Mice....

[Curlybirtch]

Any of you have the same feelings for these devils as I do? Nothing like ruining a good weekend of gathering saw logs. Engine is fine, cleaned it all out, none of that nest was visible when I went to start it. Only when mouse parts went flying did I realize there was a problem. My mill is outside but under a tarp, If it sits for more than a week unused I pull the airbox cover off and check things out before I start it up, and I did that here as well.  Other than that I had a good haul out of the woods from two massive EWP's. Both measured out at about 120', got 18 - 8'6" logs out of them. Roughly 4' at the base. I had my eye on these earlier in the winter and mother nature finally decided to give them a push a month or so a ago.  They are a little dirty but everything here is mud mud mud. Real nice logs, should make for some good sawing baring any more rodent infestations.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mike_belben]

that one was definitely more costly on the mouse than you!

[Crusarius]

your lucky. You got the stupid mouse!!! I have the same issue and have missed getting him a few times. Next time he will not be so lucky!

[moodnacreek]

And then there is mud wasps, more every year. They like cooling fins.

[jpassardi]

Nice white pine haul there...
Yes - been there. They filled my engine housing like that and crapped all over in the air box but not beyond the air filter.
I like all creatures - with the strong exception of mice and mosquitos!

[YellowHammer]

I hate them.  They love the taste of insulation and will short circuit things in everything they nest in.  Plus they are nasty little buggers.  

I purchase the little green mouse poison cubes, in the little safety enclosures, and put them everywhere, around the mill, in the boaters, workbenches, cabinets, etc..  They will kill them.  

[Crusarius]

I had the mud bees pack all of my vent lines solid. took me couple times pulling the carb to clean it to realize what happened. Now my mill runs again.

[Tacotodd]

Yes it runs, but does run GREAT?

[Crusarius]

I am getting a good deal of white smoke. not sure why but it is running and has power. It could use an oil change.

[fluidpowerpro]

I was at Menards the other day and saw they had various brands of mouse repellent bags. They look like little bean bags with powder in them. I bought a few to put in my boat and under snowmobile hoods. Figured its worth a try. Has anyone used them with any success?

[farmfromkansas]

Before I got some really good hunting cats, would put rat bait inside about 8" long pieces of plastic pipe. Seems to be a natural thing for mice and rats to run inside a piece of pipe, but I would drill a hole across the pipe and put a wire through with a piece of rat bait on the wire, then tie the wire on the outside.  Would check the bait about once a week, and replace if it was gone.  Really helped around my shop.  Even seems to help in the engine compartment of my truck, works better than just tying bait in the engine compartment.

[JJ]

I have had good luck with storing boats & motors under cover, with the old fashioned moth balls as mouse repellent.  Easy to find and cheep.

      JJ

[HemlockKing]

Anyone had luck with Irish spring soap bar shavings? I had someone say that works 

[fluidpowerpro]

I was of the impression moth balls helped also but then last year I was helping a friend take his snowmobile out of storage. He opened the hood and found mice had built a nest on top of the bag of mothballs he put in the fall before! Maybe the mice in northern MN are immune....

[YellowHammer]

I've used the bags, but much prefer the little green blocks, and the mice do as well.  I've had so many hundreds of dollars damage done by the little monsters and I'm way past trying to repel them because they just go somewhere else, like inside my planer.  Yuck, it took awhile to clean that bloody mess up, not to mention the stain it left on the board. 

 

  

[Curlybirtch]

I've tried moth balls and dryer sheets....the *DanG things just chew on them and laugh at me. I stay away from the poison because I've got 3 dogs that do a good job of thinning the mice/mole/vole population and had a real bad experience with the pups a few years back when they got into some of the neighbors poison. A family of Owls has moved in up the woods a bit and they are helping keep the local varmints at bay as well, but you'll never get them all.

[JJ]

found mice had built a nest on top of the bag of mothballs

yea, you need the old style moth balls with dichlorobenzene -had to look it up the benzene is the good stuff.   Most moth balls now use Naphthalene as active ingredient (kinder and gentler).

