wee bitty mouse

[jasong70]

I'm trying to keep the mice out of my shed. I've sealed off any food sources but they've taken a liking to it.

I've checked the structure (its pretty much new) and the only gap is at the top of my rollup door, roughtly 6' up.

Can these little f-ers climb up the vinyl siding and steel door?

Any recommended ways of sealing that up? Any other way of keeping them out? I've got traps set and caught 1 already.

I do keep the door closed when I'm not in there...

 

[Sabaka]

9999

 

[RonnieC]

Apparently they can get through a hole the size of a dime, and sure, they can climb!

 

[Professur]

National Geographic did a write up on rodents a few decades back that I still recall well. A full sized norweigian rat (aka, common sewer rat) can squeeze it's entire self through a hole the size of a quarter ... and can chew a hole that size right through a cinder block. Mice need much less. And vinyl siding may as well be a ladder for them.

 

[Kevin54]

Apparently they can get through a hole the size of a dime, and sure, they can climb!

This right here^^^

Also make sure that any tall grass is kept down around places. Mice love tall grass, wood piles, stacked lumber outside, so on and so forth.

 

[Coopduc]

I had mice in my attic of a 2 story house. I found a knot hole in the soffit they were getting in. I covered the hole with some aluminum flashing, thinking that would prevent further entrance, but a few months later they chewed through it and were in again. Finally I covered the hole with a 1/8" thick plate of stainless steel. This kept them out.

 

[jasong70]

I forgot to mention thast I peppered the area with mothballs. my neighbour was wondering what the smell was there was so much.

I was suggested to install a brush seal, but that doesn't seem like it would block them out very much... maybe rat poison is the only way.

I need to keep the wiring harness and my motorcycles safe from chewing...

I've seen 'em climb up vinyl siding before, and they can squeeze through very, very small openings. If it isn't made of metal, they can chew through anything. It's amazing!

I've found that leaving moth balls around discourages them....but then you have that moth ball smell.

 

[1949 caddyman]

Set out stickey traps.

 

[justsam]

Barn cat?

 

[Kevin54]

We used to get mice in the wall every year right around Thanksgiving. I never did find where they were getting it at, but they were in the attic, they would get into the soffits above the kitchen cabinets, walk along the soffits until they reached the end and would fall into the wall cavity.

I wasn't sure where they were at exactly until I saw our cat laying at the wall in the living room. I pulled the 'fridge out in the kitchen and cut a square out of the drywall. (kitchen and living room shared the same wall) and I shoved the hose to the shopvac down in the hole. I had 5 live mice and a couple dead ones, along with a few skeletons. Up in the attic, I blocked off the area where they could fall in. We have blown in insulation, and you could see holes where the mice had tunnels.

 

[jkwilson]

Bait stations inside and out. If you find a place they are getting in, pack it with steel wool and caulk it in place. You can track down where they get in by dusting fine sawdust or flour around the inside perimeter of the building and looking for tracks.

 

[InPrimer]

I suppose a M-16 on full auto is out of the question??

 

[JohnX14]

Here is how at least one person on a boating forum I belong to deals with mice. I've heard of it from several sources, a lot of them using water in the bucket instead of anti-freeze:

Take a 5 gallon bucket and drill a hole on either side close to the top. The hole has to be just big enough for a piece of wooden doweling. Take an empty beer can (emptying them is the good part) and put a hole in the bottom. The doweling should go through one end of the bucket, through the beer can and then through the other hole in the bucket. The can should then be able to spin on the doweling. Fill the bucket up 1/4 full with antifreeze. Coat the beer can in peanut butter and put a 1x4 ramp from the ground up to the bucket. Mice will walk up the board, jump to the beer can for the peanut butter and it will spin dropping the mice into the antifreeze. I caught 5 mice last year and my neighbor caught 9.

 

[Beemer533]

"I suppose a M-16 on full auto is out of the question??"

Probably be fun, but fixing the drywall after is a *****...

 

[bobcatdan]

You need a champion mouser, get a cat or a terrier.

 

[8man]

Tractor Supply sells both a deterrent that I sprinkle around the outside of the garage, well house and house. Inside the well house and garage I hide TomKat rat bait. I hide it behind heavy stuff so the little buggers can't drag it out where my dog can get into it - that would be very bad. I also use the moth balls in the attic of the well house. Each spring when the first born of the year start looking for new homes is the time to start. It works pretty well for me.

 

[NUTTSGT]

A 1/4 gap is all they need to squeeze under to get inside.


I bait a few Victor mouse traps with Twizzler and set them along the wall, just check them periodically.

 

[Raven GT]

I live next to farm land, so plenty of mice around here, and they used to come into the house in the winter.

I tried traps, poison, snares, just about anything But a claymore.

No joy, the little #^^%$& just kept on coming

Since I got my 3 cats, no mice in the house.
They smallest of the 3 likes to bring me her dead prey, which in the last 3 days amounted to a grand total of 10 mice and a sparrow.
This al in the daytime since I keep my cats inside the house at night.
Besides eating rats, mice, moles, spiders. flies and mosquitos they are also good for keeping other peoples pets of your property

Get a cat from a shelter, you will have a pet, a fully autonomous(e)
rodent eradicator system (batteries not required), and the joy of giving a cat a good home.

