I've got a little Kubota tractor I keep in a 3-sided barn down in the pasture. Critters are grateful I built the barn, and one thing I've noticed lately is I have a mouse that likes to hang out inside the engine compartment. I've found evidence of nest-building in there during the winter (and other parts of the barn as well).
What kinds of things are people doing to keep critters from causing trouble inside their machines out in the field? Do moth balls and mint candies work like they do in vehicles?
I have had mice and birds trying to nest in the sawmill. I had a pack rat in a riding lawn mower. I had one mouse living in the tongue of my log conveyor. found him after doing some welding. the machines and rodents do not go together. mouse traps.
Quote from: doc henderson on May 21, 2025, 06:26:19 AMI have had mice and birds trying to nest in the sawmill.... mouse traps.
LOL! Funny you mention, found a birds nest last week! Had an egg in it, felt bad... Park it in a different spot now!
I'm about ready to put up some traps, at least around the tractor, but... I get this guy, there's 1000 ready to take its place. Wife suggested a barn-cat, but they're coyote food around here.
After two tries, I got the birds to find new spots. It is an ongoing battle. I get some mice in the shop in the fall and I get religious about traps for a month and they are gone. other mice made better choices. the parent birds were able to move on. I take the cover off and find a bunch of nest material. We have had two years of nesting in our umbrella sunshade by a pair.
I moved wood and logs for 7hrs on Sat, on and off my tractor 20ish times. Sunday I came out to process wood and there was a new birds nest above one of my rear facing work lights. They aren't bright about where they build them, but there are efficient!
Mice are intolerable and will eventually cause significant damage as well as health issues if you have a cab. I get the mouse poison, the little green blocks in the black plastic "safety" boxes, and put a couple in the engine compartment or on the frame, a couple in the cab, or anywhere they will not fall off like in the seat when I get off. About three or four blocks per machine, placed in strategic locations, seems to be about right. It is amazing how often I have to replace them.
I have had mice build nests right on my cab air filters, (yeah, nasty), nests in the blower vents (have you ever been sprayed with mouse stuff first thing in the morning when you turn a machine on? I have), destroy wiring, insulation, stuff like that. My buddy's tractor caught on fire from a bird nest in the engine compartment.
I do not see how any creature can literally poop on its on food or in its own nest and survive, but mice can, and thrive. But not in my machines.
I had squirrels chew the corner off my fuel tank on the mill. birds are smarter and will leave an area alone if they are vacated soon and often. mice are not that smart or very stubborn.
I use bromethalin bait for mice. Protect it from other animals.
https://www.amazon.com/Tomcat-Bait-Chunx-Pail-LB/dp/B005BV0DD2?th=1
If a child eats it, you will see their teeth stained green or blue depending on the product, and know they ate it.
I use the green balls in Gatorade bottles laid on their sides. That way I can look to see if the balls are disappearing and can see the traces that they visited without disturbing the bait "station."
More inaccessible areas get the balls in a plastic jar lid. Again, an easy to inspect bait station.
Unfortunately, at this time I am at a lose for rodent protection.
a few weeks ago I notice Gabby (my dog) wasn't acting normal, straining to pee and then I saw a bloody pool of pee.
I called my Vet and on the way, they called back and said I should probably just go to emergency.
I stopped at my vet and they did some blood work, The Vet confirmed my suspicion that she had found some rat poison.
She then called The UT Vet school small animal hospital and sent me there. they did some more tests and Gabby basically had no clotting.
they did a plasma transfusion and kept her 2 nights. She has been on Vitamin K since then and will go back to my Vet for a followup test when they finish.
the story I think what happened.
I keep a bait box in the barn I use one of the bromethalin poisons.
I had a piece of roofing tin stored on top of a rack, near the roof of the barn. When I pulled it down about 6-8 of the poison blocks fell from it.
I picked up all I could find, put them in a box that i put out of reach. Several days later I found the box had gotten blown over and most of the blocks were MIA.
I am assuming that squirrels carried the poison from the bait box to the tin, I don't have any other explanation.
The Vet and Emergency care totaled about $3000.
I kept the poison out because I have had issues on things stored in the barn.
One time I was using my Bobcat and a rat ran down the arm.
Another time I had left my 1997 F150 parked near the barn and the starter stopped engaging. I found there is a hole above the starter and a nest had been built there.
I regularly see nests built in m stickerd piles.
Now I would like to find a reliable pet safe rodent control.
my first dog Tippy (a brit. spaniel) died after getting into it.
