Mouse proofing... anybody tried this?

[rlitman]

Yes, exactly. I knew someone with zero knowledge would try to challenge my statement.
Here's lesson for you...
The only bone in a mouse is it's tiny skull. The rest of the body is cartilage.
The head can and does fit into a 1/4" hole and the the mouse can and does flatten it's body to get through openings.

I challenged your statement, but it was largely full of ****, based on lots of wive's tales and myths passed down through the ages. But since you learned it on the job, you must be right; right? <facepalm>

So, here's a few personal lessons for you:

Mice are vertebrate animals that have skeletons just like you and I, and it's not at all difficult to see that:

The grain of truth in your statement is that because a mouse's pelvis is smaller than it's skull, and because its ribs are flexible enough to compress to smaller than the skull as well, if the skull fits through a hole, the rest of the mouse can fit through too. But a mouse's skull will absolutely not pass through a 1/4" hole, and their limbs absolutely are not held together by cartilage. Mice are not sharks.

Here's a great video showing a mouse desperately trying to fit through a 5/8" hole, with no luck:

Now his fat *** mouse may have been exceptionally large, but 3/4" was the smallest hole that particular mouse would pass.

Now Matthias was testing with round holes, but the real world also has holes of other shapes. From what I've seen, a 1/2" gap between two bricks is large enough for a mouse to pass. But 1/4" square holes, as found in 1/4" mesh hardware cloth are certainly too small for any mouse to get through, and yet are plenty large to pass a pencil.

 

[PugetDude]

Best me to it, rlitman.
Thanks for the clarification.

 

[Ray-CA]

Man, you nailed it on a number of points! Yeah, where I'm at it can get very cold. We do have some snakes in my area, but they have a "limited run" from around now until Sept. And, as you correctly indicated, I wouldn't trade one headache for another anyway.

It's not necessarily the snake itself that deters the mice. It's the scent of the predator that helps keep them away. That's why the snake skin that I used worked so well.

Ray

 

[flathead dave]

True, they are skeletal. Their skeleton is very small. Now, if you study the make up of a mouse you will see that they are cartilage and can and do flatten out to squeeze through a 1/4" hole.

Mice are not very big. They only look like big because of the fur. Mice don't have the bone structure of other animals so they can flatten out around the skeleton and squeeze through a tiny hole.
If the skull can fit, so can the rest of the body.

Thanks for playing.

 

[PugetDude]

I’ll just leave this here...

 

[ng8264723]

Flathead Dave I am a physician. You are very wrong here...……..

 

[LS6 Tommy]

Used to do this for a living.
A mouse can get through a 1/4" opening. The only bone is their skull and they can flatten out and squeeze through and a rat only needs a 1/2".

Yes, exactly. I knew someone with zero knowledge would try to challenge my statement.
Here's a lesson for you...
The only bone in a mouse is it's tiny skull. The rest of the body is cartilage.
The head can and does fit into a 1/4" hole and the the mouse can and does flatten it's body to get through openings.

True, they are skeletal. Their skeleton is very small. Now, if you study the make up of a mouse you will see that they are cartilage and can and do flatten out to squeeze through a 1/4" hole.

Mice are not very big. They only look like big because of the fur. Mice don't have the bone structure of other animals so they can flatten out around the skeleton and squeeze through a tiny hole.
If the skull can fit, so can the rest of the body.

Thanks for playing.

Good thing you don't do it for a living anymore. The person with zero knowledge was the one who trained you.

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Tommy

 

[rlitman]

Good thing you don't do it for a living anymore. The person with zero knowledge was the one who trained you.

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Tommy

These sort of tall tales get passed down by old-timers as if they were some form of acquired wisdom in EVERY trade, and the ones that don't cause any harm don't ever have a reason to even die out. Who here has heard the **** about never storing batteries on a concrete floor?

 

[LS6 Tommy]

Good point. Moth balls, dryer sheets, storing small batteries in the refrigerator...

Tommy

 

[58Yeoman]

^^Snake skins deterring mice. My wife has found two skins in her potting shed, along with numerous mice in the bucket trap.^^

 

[LS6 Tommy]

^^Snake skins deterring mice. My wife has found two skins in her potting shed, along with numerous mice in the bucket trap.^^

I've had an occasional Black Snake or Copper Head in the yard and at least three Garter snakes around my foundation for years, two of which are more than big enough to eat mice. I find Garter snake skins all over the place. They've been around since long before I did the exclusion work, which is when I stopped getting mice.

Tommy

 

[pizza]

i'm highly skeptical that predatory signals (urine, fur, skin sheddings, ...) alone confer reliable rodent control. i suspect that the success you see is coincidental. maybe you've got real predators.

1) habituation: many rodents, including mice, are pretty smart. they won't be fooled forever if there is no real threat.

2) T. gondii is endemic and causes many populations to become rather brazen. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxoplasmosis#Rodents

 

[santagary]

most mice come through open garage/shop doors of all sizes...not through 1/4" cracks. Largest rat I've ever seen was stopped with a big sticky trap.