     JJ

[Skip]

I hate the smell of fried mice in the morning !  >:(

[D6c]

Any more I put aluminum mesh over the air cleaner intakes on all my equipment, and any other opening I can find that might be a good nesting spot.  

[samandothers]

I've tried moth balls and dryer sheets....the *DanG things just chew on them and laugh at me. I stay away from the poison because I've got 3 dogs that do a good job of thinning the mice/mole/vole population and had a real bad experience with the pups a few years back when they got into some of the neighbors poison. A family of Owls has moved in up the woods a bit and they are helping keep the local varmints at bay as well, but you'll never get them all.

We tried Irish Spring they gnawed on it and pooped on it.  Don't think it works.  I usually have to take the fly wheel cover off my LT35 before using and clean.  Last time I wanted to pull it the running lights did not work.  Yep, they cut the wire in the cross member.  They also build in the fly wheel and under cowling of the zero turn. 
We plan to sell our camper we have used as a cabin on our land in Va. Been cleaning and getting ready to market.   It has issue with the running lights, brake lights and back up lights.  I have found one wire cut and I am sure I'll find more.  We have hesitated using poison and it can poison the critters that feed on them.  We have used traps in the camper but it is a loosing battle.  The produce faster than they get snapped!

[sprucebunny]

I have mice in the car I drive everyday ! Only food in there was cough drops and they are supposed to hate mint.

Had to make a custom mouse trap mount to get the one that is up in the ceiling. I removed the overhead light and put this up there.


 

Hope this works. I hate mice. It's an ongoing battle on all the equipment.

[KenMac]

My neighbor told me today that he has good luck with Essential oils of peppermint and cinnamon diluted and sprayed in his second camper that they don't use to repel mice. Have to respray every couple months, but says it works well for him.

[HemlockKing]

I have mice in the car I drive everyday ! Only food in there was cough drops and they are supposed to hate mint.

Had to make a custom mouse trap mount to get the one that is up in the ceiling. I removed the overhead light and put this up there.


 

Hope this works. I hate mice. It's an ongoing battle on all the equipment.

I was gonna suggest maybe you could smoke him out with a hose from the exhaust to a cracked window idling for a hour or so with heater on recirculate cabin air so it smokes the vents too, but then you'd have a nasty stinky dead mouse to find lol 

[DMcCoy]

Any more I put aluminum mesh over the air cleaner intakes on all my equipment, and any other opening I can find that might be a good nesting spot.  

Yup, covered the air intake on a brand new tractor.  Chipmunks might be cuter but they are just as bad.
I have been on a mission to get my place wildfire prepped.  More mowing and getting rid of brush down to small sticks lying on the ground.  I have noticed a drastic change in the mouse population. If they want to make it to my house they have a lot of very exposed ground to cover.   It doesn't take much to hide a mouse, just a chunk of bark will do.

[boonesyard]

The mouse war has been ongoing around here for years. They've done thousands of dollars in damage to our campers, equipment, headliners, wiring, engines, seats, etc. We've tried everything from traps, water traps, sonic deterrents, natural deterrents and cats. I've used the hard green block poison (Tomcat) in the bait stations to keep away from the other animals, but it has only been semi effective. We just couldn't stay ahead of them.

 A couple years ago, we had an exterminator come to the farm to assess the issue. He explained that the hard baits are not very effective in that they are waxed base and don't give off much aroma, in other words not as palatable as soft baits. We went to a soft bait called First Strike that has a high acceptance by rodents even with competing food sources. Its packaging allows the aroma to escape and it remains soft even during winter months. It is an anticoagulant so we still have to be careful with application, we use tamper-proof bait stations. The great thing is when they ingest the stuff, they head for water. We very seldom find the stinky remains in equipment or campers. The carcasses dry up very quickly and are not very palatable to other critters re: potential cross contamination. 

We've come to the realization that we can not keep the mice out. So if they are going to move in where they don't belong, we want them to find the bait quickly and effectively. This stuff works!

The other destructive rodents we regularly deal with are chipmunks and fox squirrels, but that's for another day.