Keeping Machines Outside & Trying to Keep Critters Out of Machines

[wfcjr]

We generally try to store our gear undercover.  Tractor, attachments, etc.

But ran out of time and $$ this fall for getting a pole barn built for the dozer & the excavator.   So they will likely spend the winter out doors, in back of the barn.

When I went to use the dozer today, there was the bouquet & body of one dead mouse in the cab. 

Any one have any ideas on keeping critters out when keeping machines outdoors.  Over the winter, it will very likely be weeks & perhaps months between usages, until things thaw in the spring, especially for the excavator. 

So any tips, tricks, suggestions for keeping mice, squirrels, porcupines, etc, at bay would be appreciated.

Thanks,....

[mroldstyle]

dryer sheets, the more fragrant the better!

[North River Energy]

Have heard of a product called 'mouse magic' for enclosed spaces.   I use mothballs in the lesser used toolboxes and parts cabinets to good effect.
Definitely remove any and all food/snack residue from the cabs.  Crumbs, candy wrappers, orphan napkins etc.
Not like you treat your gear like a canteen truck, but it doesn't take much to draw the rabble.

[1270d]

Decon?

[Ed_K]

Peppermint extract, don't use decon,they die but still smell.

[lynde37avery]

Moth balls in socks and leave em all over the place

[beenthere]

I find poison works, but only if put in place "before" the mice move in and setup their home.

Then the poison gets them when they are seeking out that place to move in to.
If waiting 'til they are nesting, then they will die at "home". 

I want 'em dead, not just scared off to some other location.

[Gary_C]

The only thing I know that works to keep the mice out is mothballs. I always put plenty in the cab of the combine after done using in the fall and never had any mice take up residence or do damage thru the winter. Problem is if you have to to move or use the machine the smell of mothballs is overpowering and not healthy. So mothballs are not a good option except for long term storage with no use.

The other aromatic remedies including those mouse eliminator bags (cedar or other strong smelling things), peppermint extract, dryer sheets, etc. never worked for me. One bag of smelly stuff that was supposed to keep mice out was chewed up and used for their nests.

So if your mouse problem is in a machine in use, the best solution for me has been those grey plastic mouse traps that were made by Little Giant but are now being made by someone else. They are the ones that you squeeze to open and put a little peanut butter or cheese on the trip plate and the bait seems to last for a very long time and the mice never get to eat any. First touch is deadly. I had one trap that the peanut butter was moldy and was still catching mice.

Last winter I was staying in my camper along side the woods where I was working and had three traps in the camper and one in the semi tractor and almost every day I would catch a mouse in one of the traps. I would just throw the mouse out on the snow bank and one day when I was cutting in the harvester where I could see the camper and I saw a crow land on the roof of the camper, survey the snow bank and then go down and pick up the dead mouse I had recently thrown out. Then one time I hit a slow spell in catching mice and that crow sat up in the top of a tree and scolded me for not providing him with supper.  :D

[Holmes]

I've been screwing tomcat "bait chunks" to blocks of wood and putting them in the cabs of the equipment for the varmits to chew. Screwed to wood so they can't haul them away. I would rather they die than eat the wires, that can get real expensive.  This time of year there will be no odor til spring thaw.

[SineWave]

If you use poison, you want a "multiple feed" poison. Most of the poisons sold at retail are "single feed" poisons, and the problem with them is that mice and rats have, through evolution, developed the sense to abandon a food source if some of them start dying. They will stop eating it after one or two of them die. (I guess this keeps them going if they start eating grain contaminated with toxic fungus or whatever...)

With multiple-feed poisons, they'll start eating it ... and when nothing happens for a few days, they'll all start chowing down...until suddenly the whole colony dies when they reach a high enough dosage.

I've been using "Ditrac Blox" from Bell Labs for several years and it works well, but anything containing diphacinone will work. There are also other multiple-feed poisons.

We have dogs and I was concerned about the dogs possibly eating the dead mice but I called Bell Labs and asked about that, and they said, if I recall correctly, that the dog would have to eat 20% of its body weight in Ditrac Blox to be killed. For a 50# dog, that would require 10# of Ditrac Blox, which in turn would take about 50 pounds of dead mice...

[wfcjr]

If you use poison, you want a "multiple feed" poison. Most of the poisons sold at retail are "single feed" poisons, and the problem with them is that mice and rats have, through evolution, developed the sense to abandon a food source if some of them start dying. They will stop eating it after one or two of them die. (I guess this keeps them going if they start eating grain contaminated with toxic fungus or whatever...)

Makes sense... I have seen it in our barn.  Put out poison in pet proof traps.  You get a couple of mice.  Then when the dogs get into the barn, they find other live mice... could not figure out why some mice hit the poison & others avoided it.

Where can  you buy "Ditrac Blox" or other types of what you called, "mulitiple feed poisons"?
Can you put it inside of standard tamper proof plastic containers/traps that normal rat/mouse poison comes in?  (The reusable type.)

Thanks,

[wfcjr]

OK,

Interesting info on the single feed, vs multiple feed poisons.  Some literature does say that rats & mice have an instinctual mechanism where they will not gorge themselves at one sitting on a new food source.  They will nibble, sample & see what happens to them & others.  If it appears safe after a sample or two, they will return.  This seems to be the argument for anti-coagulant, multiple feed poisons, such as Diphacinone (the active ingredient in Ditrac Blox) vs Bromethalin, which affects the central nervous system and works after one feeding, (bromethalin is the active in Tomcat poisons). 