Poisons are a really bad idea. You end up killing so many more animals that you need on your side for rodent control. We live in basically an oasis here in the high desert and the rat, mice and gopher, ground squirrel trapping is an ongoing event 24/7/365. Rats have destroyed wiring in our vehicles to the tune of $7000, $9000 and a total loss of an F250 Ford. We use bright lights at night, peppermint oil inside the vehicles and pet proof rat traps everywhere around the vehicle area, turkey coop, garden etc. The animals that we catch get thrown on the roof 2x day and it's a regular feeding frenzy for the local ravens and vultures. We also put up multiple owl houses and roosts and have dozens of barn owls living on the property. In the springtime, I catch as many as 50 or more gophers per month, so that's more than 150 per spring that get fed to the birds. We've had dogs eat poison and I'll never use the stuff again. Been a good 20 years since I've become a most excellent trapper of varmints and they just keep on coming. You just have to stay on top of it.
What kind of traps do you prefer? Do these traps catch multiples? Did they kill them?
What do you do about the engine compartments and inside of small spaces? I don't see how a dog can get to a pet proof box with poison in it, inside my excavator cab or engine compartment...but I know the mice can.
Barn Owl nests seem pretty good, I guess they don't kill cats? Certainly the local hawks have killed every barn cat we have ever had, sometimes while we watched.
I'm always looking at alternatives. I put up bird spikes just this morning, they are trying to nest own my EXIT signs in the buildings, and are pooping all over my equipment, and also I have a brand new, $55 dollar Daisy BB gun in the barn if they don't get the hint.
I've tried gallons of peppermint oil, it didn't seem to work. I'm trying mothballs now, boxes and boxes of them. I've even sprayed diesel oil where they like to live and it doesn't seem to both them.
I'm tired of working in bird and mouse poop.
Y-H, what kind of upgrades are planned for that BB gun?
Quote from: CCCLLC on May 22, 2025, 01:16:56 PMY-H, what kind of upgrades are planned for that BB gun?
Nightforce makes a Red Ryder edition I heard? ffcheesy
I jest, but I've seen some video's on youtube through-the-scope of some of these airsoft guys? Pretty impressive. Birds and Squirrels don't stand a chance, and its just a tiny plastic pellet!
I bought this varmint whacker for $50 bucks or so off the Amazon, and I call it the "Mighty Daisy", which kind of makes it lose it's intimidation factor... The wooded stock is made from a popsicle stick and I dialed in the sights it at 20 yards with a pair of pliers bending the front sight. I can just barely hit a coke can at 20 yards, and the first bird I tried to shoot with it, heard the BB coming and I swear it ducked out of the way. I can see the BB in flight, so I'm sure the bird could too. it's rated for 450 fps, which is about the speed of a good spitball. It's hard to describe the trigger pull, it's changes from 4 lbs to 8 lbs though it entire 2 feet of creepy travel. All in all, a classic, "You get what you pay for" but I wanted a gun slow enough to not drill BB holes in my building or sheet metal roofs. Right now, my biggest fear is the BB will bounce off a bird, and ricochet back into my eye!
Not really the kind of grade weapon that I am used to but I think it will kill a mouse, especially if I use it like a baseball bat.
When I was a kid, all the neighborhood boys had these or Red Ryder's, and I got popped in the legs more than once and it never drew blood, but it would make you jump.
I picked up an official Red Ryder, carbine, lever action, two-hundred shot range model air rifle at TSC around Christmas time for about the same price. Its actually surprisingly accurate out of the box. Not so much deadly. Had some American Geese try to take over my pond and watched the BB bounce off ones beak and I dont think it could care less.
Um, Opie killed a mama bird with his slingshot.
I'm not sure if that's a comment on his prowess, the dumbness of the bird or something about you guys with toys we enjoyed as kids (full disclosure- I've recently looked at the Red Ryder too).
My son used prism tape strips about 18" long to scare the birds off. Wind makes the strips flutter and seems to scare them off.
To keep the pets out of the rodent balls, I wire the Gatorade bottles to something so the dogs can't get to the contents of the bottle.
I didn't think about the slingshot! I used to a real Dennis the Menace with a Wrist Rocket. That would be fun. I'd probably put my eye out.....
There is always a lot of kid in all of us, just have to let it out, and nothing does that better than an old school BB gun.
