Putting all new new light wiring in my LT-40 tomorrow. Mice got the brown wire somewhere downstream of the first amber side lights. Anyone know if there is any downside to putting several pounds of naphthalene mothballs in the main tube? Would these corrode the rubber on the hydraulic lines if some got lodged against them?
My sympathies. I've been there, though my mice were in the engine. I don't know if your situation is better or worse.
If after you're done you have any tips or tricks you'd like to share, they would be appreciated. I'm sure it's only a matter of time...
--Peter
Maybe you could use this idea somehow. (http://www.ding.net/bonsaikitten/index.html) :-X
Here's an idea. Once a month, hook up a dryer hose from a car exhaust to the main tube via the back end, and run for 30 minutes. Then add more mothballs.
I use an old sock filled with mothballs. Don't know if it is mothball odor that keeps em away or sock odor. ;D
Hear tell mice don't like the smell of pepermint mayby some extract on a rag would discourage micky. Frank C.
After pullin' the dash out of my F-450, twice, I got serious about eliminating mice. That was about two years ago.
I went to Wal-Mart and got a vial of peppermint "oil", bag of cotton balls, two large boxes of moth balls, 20 of Ortho's (white & red) no. 11 traps, and a small jar of peanut butter. (The cotton balls are for the peppermint oil).
I also bought a jar of Assault mouse poison tablets.
I wrapped several moth balls in Aluminum foil, punched holes in the pouches, and distributed them strategically.
The Assault works well. They'd nibble it and die. The peppermint oil works really well, too. It is a deterrent (as are the moth balls).
I was most impressed with the kill rate of the Ortho traps. They are very fast and the teeth hold the mouse. I still bait and empty these traps, but the mouse population is down to almost none. The deterrents don't kill, but the traps and Assault do.
I haven't found any dead mice from the Assault, but I know it's doing the job. I have, however, removed way more mice from the traps than I'd have ever thought. The number is over 80.
i use the bar bait for rats and mice. best thing i ever had was a jack russel though.
in that tube, can you fill the ends with spray foam or do you have to get inside for something.
i filled alot of cavitys in my dump truck with the foam and it took care of the nesting in there.
Well the re-wiring is done. Had to take the tongue off. Put on a heavy duty Pollak RV connector with the big plug so now no more adapter, plugs right in to my truck. Not that hard once I figured out how the wires went including out to the idle side in two places. Easiest is to pull the wires through using the old wires.
I don't think I want to foam up the holes because there are quite a few of them and even if the mice are gone once in a while one might have to do maintenance on the wires or hydraulic lines. I like the idea of traps in either end. Also pouring a bunch of poison pellets in there. I think poison pellets and a monthly gassing with car exhaust could be quite effective. Maybe leaving a radio on in there with NPR playing at one end, and Rush Limbaugh at the other, Noriega style, would drive most of them out of the holes in the middle.
I would think electrical wire whose sheathing has a bittering agent in it, to deter rodent gnawing, would be a big seller. The compound Bitrex is put into many household products to deter drinking/swallowing. But Bitrex fed to rodents in food, at small concentrations which produce intense bitter aversion in humans, does not deter them from eating it so the rodents' taste of it is different .
Or just re-wire the thing every few years.
can you plug them holes with a wad of steel wool? pc
Maybe. But there are some big irregular holes. Foam may work at several smaller places. I'll give it a good look.
gat some of those black snakes ya have down there and shove them in the tubes. when i lived near pnyberg they were everywhere
Make metal or plastic covers ,a couple of tec screws to mount and remove as needed. Use up some of your plastic buckets that you backed over .
A spray bottle of high strength hot sauce and water. The capcacin WILL keep them away.
I have a flute :D
Quote from: terrifictimbersllc on May 11, 2011, 05:10:29 PM
Maybe leaving a radio on in there with NPR playing at one end, and Rush Limbaugh at the other, Noriega style, would drive most of them out of the holes in the middle.
Just realized this won't work...they will go to one end or the other. But it will break up the family structure anyway.
Just keep one of these around..
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10034/3175/wsblacksnake201105.JPG)
Guess who came to dinner?? The other evening Mary and I were watching TV when I seen this head stick up over the window edge. I got him caught and took him well out of the yard. Then yesterday he was at the front door but got away under some rocks in the retaining wall. A little later we heard a thump, thump, thump on the front door. Mary went to check. He was trying to come in! I didn't get him caught and carried away that time either.
We had one around in the sawshed for several years. Mary would "eeeek!" every now and then but we left him alone.
Jeff,don't look. Took me a minute to find him.
i broke a 13 dollar shovel handle last eve. getting rid of a snake. he was outside the door of the big house and under a pile of stikers. i guess i am going to have to have a clean up day.
when it comes to snakes its either them or me. i have no middle ground. :(
Original Irish Springs Soap shavings keep them away.
It is a standard for old car collectors to keep them out of the restored cars.
It has to be the Original Irish Springs, not one of their fancy new odors.
