Mice

[RedDirtRoad]

I bought a building that has been vacant for a while in a remote location and finding out that it may have a mice problem.
I plan on storing my cars in this building and dont need mice destroying my wiring or worse, tearing up the interior of my cars.
Anything out there to deter mice?

 

[Leaflessshadetree]

Cats

 

[Dog Garage]

Block every mouse entryway into the building, as long as they can get in you'll have mice.

 

[cliftonbros89]

It sounds stupid. But a someone told a friend of mine to put out bars of soap. Says it works. Don't ask me how or why.

 

[PeterT]

The little critters are just trying to survive like the rest of us,, I instead found a spot outside they can hang out (a little wood shed),, they hide there in the winter, in the summer they go out back in the field somewhere.. My dogs always let me know whereabout they are.

 

[MrBlah]

garage cat, but you have to keep it fed and watered so it sticks around, our garage has a cat door so they can get in there no more mice!

 

[CNGsaves]

There's been hundreds of threads on this on GJ.

Use GOOGLE to search:

> > > GOOGLE > > > mice site:garagejournal.com

Your answer is basically two things:

. . . . . (1) . . . . 5 gallon bucket of death (peanut butter roller over water)
. . . . . (2) . . . . poison . . OUTSIDE. . . chew block bait house (several)
. . . . . . . . . . . .poison . . INSIDE . . . . DeCon pellets (lots !!)

 

[Stuart in MN]

It sounds stupid. But a someone told a friend of mine to put out bars of soap. Says it works. Don't ask me how or why.

I once had mice eat a bar of soap in my house. People also say Bounce dryer sheets work but I've seen mice use them to build nests.

As mentioned, you need to somehow block all the holes that are letting the mice in.

 

[Maticuno]

The bucket of death is the most effective mouse trap I've seen. Followed by a cat and exclusion techniques (steel wool and expanding foam shoved into holes).

 

[CNGsaves]

Forgot another important one . . . . put RADIO in garage that you leave ON all the time.

It acts as disturbance to vermin that think a human is around.

 

[LS6 Tommy]

Forgot another important one . . . . put RADIO in garage that you leave ON all the time.

It acts as disturbance to vermin that think a human is around.

...for about an hour or so until they get used to it. I used to have lunch with the mice in the repair shop at the lawnmower place I used to work with. With the radio on...

Tommy

 

[DonPowers]

Made a bucket of death the other day after finding a couple dead mice when rearranging stuff in the garage. Had one mouse this morning in it.

 

[CNGsaves]

...for about an hour or so until they get used to it. I used to have lunch with the mice in the repair shop at the lawnmower place I used to work with. With the radio on...

Tommy

^ ^ ^ That's cuz you have Snooky mice up there in NJ !!

They can deal with whatever distraction is around & still do whatever they want !!

 

[Scout Driver]

Like others have said, its best to seal the building tight enough to keep them outside. A good sized mouse can squeeze through a 1/4 inch gap. The tighter the building, the better. Basically if light can get thru a gap, the mice will try to get in the gap too. If possible, maintain 2 or 3 feet of bare ground between the building and any grass or vegetation. Mice don't like to cross open ground.

Try to eliminate anything in the building that can be a food or bedding source for the mice.

Inside, place traps along walls. Again, mice don't like to cross open areas and I've heard that they are near-sighted little bastards that like to have a wall to feel along as they travel. Peanut butter is good bait. I've had good luck with Tomcat brand sticky traps. A little wad of peanut butter in the middle works well. Keep the floor and the areas along walls clean. This will let you easily see droppings, tracks and other evidence of mice.

They may eat soap, dryer sheets and other deterents. A pouch of Fresh Cab in the vehicle interior, trunk and underhood area is said to work better. http://www.earthkind.com/products/featured-fresh-cab-rodent-repellent

In the last week or so I helped some people with a mouse problem in their 2 car garage. They had a bad seal on the bottom of a garage door and it was the only place I could see where they could get in. The wheat field about 100' away had just been harvested and the mice in the field re-located to the garage. After repairing the seal, I caught 5 or 6 mice a night in the sticky traps. This went on for nearly a week. The last couple days the traps have been bare and there is no evidence of more mice getting in.

