Mice in Mill Engine

[Knute]

Two days after I got my mill I took the cover off and a mouse ran out. Today I noticed a little grass sticking out being the beginnings of a nest. How do you keep the mice out when your mill is on site of sawing. I left some poison on the mill near the engine, but not sure that is the answer. Any good ideas? Thanks.

[Chuck White]

Don't rightly know how to keep mice from setting up housekeeping in the sawmill engine!

But I do know that if it's left idle long enough, they'll move in.

I do just like you have, put a little rat & mouse poison nearby and they'll be gone!

[Magicman]

You gotta get rid of them.  They will cut belts, hoses, and wires.

[Tom]

Take them to the house.  They will be safer and more comfortable there.

[morgoon]

Don't know too much about milling , been skimming here for a while now, just getting started on a homemade mill

But I have had great success driving mice out of unwanted places ie my 73 vw bus project ...with mothballs...

cheap and effective, although they don't last forever, but perhaps you could hang some in a nylon around the engine at night when done. A few mothballs takes care of a pretty big area it would seem

I live in the bush so we are always trying to keep mice out of the house, and I have  dogs and cats (not very effective cats at that) so using poison is not an option

Just an idea

[Tim/South]

I would probably set a mouse trap. I had one build in my large generator and their urine shorted the engine electrical panel. The guy who fixed it said mouse/rat urine was a big problem with electric components, and a fairly common problem.
Do you think one of the large rubber snakes might work? My father kept them in his shed. 

I have a small bird that tries to nest in my WoodMizer. I have to use one of those long push button claw tools to reach in far enough to get all the nest material out.

[ljmathias]

Tom's right- move them indoors and your problem disappears.  In fact, I'm going to box up all of mine and send them to him.  If we all do that, we solve a lot of small problems all at once!

Tom: get ready.... :D

Lj

[pnyberg]

I'll second the mothball suggestion.

I had the problem of mice in the mill engine earlier this year, and wrote about it here on the forum asking for advice.  Mothballs was the most practical suggestion offered.  I keep a small cloth bag with about a dozen mothballs attached to the engine with a bit of wire.  I replenish every month or two.  When the mill is not being used, the engine has a cover over it, which helps keep the odor concentrated.  I also open up an access panel on my control station and dump some mothballs in there.

So far, so good.

--Peter

[Chuck White]

I was just going to suggest that, Pete!

When the engine/head cover goes on, it's just a big tent and should contain the scent of the moth balls quite well.

Good idea!

[paul case]

Tom's right- move them indoors and your problem disappears.  In fact, I'm going to box up all of mine and send them to him.  If we all do that, we solve a lot of small problems all at once!

Tom: get ready.... :D

Lj

now lj,
ifn  could catch the lil boogers, i dont think i would pay shipping for them.
seriousley, not intentionally i have caught serveral mice in my mill building by leaving a 5 gallon plastic bucket out with just 1'' of sweet cattle feed in the bottom. they cant seem to get out .  redneck mousetrap i guess. pc

[Meadows Miller]

Gday

It sounds like you aint using it often enough if its getting a squeak when you start er up Mate  ;) :D :D :D seriously ive never had that problem apart from in utes,  trucks and old equipment ive brought over the years that have been sitting awhile Mate  ;)

Regards Chris

[sandhills]

A good freind of mine uses chunks of ex-lax or some sort of laxitive (looked like a hershey bar) and swears by it.  Says it drives em off not killing them so no dead mouse smell.  pc, can't remember for sure but think I read it in a book, some old boys put a little molasses on the end of a cardboard strip then hung it off the side of the table over a peice of stove pipe.  The cardboard would give way and the mouse would fall into the stove pipe.  Claening lady picked up the pipe the next day :D  I'm sure that was in a book, long time ago though.

[bandmiller2]

Probibly the best easiest thing to do is use moth balls as suggested.There is a product that uses pepermint smell thats suposed to repel them.After down time, of any legnth, its good form to remove some cowling and blow out with comp. air, gets the dust out too.Get the big ball type mothballs or the cake with the hanger on it.Mothballs will work for almost any critter if you load them in a shot shell. Frank C.