Also, with regard to pets, it appears that the anti-coagulants are likely to do less damage to pets on a single, accidental ingestion than the poisons that work on the central nervous system. 

So will be looking for some Ditrac Blox or similar prods to put in the cabs starting ASAP.

Thanks,....

[beenthere]

~
I have not found that to be true over 30 some years of putting out the same poison pellets.

What I have found is that keeping the poison supplied on a continuous basis doesn't work well... they will hoard it and store it away in quantity and just as fast as it is re-supplied.

I've learned (what works for me), is to put out a packet at a time. When I see that it disappears quickly, I wait a week or two before putting out another, and believe that the critters then start to munch on their supply.
And die.

Works well for me, be it around the house (in 48 years have never had a mouse in this house) and in the garage (sometimes a mouse will ride in on the pallet of firewood), around the shed, and in the shed.

On the occasion that I've had a mouse nest being lived in (i.e. the air conditioner compressor unit and one of my older JD garden tractors), I clean out and spray down with chlorine bleach solution. Seems to remove the urine smell that I think attracts them to their previous "home". The bleach also has worked to change the bad habits of raccoon that want to use a particular area to drop their scat. Since have learned that raccoon "communicate" with other coons through their scat.. learning about each other and who has been there and where they have been previously for food, etc. Interesting critters.

Enough rambling....

[timberlinetree]

Try to stow all your hydraulic cylinders so the rod is in the cylinder.

[g_man]

This nibble new food and wait mechanism must be why the three rubber push button switch covers in my dozer each had a hole nibbled in them last week. So far they haven't been back to finish there meal so they must have decided it was bad rubber.

Another time I took out the seat to get access to the top of the rear main frame. The seat was packed with Decon. It came poring out when I tipped it.

Good luck with this. To me it is a constant battle and nothing seems to work consistently. Maybe because I didn't understand the multible feed thing - that is good info.

gg

[SineWave]

Where can  you buy "Ditrac Blox" or other types of what you called, "mulitiple feed poisons"?
Can you put it inside of standard tamper proof plastic containers/traps that normal rat/mouse poison comes in?  (The reusable type.)

http://www.domyownpestcontrol.com/ditrac-allweather-blox-p-1089.html

This is actually about 50¢ cheaper than it was when I bought an 18# pail three years ago.

As far as I know, they recommend putting it into one of those "feeder stations." The blocks have a hole through the center about 1/4" diameter. I just put the blocks over a finish nail in the barn – or put several blocks on a piece of wire and hang it up – and this keeps them from carrying the stuff off and hoarding it.

One other note: I've used two or three pails of this stuff over the years, and the last pail I bought (3 yrs ago) had a new lid design. The new lid didn't seal the pail as well as the older-style lid did, and weevils/moths got into the poison and ate a LOT of it and messed it all up with their silk webs, etc. If the lid is the same nowadays, I would recommend putting a plastic bag over the mouth of the pail before replacing the lid, to keep the moths/weevils out.

[GRANITEstateMP]

We sell / use a lot of the Fresh Cab at work (car dealership).  It won't kill them, just deters.  Might work well in conjunction with the products that kill (at least the cab will smell good).

http://www.earthkind.com/products/featured-fresh-cab-rodent-repellent

[goose63]

That fresh stuff works darn good I have been putting it in my camper trailer for years now it keeps the mice out

[wfcjr]

We sell / use a lot of the Fresh Cab at work (car dealership).  It won't kill them, just deters.  Might work well in conjunction with the products that kill (at least the cab will smell good).

http://www.earthkind.com/products/featured-fresh-cab-rodent-repellent

OK,

Bought the earthkind Fresh Cab satchels.  Will see how they work.

On a related note,.... kind of curious.  The excavator was outside all last winter and when I did fire her up, never saw any evidence of mice.
Volvo excavator....  But when it comes to the dozer, already this season, first season with dozer, I have found two mice in the cab on two visits.
One dead mouse, and this past weekend one live critter.  John Deere dozer.  Just wondering if the mice have a Deere vs Volvo, preference.
Can't say orange vs yellow or orange vs green since both the Deere & the Volvo construction equipment are yellow... I don't know...

Will report back on the Cab Fresh.

[edkemper]

Amazon.com

My go to place for most anything.

[North River Energy]

Pure speculation, but there's a vague possibility that some of the materials in the dozer may be plant based rather than petroleum based, and that makes for better snacking.

[4x4American]

I have been having good luck, and good fun, trapping mice with the regular old victor mouse traps.  No bait needed.  Moth balls have been said already. 

[wfcjr]

Report back on "Fresh Cab"...

OK,  opened up the dozer to do a little work on Thanksgiving morning and for the first time since it has
gotten cold....no mice to greet me.   So first report is positive.
No mice in the excavator either, but that machine has not had a mouse problem to date.

So... initial reports on "Fresh Cab" are encouraging... will see what the remainder of the fall and winter bring.

Would probably stick with poison in barn & outbuildings.  Seems like the stuff needs a more confined space in order to work properly since it keeps critters at bay based upon aroma/smell.