I've had good luck with just a 5 gallon paint bucket half full of water. I used to do the trapdoor/walk the plank thing but really don't need it. We don't get rain from about April till October or November. Critters get thirsty. If they are around, I get squirrels, chipmunks and mice. Rats are too smart. They hang by their back feet to get a drink and slip. The water is too deep for them to get a good jump so they get tired and drown.
Too high of water and you don't get big squirrels, just the little ones. I have little brown ground ones, little Douglas ones and big gray tree ones.
I get mice and chipmunks in my closed truck box storage shed. Squirrels and chipmunks outside.
I place them on boulders for the Ravens.
I had one of those white square 5 gallon jugs. The pour spout lid was off and it was sitting on its side in the back of the shed. I was milling wood and when my shadow passed by the shed, I would hear a weird noise like a tree branch scraping the truck box. Took a while but I found a mouse in the jug, he couldn't get out.
In my old "American Boys" book, they showed burying an old crock jug with a pipe going down to the hole. Curious mice venture in but don't come out
I have 3 options for my rodent control, Garlic cloves, dryer sheets and Kiosk Stew buckets. When I store my boats and close up the cottages for the winter, I spread garlic cloves thorough out the boat, cottage , all the drawers. My machines have dry sheets stuffed in them at all the funny spots, snowmobiles have dryer sheets in them now and it works, also the Bobcat and sawmill.
Kisok Stew is what John said, buckets of water, but we use antifreeze, cuts down on the smell., 4-6" of antifreeze, a good dab of peanut butter spread 4" down from the rim, I put a wooden ramp up to the edge, they fall in when trying for the peanut butter, drown and are preserved. I put those dead ones down the toilet, good for the septic. :thumbsup: This is only for the inside of the cottages in the winter, as you don't want your dogs and cats to drink the antifreeze.
Didn't get a picture of it, but my drill press belt slipped off yesterday, I opened the cover and the belt had been chewed all but in half and there was a great big mouse nest under the cover, in the tensioner pulley! I was not a happy camper. I need to order two new belts, and there is a poison block under the cover of the drill press in the belt drive system. The only animals that can get to it are mice...
I have been trying mothballs for my brown recluse problem, it seems to really work, the odor is quite strong. so I threw a bag in the excavator, and I hope it does well with mice.
My "Grampi" on my dad's side, had polio and was raising a family during the depression. Jobs were scarce and no one thought of hiring a disabled person to work back then. He had trouble walking and farmers would have to drive him out to a tractor in the field. It made him a little weird and a little mean. anyway, as he got older, he would set in the living area at a table by a window that looked out at the main road going through Benington Ks. All his food (bread and peanut butter and jelly) sat on this table. For entertainment as we visited, if he saw a mouse in the rarely used kitchen, he would hand me the bb gun, and say, "see if you can hit that mouse". Some on here will understand that generation with a smile. ffsmiley
as an aside, my dad grew up helping deliver milk before school and a paper route after school. He gave all the money to his mom. She dies in her 40s from cancer. this is where I got my work ethic and inability to throw stuff away. So, I am still a poor kid with a good job. :usa:
Funny, I put out sunflower seeds around my house, like 50 feet away. I do the same at the sawmill too. 4 different places every day, well most days.
Never had any trouble with anything.
I think they have too much fun digging in the old seed pile.
With free food, they care less about my equipment.
40 lb last 2 weeks. :wink_2:
Feeding them would be a horror show at my place. They damage more of my equipment than any other thing.
The issue I have is they like my place so much, they build nests in my equipment, like in the drill press, and pull in all kinds of debris, leaves and garbage. That is a fire hazard in itself, and plus their nest is toxic because they poop and pee everywhere, including in their own nest, then they start chewing things, because wire insulation tastes good. So two days ago, the simple act of drilling a hole turned into a major ordeal and equipment breakdown.
I had my skid steer parked too close to the woods this week, that's just asking for trouble, best is to park it in the gravel driveway or out in the open, and an alarm bell went off in my head and yesterday, I climbed in it, and sure enough, I saw mouse poop on my seat. Where there is poop, there is pee. In my seat. Not happy cleaning that out.
So just yesterday I opened up my gooseneck trailer toolbox, and they had gotten inside of that, built a nest, and chewed into a couple real nice DOT rated nylon straps for nesting material. There goes more money down the drain. So instead of hauling my load, I'm wastedg time cleaning that disgusting nasty mess out and spraying the whole toolbox with the water hose to flush the river of poop out, and to speed up its rusting. Wasn't happy about that either.
