Successful mice control???

[Jameseric]

My barn is 75-100 years old. This month I poured a concrete slab down the center of the barn. My next plan is to pour a slab on the left side to create a floor area that is 14x26 for a shop. I use the barn to store tools and equipment. The barn ceiling is 21 feet high but I only plan to make the ceiling in the shop 11 feet high. I want to insulate the shop but I am concerned about mice setting up residence in the insulation. So the walls are timber and vertical siding panels.

What is the best way to insulate the shop to keep the mice from living in the walls and ceiling and destroying the insulation? I do not expect to keep them out of the barn but I would like to keep them out of the walls and ceiling.

I currently have (30) sheets of 2" blue board and 15 bags of cellulose I've been holding on to for times like this if they are good options.

What has worked for other people in the past and what would you do?

Thanks,

James

 

[crewchief888]

a hungry cat or 2

or a 12 guage, but it's kinda messy


i've been told mothballs, and dryer sheets work in & around equipment, but it'd probably take a lot to cover a barn

 

[Bob C]

Just keep trappin. Bag 4 a day and that will cut down on the population.

 

[fflintstone]

A barn cat is the BEST way to control critters. They keep all critters away. I used to hate cats and I found that it is not the cats I hated but people that faun over cats. Get whatever cat fixed though otherwise you will have more cats.

 

[PsRumors]

another vote for a barn cat

 

[twincam00]

Barn cats is the cheapest and best way to go


The Tin Cat works well too
http://www.victorpest.com/store/mouse-control/m310

 

[kbs2244]

Another vote for a cat.

In my experience a female, raised as a barn cat, that has had at least one litter.
If spayed after that OK.
They are used to being outside and left alone.
They know how to hunt and have brought home the food for at least one family.

But just be aware, they are not the social, fawning, follow you around, animals that dogs are.
If you get on their good side they may bring you a present from their hunting.
A scratch behind the ears and maybe some milk will be enough reward, but they will let you know if they want it.

And they are night creatures.
They will be seeming to sleep all the time. But it is just in the daytime.

 

[BD1]

Besides cats, this stuff works. Just One Bite.

http://www.valleyvet.com/ct_search_results.html?gas=mice

 

[maddawg308]

What we called in the military a "multi-pronged attack".

1. Get cats, a couple of them. They will help feed themselves. Make sure they're neutered or the cat population will explode.

2. Traps. Not the eco-friendly ones that don't kill them. ANNIHILATE THEM. KILL THEM ALL. Pretend you're Chuck Norris when you're doing it. The simple snap ones work fine, peanut butter is a great lure.

3. Mothballs in sealed containers. Ammo cans are expensive, but worth it.

4. For vehicles parked inside your garage for a long time, leave an open can of "peppermint oil" in the interior. Trust me, it works. Some big stores carry this in the scents aisle. Replace every few months with fresh oil. Most animals and bug hate the smell, even though we love it.

5. Poison all over the place, unless you have cats. If cats, then stick with the traps.

 

[ddawg16]

Cats.....don't feed them.....then they hunt better...

Don't use poison....if the rat eats it and then the cat eats the rat....you make the cat sick or kill it....

Besides....other creatures will eat the poison....you may not want that...

We have 2 cats....in the summer time they live outside most of the time....they are also doing a good job of keeping the neighborhood clean of mice....and rats....and now the opossums don't come by.......though we still have an issue with racoons....

 

[Stuart in MN]

The best thing to do is keep them out of the structure in the first place - cats and poison and shotguns are all bandaid solutions, really. I realize this may be next to impossible with an old barn, but go over the place with a fine tooth comb, and find and seal off any holes or cracks where they can get in.

 

[Bob C]

The best thing to do is keep them out of the structure in the first place. I realize this may be next to impossible with an old barn, but go over the place with a fine tooth comb, and find and seal off any holes or cracks where they can get in.

Ever watch a mouse squeeze thru a tiny hole? They can get thru a hole the size of a penny. A mouse's body is extremely flexible. Almost looks like they shrink to get thru a hole. How many penny sized spots you think are in an old barn?

 

[ptschram]

Another vote for a cat.

In my experience a female,

But just be aware, they are not the social, fawning, follow you around, animals that dogs are.


And they are night creatures.
They will be seeming to sleep all the time. But it is just in the daytime.

I have three Shop Moggies, a female who was fixed as soon as possible and both males were as well.

The female is now the worst hunter of the bunch, she got lazy. The 19 year-old former alley cat turned housecat turned Shop Moggy hunts like wild and gets a few mice each week.

The 17 year-old Siamese, former housecat (I caught him peeing on my bed while I was in it!!!) bats sparrows out of the sky and brings them to the shop office and drops them next to the food bowl.

The indoor/outdoor cat (former small-town, former Chicago city kat) is by far the best hunter.

