sometimes comes over to spray things which is incredibly annoying, but I'll put up with that over mice and other rodents every day.

If I had to do it over again, I'd simply get two fixed female cats and keep them outside.

-Brad

 

[Brad54]

double post

 

[gotta56forme]

I don't care for the dryer sheet smell, either. I read on another board a few years ago that the soaps like Irish Spring have the same effect. I've been using that in my car and so far so good.

 

[Outlawmws]

I live at the end of a village where corn and wheat is grown around me. First of all , that dimwit who said a poisoned mouse won't affect your dog or cat is talking out of his ***! My dog just about died from eating a poisoned rat from the neighbours corn fields. A cat will die a cruel and agonizing death from eating a poisoned mouse unless it's taken to a vet real quick!

SNIP

I suppose it depends on which poison is used. for D-Con:

Though there is little data on lethal-dose levels for humans, much more is known about how much brodifacoum (D-Con) is necessary to kill a dog. Pets, unfortunately, frequently eat rodenticides, so veterinarians have years of experience caring for accidentally poisoned canines. The rule of thumb for dogs is that a lethal dose consists of between 0.2 and 4 milligrams of brodifacoum for every kilogram of body weight. So, a 75-pound dog would need to eat more than 4 ounces of d-Con mouse poison to approach the bottom end of that range.

And how much of that is in the mouse or mice?

I'm sure farmers use much stronger poisons than D-Con, or your dog may have eaten it directly.

 

[Harvey Melvin Richards]

I've been fighting an ongoing battle with the furry little bastards at work. We were live trapping them until they started shitting in my desk drawers. I put dryer sheets in all of the drawers. I put all my food in a metal box. I have 3 spring traps set under under my desk every day. I usually kill 2 to 10 mice per week and I have been since late July.

What really pushed me over the edge was one day after sitting at my desk for at least an hour, I opened the top pencil drawer. There was a mouse staring back at me. Since then I've had them killed in the traps while I'm sitting 18" away.

I check the traps in the morning and quite often I find them drug away, and with a dead mouse in them.

 

[dieselmike]

x3 on garage cat