Scott

 

[Radix2]

Made a bucket of death the other day after finding a couple dead mice when rearranging stuff in the garage. Had one mouse this morning in it.

hey... wait a minute.... you made that mouse trap out of a CAT litter pail....

we have a bunch of cats, many of them will let a mouse walk on their head, some will "play" with one...if it is not too inconvenient...a very few, even if well fed will mercilessly hunt down anything that moves...

So yea, I can see the need for a mouse trap made from a cat littler pail....

 

[TheEquineFencer]

I've never tried this, but a buddy of mine swears it works for major problems. He was telling me about a friend of his that work went to work at a feed mill mill. The boss hired an old man that found out they had a program for paying employees for cost saving ideas. the old man showed them how to catch rats on the cheap. He took a 55 gallon barrel cut it in half, filled it part way with water and put cotton seed in the water until the water was covered. Cotton seed is sweet smelling and floats because of the oil in it. He then laid a 2x4 "ramp" up to it for the rats to go up. The rats would walk up the ramp and jump down to the cotton seed and soon tire of swimming and start breathing water. He kept a trash can next to it with pitchfork to fish the rats out and to help the still live ones breathe water. He said it worked better than the poison they'd been putting out because they didn't have dead rats everywhere.

 

[JasonF]

I've never tried this, but a buddy of mine swears it works for major problems. He was telling me about a friend of his that work went to work at a feed mill mill. The boss hired an old man that found out they had a program for paying employees for cost saving ideas. the old man showed them how to catch rats on the cheap. He took a 55 gallon barrel cut it in half, filled it part way with water and put cotton seed in the water until the water was covered. Cotton seed is sweet smelling and floats because of the oil in it. He then laid a 2x4 "ramp" up to it for the rats to go up. The rats would walk up the ramp and jump down to the cotton seed and soon tire of swimming and start breathing water. He kept a trash can next to it with pitchfork to fish the rats out and to help the still live ones breathe water. He said it worked better than the poison they'd been putting out because they didn't have dead rats everywhere.

Works great, I use the same method but a 5 gallon bucket and sunflower seeds to catch chipmunks! Must of harvested 30+ the last couple years, little b@stards! lol

 

[My Old Tools]

Best thing I have found is a rat snake. You don't have to feed them or empty a litter box.

 

[TheEquineFencer]

Works great, I use the same method but a 5 gallon bucket and sunflower seeds to catch chipmunks! Must of harvested 30+ the last couple years, little b@stards! lol

Can't you eat them? Chipmunks that is?

I've got a buddy in WV, his son got in trouble for squirrel hunting with Rat traps. He's screw a big rat trap to the side of a tree with peanut butter for bait and move on around the woods, then come back and collect the squirrels.

 

[Dennis Leigh Henry]

When the weather turns.. I'll be putting out a water bucket peanut butter roller.. Last year one of them fell into the pool.. swam until they gave up.. eventually sank to the bottom where the auto pool cleaner sucked them in.. Good thing it didn't get past the turbine wheel..... Dissassembly of the sweeper and removal of the varmint took about a half hour...

 

[CJM8515]

It sounds stupid. But a someone told a friend of mine to put out bars of soap. Says it works. Don't ask me how or why.

Trust me, they eat soap like crazy. Moth balls will keep them out. That or get a cat.

 

[theoldwizard1]

For plugging hole use stainless steel pot scrubbers and spray foam. Mice will chew through the spray foam but not the stainless steel.

 

[LS6 Tommy]

^ ^ ^ That's cuz you have Snooky mice up there in NJ !!

They can deal with whatever distraction is around & still do whatever they want !!

Snooky and the rest of those retards were from NY...

Seriously, there wer at least 2 mice that would come out of a hole at the back of the bench and sit there staring at me when I ate lunch. It got to the point where Inwas hand feeding them scraps from my sandwich. They didn't bother me any.

Tommy