Irish Spring would keep we away too. When I get downwind of someone with it on, I move pretty fast.
dust the inside tube with red pepper powder seasoning, the hot stuff. they cant tollerate breathing it.
I finally had to use foam on all of the unused holes on my mill. Not only mice, but wasps.
At 5:15pm a leaf blower was used to blow out the tube from the center hole on the drive side. Remnants of mouse nests came out the end. At 5:30, over some family objections and with no call from the governor, the center hole was charged with 4 oz of powdered red pepper. Compressed air blasted the pepper in both directions and a small cloud came out of each end. After I finished sneezing the holes were capped with their hardware. Lights on for the Wood-Mizer and lights out for the mice. ::) ::) One small step for man, and one giant leap (backward) for mouse-kind. 8) 8)
Keep us posted on it's effectiveness. If those were "South of the Border" mice, they may just write a new recipe book. :-\
Had a good chuckle this morning on the way to work. I pulled off the pavement and into a field road to my latest thinning project. It was misting rain, so the wipers were on interval. All the sudden I'm looking straight ahead, but see something grey pop up from under the hood of the car toward the windshield. I squinched my eyes, as it was just coming daylight. I see it again and focus in on it. It's a mouse! Well, he crawls across the windshield as I'm treking across this rough road in the field. I tried the shake him off with some bumps and a little brake play, but nope. And you'll never guess where that DanG fool mouse headed up. Yup, it held on to the helical antenna on the car with all fours and was climbing the antenna. It probably went up close to three feet. He hung on real good and never fell off. When I got to where I was headed, I got out and grabbed the top of the antenna and bent it over and flung the little guy into his new home in some fresh cut brush along the road. :D I wish I had a video camera to show his acrobatics. You fellas all think I'm lying. :D
I have "hired" 4 cats to take care of that problem. Last week when the temps began to drop I went out to feed them. One of them wasn't interested in the dry food I had because he had a really fat mouse.
The cats get out when I'm around home, but otherwise they are locked in the metal building. It is a one way ticket for any mouse to venture in. When they are outside they tend to keep theoutside mouse population down also.
I used to have all sorts of mouse damage, but not anymore. Of course, just yesterday, someone looked at my truck and asked "do you have cats at home?" There were several paw prints on the hood. In my world that is a fair trade for them keeping the mouse population down.
Quote from: SwampDonkey on October 04, 2011, 04:51:39 PM
When I got to where I was headed, I got out and grabbed the top of the antenna and bent it over and flung the little guy into his new home in some fresh cut brush along the road. :D I wish I had a video camera to show his acrobatics. You fellas all think I'm lying. :D
Would it be inaccurate to say that you "cat"apulted a mouse?
Quote from: SwampDonkey on October 04, 2011, 04:51:39 PM
Had a good chuckle this morning on the way to work. I pulled off the pavement and into a field road to my latest thinning project. It was misting rain, so the wipers were on interval. All the sudden I'm looking straight ahead, but see something grey pop up from under the hood of the car toward the windshield. I squinched my eyes, as it was just coming daylight. I see it again and focus in on it. It's a mouse! Well, he crawls across the windshield as I'm treking across this rough road in the field. I tried the shake him off with some bumps and a little brake play, but nope. And you'll never guess where that DanG fool mouse headed up. Yup, it held on to the helical antenna on the car with all fours and was climbing the antenna. It probably went up close to three feet. He hung on real good and never fell off. When I got to where I was headed, I got out and grabbed the top of the antenna and bent it over and flung the little guy into his new home in some fresh cut brush along the road. :D I wish I had a video camera to show his acrobatics. You fellas all think I'm lying. :D
This would have been a good place to post your video SD. :D
He probably went like this :o when you let go of the antenna. ;D
One of the very few times that I have ever left a band on the sawmill overnight, ended with a bang. The next morning I cranked the engine, tightened the band, and when I engaged the clutch, I instantly had a thrown band and a very smashed file tail rat wrapped around my blade guide. :o
irish spring dosnt keep them away,
i have had micro teeth marks in the bar downstairs before, and green micro poops.. got a cat, the cat keeps the mice down now
moth balls....dont work. i stored my at the time, an 89 shadow out by the woods at my parents house... had a full box of moth balls in it, jumped the car one morning, half way to work... and they came out of the ducts
poisons....bad idea... again.. parked my shelby charger out by the woods , moth balls inside, poison box under, bout a year later, every nook n crany had mice in it, they crawl inside places when they are sick and die in thier. i completely gutted that car down to a shell ( future prostreet project) took another year just to air out from the dead mouse smell.
My wife and I have a boat with an outboard motor. A couple of years ago we were setting out into Long Island Sound to go fishing. As we were getting underway I was quite surprised, especially in this setting, to be face to face with a very large-eyed gray deer mouse looking at me from atop the motor housing. Right after I got my wife's attention, the little fellow fell off into the wake, and was lost at sea.