They are stupidly affectionate and love it when anyone is in the shop. They do a good job keeping my shop that was built while Lincoln was stil president rodent free.

 

[Andybull]

You may want to consider spraying closed, or open cell foam. It's not cheap, but will seal the structure.

 

[rktolds]

We have two shop cats. Female and male were pound freebies since June was adopt a cat month. They catch at least one mouse a week and let us play with them when we r outside. It is a perfect relationship. Another vote for hungry cats.

Matt

 

[Stuart in MN]

Ever watch a mouse squeeze thru a tiny hole? They can get thru a hole the size of a penny. A mouse's body is extremely flexible. Almost looks like they shrink to get thru a hole. How many penny sized spots you think are in an old barn?

I have a 100 year old house, so yes I have...that's why I said it may be next to impossible with a barn. However, I think it's still worth the effort to try to seal the place up as well as possible.

 

[pauldeere]

If you kill one, a thousand will come to it's funeral........

 

[crazytrain]

A agree with the cat idea, eliminate all food sources and lots and lots of these (still made in Pennsylvania USA after 100 years in business and cheap too).
http://www.victorpest.com/store/mouse-control/bm154
Bait them with carmel the mice love it and have to work to get it off so it insures they get caught. I had a problem with mice in my house a few years back due to dirty neighbors bought a bunch of traps, baited them with peanut butter just to find them cleaned and not sprung. I switched to carmel and caught 3 mice before I finished setting all the traps in the kitchen, no more mouse problems. Oh also got rid of neighbors too, but thats another story. Good luck and happy hunting.

 

[theoldwizard1]

You may want to consider spraying closed, or open cell foam. It's not cheap, but will seal the structure.

Mice will gnaw through foam unless it is over wire mesh.

 

[188slo50]

Ill throw my .02 in and say that I have an outside cat just for the mice and he isnt worth a ****. I use the pepermint oil in the car on cotton balls like everyone says and even threw in a trap with PB on it and caught one so id say peppermint oil doesnt work either. My best success is good old fashion snap traps with PB or red twizzlers. Ive never done the circus thing but its my next one to try.

 

[eborcim]

Glue traps work good to monitor mice pops as well

 

[Jameseric]

Thanks to everyone for the comments. I like the idea of the spring traps. I know I can't keep them out of the barn. I just want to keep them out of the insulation in the walls and ceiling of the shop that I am building inside the barn. It is like a building inside of a larger building. What is the best way to use the wire mesh? Has anyone tried the bitter tasting pest foam in an outbuilding? They claim mice hate the taste.

PS: My dogs would eat the cats and poison would harm the hawks and foxes that eat the dead mice.

 

[boo coo tracks]

Spayed barn cat is my choice. Mice like my pickup, tried a bar of Irish Spring ,mice ate the damn soap. You need to feed the cat a little each day or they will run off. A well fed cat will still hunt critters.
Bottom line Cats are better than giving mice soap enema's
Tracks

 

[Andybull]

I never said the spray foam was rat proof. It does not have layers such as batten insulation. The sheets of blue board insulation will have a gap between them and the structure they are attached to, which will allow the mice to turn into corridors and breeding areas.

 

[Lunker]

5gal bucket with a spinning can suspended by coat hanger, baited with peanut butter with anti freeze at the bottom
Check YouTube there are videos

The anti freeze will pickel the dead mouse so you won't smell them

 

[Jameseric]

Thanks again. I ran across this tonight and wanted to pass it on in case anyone with a metal building could use it.

http://microship.com/resources/pole-building-rodents.html

James

 

[WQ59B]

^ there's an issue with the last pic at that link. Unless securely blocked off from the inside, the steel siding is not sitting tight to the lower flashing, and mice can still squeeze in that siding ridge & crawl right in. 1/4-in gap = mice.

Either get it 'skin-tight', or you are going to be looking for another solution. I'd also like to see that steel wool secured- they may not be able to chew thru it, but it doesn't look that hard to pull out. Informative write up otherwise.

 

[Bull]

A good mouser cat is worth her weight in platinum. I have two cats that live in my barn. I let them out during the day and put them in at night so the foxes and coyotes don't get them. One isn't worth a **** as a mouser: he's caught maybe two mice and one chipmunk all season. The other cat is a beast. She has brought me star-nosed moles, chipmunks, mice of different types, a live squirrel that wasn't much smaller than she was, a couple birds, and some kind of weasel looking thing. I'd say she has caught 50-60 creatures since the spring, easily. I had some critter get into the barn a few years ago, before she lived out there. The thing was eating my insulation inside the wall and laying big stinky shits all over the place. I put her out there, and within 24 hours I found a mangled and ****** mass of something on the floor, problem solved. I live on about 15 acres of field, so there is plenty out there.

A recent issue of Auto Restorer mentioned a product that is supposed to work aces for keeping mice away. I'll dig up the issue and get the name for you.