And here is why I don't like "barn cats" or whatever else is now "spraying" my planer with urine and causing it to rust in dripping streaks. So I had to spend some time cleaning that yesterday, and that made me really "not happy."
I went to war with the brown recluses last year, and it yielded excellent results because things have really gotten better this year.
I went to war with the birds this spring and that has gotten much better, courtesy of a broom, some bird spikes and a Daisy BB gun.
Time to go to war with the mice. Hanta virus is not my friend.
Peter, I like it, the KISS method. Picking up a bag of sunflower seeds this week.
One of these guys may help:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/12217/1000003663.jpg) (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=359596)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/12217/1000003664.jpg) (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=359595)
It looks like it is taking the job quite seriously.
Beautiful bird. I need one of those birds, I'm off to PetSmart this afternoon!
You guys must have different mice than ours, because ours are a health hazard and pee and poop everywhere, and destroy anything they touch. Purposefully attracting disease carrying vermin with an all you can eat buffet, seems counter productive.
Just saying...I did a quick search of several pest control sites and rule #1 is: Elimination of Food Sources.
"Mouse and pest control rules are primarily focused on prevention and sanitation to eliminate food sources and prevent infestations.
Here's a breakdown of the key rules and best practices:
1. Eliminating Food Sources:
Store food in airtight containers: Use materials like glass, metal, or heavy plastic that pests cannot chew through. This includes pet food, cereals, grains, and other dry goods.
Properly manage garbage: Keep garbage in tightly covered cans and remove it regularly. Disinfect garbage containers regularly.
Clean up spills and crumbs promptly: Leaving food particles exposed attracts pests.
Don't leave pet food out overnight: Feed pets only the amount they can consume while supervised and remove leftover food.
Minimize standing water: Repair leaky pipes and ensure there is no accumulated water in trays under plants or refrigerators."
Last mouse we had in the house (only 2 in 10 yrs) was raiding garbage under the sink so I put a glue trap in there . Wife thought it needed more attractant and added a little peanut butter to it. Of course the mouse rolled in it and got free .
However he left most of his fur on the trap. He hasn't been seen since.
If you see baldy please step on. :snowball:
No food in my shed so they like to shred cardboard boxes and my leather chisel sheaths. I've put out green blocks but put them under anything heavy. I figure they have to chew it up rather that store it away somewhere. Don't see them dead anywhere. I get more satisfaction from the water bucket traps. I put the unpoisoned bodies out for the ravens.
I've found that spraying with water/bleach solution in the nest area after removal, will stop the return of another mouse nest. Thinking that mice return to a nest "latrine" area laced with their urine, and the bleach overrides that attractive smell.
Mice are apparently like raccoon in that they have communal latrines, where the neighboring raccoons gather to sniff and gather the family gossip through that smell. On the occasion that a coon craps on the deck, I clean it up and spray it down with the bleach solution. Stops that habit for several years. Which reminds me, I should reapply that solution because it has been 3-4 years since that last time.
The last thing I would do would be to provide food for them. ffcheesy ffcheesy ffcheesy
I don't know what to say. I'll get a squirrel nest from time to time out at the mill up out of the way. I pull it down in the spring. Might get a mouse nest in between the lumber sometime. I had one this year.
The squirrels come to get the seeds. A hawk gets the squirrel. At night, the owls get the mice.
All in the food chain.
It's the Father's way. Not my Idea. ffcheesy
No mice in the 5 Hot Rods I have in the yard. None in the WM mill or edger.
Ann and I have been feeding wildlife for going on 50 years now.
That's how we were, Man or beast, you come here hungry, we will feed you.
I have a bear coming in 2 to 3 times a week. A bobcat too. Gave him or her a steak the other day.
To much $$$ to feed a cat steak. ffcheesy ffcheesy
Haven't seen the cat for 3 to 5 days now. I guess it doesn't like frozen steak. ffcheesy ffcheesy ffcheesy ffcheesy ffcheesy ffcheesy
I'll stay with the sunflower seeds.
One seed and I see all the wildlife around me, It's great.
In a lot of ways, the wildlife treats me better than some people. :wink_2:
Quote from: Dan_Shade on June 06, 2025, 08:58:16 AMOne of these guys may help:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/12217/1000003663.jpg) (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=359596)
The garden center sells an inflatable one for about 8 bucks. Does WONDERS for keeping the mice and rabbits out of my pasture garden. Ironically I store it in the barn when it's not in-use in the garden (obviously not scaring the mice away from there).