I didn't think much more about it until putting the boat away at home. I took off the motor lid and sure enough it was packed full of a mouse nest which I picked apart slowly and found Mom in there with at least half a dozen similar stowaways hanging off of her. Just glad they didn't all come out and jump into the boat with us.
they got into everything I own last winter, ate all four wire harnesses on my quad, ate the plastic and the copper wire inside up to the plugs and then nibbled them down about 6"
can't even get an end to splice back together. it is still sitting there, dealer said cost to fix over 1G
I have to take a look at the mill, I don't remember any open holes but have to take a hard look at it and make sure they don't get into it and ruin anything.
We had the same problem with equipment over the winter and those chipmunks. Last year we were doing work for an eldery couple in their 90s. We dro[pped of a dump truck at the job and the munkers had left acorn husk all over the manifold that started to smoke at lunch the couple asked what caused the smoke and we told her.
She told me to use dryer sheets in the cab and under the hood and it worked now we get those stick on ones that go in the dryer and put them under the hood and cab keep some on the mill now in a coffee can laid down. Seems to work dont know why?
Sounds like that would work catskillpond!
Something else I've done since I've owned my mill was to remove all covers and sheilds as soon as I got it backed into the garage for the winter.
I have been using a half gallon of anti freeze in a five gallon bucket.
We keep one in the camp and one in the storage trailer.
Each bucket had over 6 mice in them over the last year.
It still doesn't get them all though but it has been a better than nothing approach.
I learned this from a member here. Drill two holes across the top of a bucket to thread a line thru. Save an empty toilet paper roll and position in the top center of the pail having been threaded thru with the rope it'll spin when a mouse jumps on it. Smear peanut butter on the roll. Place it along a known wall where mice travel. Position a piece of wood up to the topside of the pail for easy access.
We put the pails away in closed storage when we are at camp to make sure no animals have access to the anti freeze. I dig holes for the dead mice burials. They are well preserved in the AF and the smell stays contained.
There sure was a lot of mice seen while bush hogging this summer. :(
i have a half dozen "victor tin cat" metal mouse traps, they hold about a dozen or so mice. once they start to stink i empty them. i also use d-con in the house. last year we had a huge number of short tail weasels, they do a number on the mice. but this year they are gone, i think the neighbors cats get them. i have had rats nest on top of the motor of the mill, what a mess that is. pith, crap, and nesting material all over everything, i have shot a couple of those. chipmunks this year are the problem, they are nesting in the ceiling of my house, in my shop, in my shed, they chew on everything. i got mad when they were chewing the insulation off the firewall of my GOOD truck. now i keep a .22 with me at the mill. got about 20 or so so far.
Owls are my friend they like to sit on the cross beams behind the front 6x6 post in picture. The first time I realized this I almost had to change my shorts because the wood owl has a 6' wing span and they have to swoop down before they can fly out. Well you can imagine one flapping his wings behind you and knockin
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/22539/2956/0120091325%5B1%5D.jpg)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/22539/2956/0120091324a%5B1%5D.jpg)g your hat off. They love to eat mice
Go to the local shelter & get a couple of kittens. Raise them in the mill shed. It shouldd not take long for the primal genes to kick in.
I had a huge mouse problem soon after moving here and building the Quonset hut. They were in the shop, outbuildings and vehicles. The best mechanical trap was the 5 gal bucket trick....1/4 full of water(windshield washer fluid in winter), a coat hanger across the top speared thru a soda can. Put some peanut butter on the can and set the bucket where they can climb over onto the rim. They walk the wire onto the can which spins & dumps them and they drown in the pool...no lifeguard on duty.
However, that requires maintenance, or it can get smelly. So, one day my daughter calls me from FL. Says that her friends have this cat that that keeps killing SQUIRRELS and bringing them home. "Baby squirrels I say?"...."nope full grown ones" and it's freaking out the mother so they are going to get rid of the cat. I told her that I would disown her as my daughter if she did not get that certified ratter in a cat kennel and bring her up to the Farm ASAP. Well, boys the cat is a girl named Sherman, mostly white with some big black spots....."hmmm, doesn't look like much" That was 4 years ago, and the "Sherminator" has deleted every mouse within a hundred yards. Recently, we added a couple of rescue kittens from our shelter. Sherman has taken them under her wing and I have seen them out stalking together.
These cats all live outside, so there really isn't any issues except for finding mouse parts and the occasional half eaten wood rat or bird in the shop ;D
Quote from: terrifictimbersllc on May 12, 2011, 06:35:38 AM
Quote from: terrifictimbersllc on May 11, 2011, 05:10:29 PM
Maybe leaving a radio on in there with NPR playing at one end, and Rush Limbaugh at the other, Noriega style, would drive most of them out of the holes in the middle.
Just realized this won't work...they will go to one end or the other. But it will break up the family structure anyway.
Correct. You'd just end up with strongly polarized mice quoting what they heard on the radio as "The Truth". They'd spend all their time arguing and would forget to eat or breed.