 

[mdbeck1]

Ill throw my .02 in and say that I have an outside cat just for the mice and he isnt worth a ****. I use the pepermint oil in the car on cotton balls like everyone says and even threw in a trap with PB on it and caught one so id say peppermint oil doesnt work either. My best success is good old fashion snap traps with PB or red twizzlers. Ive never done the circus thing but its my next one to try.

We had a mice infestation at the office when we first moved in. It was a new building built in what used to be a field. They brought in partitions that had been stored in a warehouse. Not sure of the original mouse source but they got pretty bad. At first the facilities people tried the "politically correct" mouse traps that didn't kill them. What seemed to work was cinnamon oil like we used to make cinnamon sticks with as a kid. Soak some cotton balls in it and leave them in isolated areas (desk drawers) to keep the mice out of small areas. It probably would be too expensive for large areas.

BTW: The final solution at the office was to put poison out. You could hear the mice eating it during the day. By the end of the month we didn't have much of a mouse problem. ...and according to the MSDS sheet the poison in the mouse wasn't really a problem for humans. ...unless maybe you ate the dead mouse.

 

[ny1]

Another vote for a cat. When they are out of mice they will hunt anything else that moves.

 

[IMCA38]

Bait them with carmel the mice love it and have to work to get it off so it insures they get caught. I had a problem with mice in my house a few years back due to dirty neighbors bought a bunch of traps, baited them with peanut butter just to find them cleaned and not sprung. I switched to carmel and caught 3 mice before I finished setting all the traps in the kitchen, no more mouse problems.

Can you please clarify what type of carmel you used. I tried this with some carmel ice cream topping we had, and that stuff just ran all over the trap. I'm thinking you must use something different.

 

[Broadie]

The 5 gallon bucket trap mentioned above is the best trap as far as I'm concerned. We have a problem with mice in our cabin up on the Stikine River. Our record is 13 mice in one night!

 

[Ray-CA]

I used to catch and bring home gopher snakes. They'd get released in and around the shop. Between them and the cats, no more rodent trouble. One trick was to leave their shed skin around also. Mice don't know that the snake isn't in the skin anymore so they avoid the area.

Ray

 

[kald]

Go rescue a cat or three form the pound. Mice problem solved.

I'm dog guy myself but they are pretty worthless unless I get a rabbit infestation.

 

[58Yeoman]

I used to catch and bring home gopher snakes. They'd get released in and around the shop. Between them and the cats, no more rodent trouble. One trick was to leave their shed skin around also. Mice don't know that the snake isn't in the skin anymore so they avoid the area.

Ray

Will gopher snakes kill moles also? I've got a bunch of them in my yard. Where do you catch them?

 

[onewaydave]

Eliminate food, water, shelter or make it undesirable habitat. Basically impossible.

Black snake, hog nose or what every your location has naturally will help lessen the number in the walls. A cat won't.

Feed the cat and it will hunt for you. Don't feed the cat and it may leave when the population of foot diminishes and not come back when it does.

Consider insulation nothing but bedding for the mice until you lessen their population.

Learn to scream like a w/b*tch when you open a drawer and there is a mouse/family. Then go ballistic and chase the critter through the drawers and around the shop with a Tarus snake killer

or a baseball bat until you fall out in exhaustion.

Good fun, great exercise and the neighbours will talk about you forever.


Dave, Shopkeeper of snakes.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Victor traps and Twizzlers for bait.

 

[galute]

Leave a radio playing loudly at all times when you are not in the barn. As loud as possible without becoming annoying to the surrounding area. It will drive them nuts and they will leave. Ever walk into a building in dead quite of night? Even a moderate volume radio is loud. When I built my new shop it was in the edge of the woods and goes several days at a time with no human activity. The mice and other wildlife immediatly took over. I tried everything including cats with very little luck. I started cranking up the radio when I leave. Haven't seen any evidence of a mouse in over a year now. As a plus it helps to make theives think that someone may be nearby.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Galute, I keep the radio playing 24/7 and never thought about it as a rodent deterrent, theives yes but not four legged ones.

 

[KEH]

I'm thinking snakes may kill more rats than they really need, maybe for entertainment. Reason: Daughter had 6 small guinea chicks(they are called keets, if anybody cares). She was keeping them in a cardboard box in the attached garage. She heard noises, went to garage, found a large black snake with one dead guinea squeezed to death in its tail and another in its mouth, not dead yet. She grabbed the snake, shook it to make it turn the guinea loose, removed live guineas from the box, took box to edge og woods, told her small children to stay in house, got ear protection and a Tarus Judge, emptied 5 rounds into the snake, killing it. SIL said she used $8 worth of ammunition on the snake. She was expecting a woman to come there for an appointment and could just see her driving up and seeing some crazy woman running around the yard firing a big gun.

Any way, I suspect the snakes will kill more rats than they need and affect the rat population more seriously than one would think.

KEH