Wifey picked up a hard plastic one from Aldi this year, head is on a spring so it acts like a bobble-head. Will see if it is as effective.
Quote from: YellowHammer on June 06, 2025, 12:37:42 PMJust saying...I did a quick search of several pest control sites and rule #1 is: Elimination of Food Sources.
Truth -the problem started about a year after I put a bird feeder and suet cage near the barn - mice are coming to the pile of debris underneath the feeder. May have to move them to another part of the yard, but I really enjoy watching the birds from my seat by the tractor...
Perhaps that may be the solution - bait them away from critical equipment to an area they won't do any damage? So long as they stay over there where you feed them.... it solves the problem.
I like the water/bleach idea also.
Lure them away with feed, hmmm.... I might put a big pile of corn at my 50 yard target.
I like the squirrels, the chipmunks don't bother me,, snakes, etc all are welcome, but when rodents build a nest in my cab air filter in my excavator, and poop and pee on it, and that Hanta Virus air gets sprayed in my face without me knowing it for a few hours and then I get out because my eyes are swollen and nose running? Nope.
Or they get in my planer and I stick a $400 walnut slab in there and halfway through, the board come out with blood and pieces of mice splattered all over it, and now I have shut everything down and clean the innards out of the equipment? All in front of the customer? Without cursing too much?
Or my boat where a mouse decided to chew on the handles of several high end fishing reels, in my rod locker, each reel costing a couple hundred bucks? And every time I pick them up I feel the chew marks in my hand?
Or the time I opened up the fork drawer in the kitchen and a mouse stared up at me. Nope.
Nah, me and mice have an agreement, they get in my buildings and my equipment, they die.
I've got 150 acres where they can live in peace, they don't need to build a home in my drill press.
Wife has always liked having layer hens, not to mention that the free range eggs are so much more superior to anything store bought! We began to have a mouse problem in the chicken house and small barn that it's attached to. Tried the green pellets in a closed room built into the small barn that would allow the mice in but not any chickens, farm cats or pets. This seemed to work but at one point I found where the danged mice were moving the green pellets to their dens outside of the room and were making them accessible to the "good" animals.
So, tried the 5 gallon bucket with water and baited the "walk the plank" and "fall in" gizmo baited with peanut butter and it worked really well. Since then our now 3 outside cats have been earning their keep and no mouse issues. Fingers crossed!
Good luck :veryangry:
As for the cat spray
@YellowHammer get the cats from the spay and neuter clinics and that should work out. I too hate the cat spray and the caustic damage it does to anything metal. Have had to discard a perfectly good chest tool cabinet due to it being destroyed by the cat pith.
I had a birthday boy come to the ED about 2 am. He was having a sleepover and somehow a bb gun accidentally went off, despite having been told to not touch it/them. He had a hole in his upper arm with a gold glint just deep enough to be a pain in the ash. got an x-ray and saw 2 BBs. so, I went all Ace Ventura Pet Detective on him, as well as good cop bad cop, and Dad. He burst into tears and said "OK OK, we were having bb gun wars, and I got shot... twice". Happy Birthday! :snowball: Mom went all "wait till your dad hears about this. No more happy birthday.
Thankfully it was only a BB gun.....
The "Mouse Trap" is set.... 50 lbs of sweet feed by one of my rifle targets. Squirrels, chipmunks and birds get to eat all they want.
It's been a couple days, no mice, but something keeps stealing my bait. Now I feel bad for not putting more out there for her. ffcheesy
I think it's funny, as much as I shoot at these targets with pistols and rifles, pretty much every day or two (yesterday, 200 rounds), and the deer don't care, it's just noise to them.
I've batteling rodents for decades .The squirrels like to store nuts in the clutch compartment of my Oliver bull dozer which tosses them out like a machine gun if it's sat too long .Either the mice or the Chipmonks took up living in the clutch compartment of my Ford Ranger which fouled the clutch .That one I covered the vent holes with 1/4" hardware cloth . A Ranger 5 speed manual tranny is much like an automatic as the bell housing and the tranny are one piece and uses a hydraulic clutch .Jammed full of mouse nest it won't disengage but it will grind a mouse down to a little blog of fur .