 

[Leaflessshadetree]

I use Fox urine, especially near any openings. Seems to cause most of them to look elsewhere for food/lodging.

They can climb and will find any openings. If you can poke your little finger in it they can get through.

 

[IOWNJUNK]

Years ago we were overrun at work with mice, we set these and soon realized it was NOT the way to go. If you don't get the mouse out soon the insides get wet and smell horrible. Then the critter gets stuck in the back making it hard to remove, kinda expensive to throw away.

This is what I had growing up. It was more fun than video games. Old school wind up multiple catch mousetrap. Living on a farm there was never a shortage of mice, and as soon as it got cold out they would try to make your home theirs. You could hear it go off from anywhere in the house it was so loud. It stored mice in the back so you could relocate them (yeah right) or it held a mason jar of water to drown them (cruel, but better than having a tunnel in your wonder bread)

This is what I use now, its so easy I wish we had more mice.

The twizzler for bait is different, never heard of that. Might try it this fall.

The beer can-bucket-swim for your life trap sounds so cool I have to try it.


For outdoors we have 2 cats, I have never fed them, they wont tolerate you being near them, and our dogs fear them. They will kill anything smaller than them and eat all but the head, that gets placed neatly at the front door. Nothing works better.

 

[PelicanPines]

This topic is the exact reason i'm glad i married the crazy cat lady. A bug has a limited life span in our house, garage, shed, seed shed, un-named outbuilding... much less a mouse. One of our cats, Earl (named after the guardian angel in Saving Grace) has taken out a 5 foot rat snake.

 

[jasong70]

interesting, thanks for all the info. interesting note about the shrubbery. I set my shed into the landscape and it's almost a jungle so I'm thinking that may contribute.

So I put in a rubber flap at the top of the roll up door. That may or may not work. If it doesn't I put victor spring traps on either side of the door there they get in and used peanut butter as bait.

Cat option is out because I'm allergic and a cat in a 8x12 shed is a little cruel.i also put out more moth balls. Any more and it's going to be a little over the top.

I'll keep you posted.

 

[Professur]

Be warned that peanut butter on a trap may actually attract more mice. The smell goes a long long way.

 

[4xdog]

Here is how at least one person on a boating forum I belong to deals with mice. I've heard of it from several sources, a lot of them using water in the bucket instead of anti-freeze:

Take a 5 gallon bucket and drill a hole on either side close to the top. The hole has to be just big enough for a piece of wooden doweling. Take an empty beer can (emptying them is the good part) and put a hole in the bottom. The doweling should go through one end of the bucket, through the beer can and then through the other hole in the bucket. The can should then be able to spin on the doweling. Fill the bucket up 1/4 full with antifreeze. Coat the beer can in peanut butter and put a 1x4 ramp from the ground up to the bucket. Mice will walk up the board, jump to the beer can for the peanut butter and it will spin dropping the mice into the antifreeze. I caught 5 mice last year and my neighbor caught 9.

I saw this exact device in use at a fly-in fishing camp in western Ontario a few years ago. Effective, but not that pretty and not very compact.

For me, it's simple peanut butter on a snap trap. Seems to be effective and as humane as possible.

 

[SMKS]

I personally prefer these snap traps. They're made in the USA by Kness, they're easy to set and they're affordable.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004B9XPOO/?tag=atomicindus08-20

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002YTQ9MI/?tag=atomicindus08-20

Sticky traps, live traps and drowning traps are just too cruel. I want to kill the mice, but I don't want to torture them first.

And yes, I said live traps are too cruel. it's because people always forget about them and the mouse slowly dies in the trap.

 

[Professur]

And yes, I said live traps are too cruel. it's because people always forget about them and the mouse slowly dies in the trap.

+1 I want them dead, or fed.

 

[RonnieC]

At our cabin I would use the OLD Victor traps (not the new ones with the silly plastic swiss cheese trigger) and never even had to bait them- just put them right next to the wall.

 

[Casey69]

i had mice coming in through the garage & up into the attic. there was an opening in the corner of the garage door moulding that was about the size of a dime (saw their tracks in the snow some winter morning). i had glue traps, snap traps, & a box trap (like this http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000WZ4KO0/?tag=atomicindus08-20). glue trap worked well & the baited box trap also worked well - couldn't get the old snap-traps to work.

check the corners of the garage door when it's closed & make sure it's tight. i filled it in with some putty & haven't had a problem since.

 

[LifeLongWNYer]

I use something called "Fresh Cab", available in most farm & garden stores, but rarely in a big box. It is a little sack full of balsam pine shavings and needles. The mice, so I've been told, don't like that smell. I put a couple in each of my old cars in the garage, then usually a couple more in the open of the garage. They don't last forever, I usually replace them every 60 - 70 days.

Since I've been doing this, I have seen no signs of mice in the garage or the cars. The smell ( to me ) is better than mothballs.



.

 

[jasong70]

I was wondering if that would be the case.

Be warned that peanut butter on a trap may actually attract more mice. The smell goes a long long way.

 

[Mike in Ohio]

Mom and Dad spread dryer sheets around in their camper to keep mice out when it is stored for the winter. It seems to work pretty well for them.

 

[Blue]

One of our cats, Earl (named after the guardian angel in Saving Grace) has taken out a 5 foot rat snake.

Damn.

That's one bad-*** cat!