When I modified the tongue on my conveyor so it would be parallel to the ground, I should have checked first.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/51041/BB971AC1-4736-414C-8B1A-CFAB80D1F4F6.jpeg) (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=315060)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/51041/382F4D25-1690-4C87-BC0C-161F7E602DA4.jpeg) (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=315058)
this poor guy had made a home in the square tubing. they do not like plasma or welding equipment.
I bet that smelled good, at least you got the mouse...
That reminded me, I was trying to weld one time, and my MIG machine started smoking. I opened the hood and a mouse had built a nest in the contacts and wire spool. What a stinky, charbroiled mess!
Al, yeah, what you are describing is the definition of a "high blood pressure event"!!!
Tastes like chicken!!! musteat_1 smiley_beertoast
A couple of years ago I had a mouse run through the control box for the Pinhero planer. When he made contact with some of the 480 volts bad things happened. Only cost a few grand for a new motor for the top head, as it smoked it when he made contact. I was running the planer when it happened. Sounded like a gun had went off and the control box tried to leave the ground. Yup, that order was late by a few days because of the mouse. I keep the poison out, a stray cat has showed up and is helping, also have a pair of red tail hawks that have nested down by the creek. Not many critters that I hate, but mice and wild hogs are at the top of the list.
Quote from: YellowHammer on June 11, 2025, 07:26:53 AMI think it's funny, as much as I shoot at these targets with pistols and rifles, pretty much every day or two (yesterday, 200 rounds), and the deer don't care, it's just noise to them.
One of the oddest things I ever saw was the range master having to shut down the 200-yd rifle range at the sportsman club because... 3 deer were trying to cross the range. ffcheesy
When I first got my sawmill I would loosen the blade tension and leave the blade on. One morning I tightened the tension and when I engaged the blade it was immediately thrown off and I had rat guts everywhere. :veryangry: It took me a minute to figure out what had happened and it taught me a lesson. If I am sawing daily in a location, not only remove the blade but also leave the covers off.
Not sure about equipment but I bet that there won't be any mice nests in my wood shed before long.(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/68995/14DA8007-308A-49C3-BA40-C06607936B27.jpeg) (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=359654)
I hate snakes but if you can train them I want one.
Two episodes yesterday.
A chewed through speed sensor wire in my 480V 3 phase generator. We use it everyday, and I was NOT HAPPY.
After fixing that, we are going on vacation next week, and I noticed a nest being built in the anchor locker of our boat. Luckily no damage. It's a very specialized and long, no kink, Lewmar Windlass rope, $300, but no chew marks. Maybe it was the start of bird nest. I don't know, but I would have been really unhappy if there had been damage.
The mice cause me some issues, we've had vehicles totaled from them getting into the vent systems and dying. They like to get in the control console on my LT40. But outside of that, nothing too horrible. Definitely nothing like Robert and Jake are fighting with!
Maybe it has something to do with those guys having top shelf, well organized operations? I mean, my place is a mess. The mice can't tell much difference between outside, and inside a control box. I've left them lots of natural habitat and places to hide😁
I do not like mice in my shop and set snap traps (victor 4 for 2 dollars) with peanut butter. Squirrels cause the most damage. they chew up phone lines (back when everyone had land lines) and chewed the corner off my timber king fuel tank.
My center main floor support beam takes the joists from both sides. I installed blocking even with both side of the beam to support the floor boards where they meet. This leaves about a 6" x 20" void that I covered with a screwed down plank. When I removed it on Monday, there was a mouse nest with 6 mice. I dispatched them and put them on a boulder for the ravens on the west side of my cabin. Never saw any ravens but they were gone by morning.
Yesterday I look in my cabinet in the truck shed and some beady little eyes are looking back at me. I snag the one with one of those claw parts grabbers and smack him on a board. I pull out a bankers box where I stored a lot of DWV fittings for the cabin.
I look in there and there's a bunch of them. Snagged a few, smacked a few. One adult escaped. I put the 6 bodies out on a timber cutoff by my mill. No ravens again. Later in the day at the top of my property, I see two black cats (with collars) looking at me from under my truck. All the mice were gone and I think they wanted more!
Maybe they'll keep hunting my place!
The worst was a couple years ago when I opened the kitchen utensil drawer and one of the little monsters was looking back at me. I really got upset when I realized he had been pooping and peeing on my forks and spoons.
Not only did I give the mouse a hard time, I did the same to my bug guy, he said he remembered that "discussion" for years.
IMG_7673.jpeg
Don't really have a problem with mice here, but this is what squirrels do to power lines.
That could be a shocking experience.