[DextorDee]

I had the mouse problem in my mill, built a nest and then chewed my gas line. Didn't take to long to find the nest and dispose of the babies and nest, then fix my gas line. No, I didn't catch and release. Hate em.
In this part of the country if you got mice you get what eats mice.
They like to get in my old truck that sits for long periods of time. Back in May I used it to go get some fenceing wire and post. Load up my truck and start back home. I notice movement in the floor board between my legs big black snake crawls out from under the seat, crawls over to the passenger side goes back under the seat. He did that twice I just keep on driving, just a black snake no problem. And then I thinks, if he goes up my pants leg I'm gonna be pulling over and doing a strip on the side of the road. He didn't so I guess he rode back home with me didn't see him but the two times.
If that had been a Copperhead I would have had to have quick stop search and destroy . Have alot of those around here and some of them can be kinda nasty tempered.
So if you got mice get you a real snake the rubbers one don't work for me. I've even tried a rubber snake trying to keep a bird from building her nest under my upper deck. She built on top of the rubber snake should have taken a picture of that. I think, if it don't move they ignore it.

Ken

[Stan snider]

Well. . . . I can fully sympathise with everyones mouse and rat misasventures. I got in a tractor to start it the other day and it seemed dead.   >:(Hooking up jumper cables didn't help. >:( >:( Some grass was sticking out of the bottom  of the dash by the clutch pedal.  This didn't look so good. Pulling up the top on the dash and discovered a rat nest made of soybean hulls, seat fabric and copper wire.  They cut the main wire bundle off at the firewall ! After I got the nest out, there were  several cut out sections of wire fron an inch to a foot in that mess. I can feel a sore back coming on from bending over that thing for hours trying to figure it out. It is a 875 Versatile. It has an 855 cummins with a Murphy system and I need it real soon. I better go check my stock of butt connectors and get at it. It is just about a two person job. Maybe some hitchiker will come by. . . .? Sometimes working for yourself is more fun than others.

[D._Frederick]

I you are using an air cooled engine, always check for mice nests before running after setter for the winter.

[r.man]

For buildings that don't get used regularly a high volume trap that doesn't need to be emptied is a plastic 5 gal pail with a stick ramp up to it. An old board works well. Smear peanut butter on the inside of the pail about 1 inch down and put a bit of anti-freeze in the bottom. The mice walk up the board, try to reach the peanut butter and fall in. Before long they are dead and the anti-freeze keeps them from stinking. Diesel works as well if the smell of it isn't a problem. Water will work to kill but not to control the smell and it has to be replaced periodically due to evaporation. My area has no rats so I don't know what would need to be done about that. If a rat is no smarter than a mouse maybe a barrel would work. These traps are old tech for hunting camps and the like that only get used a few times a year. Hope that helps.

[sandhills]

Kinda along the same lines, a few of our neighbors still pick corn in the ear around here, when you go to shell it in the summer at least a few rats always come out at the bottom of the cribs.  The rats are always looking for something to hide under, a running push mower set a few feet away from the corn crib does a really good job :D

[ljmathias]

And I guess you could move the push mower after each animal is converted to fertilizer so you get a nice even coverage?  Sounds messy but effective... :D

Lj

[pnyberg]

So much for the mothball idea.  I just took the cover off my mill engine, and started it up to exercise it and blew out a mouse nest.  The cloth bag of mothballs that I keep in there had been replenished recently, so should have been giving off a strong odor, apparently to no avail.

Fortunately, the engine seems to be running OK.

--Peter

[beenthere]

Peter
The mothballs didn't work for me either. What did work twice was spraying the area where they nested with bleach.  : :

Maybe these "cures" are just happinstance, and feel-good measures.  :

(but for me, bleach feels good  ;D  )

[taw6243]

Careful bleach is actually hypochlorus acid,....  don,t want to corrode the equipment.

:-\

[northwoods1]

Sure wish I had an answer to this question. Several times I have had to pull the engine covers off to remove a nest from inside. I often park my mill under some large oak trees and I often think that food source may encourage them to take up housekeeping in a convenient spot like the engine of my mill. Lately I have been having them get in my pickup truck which is a real pain in the ass!

[Slingshot]

   

r.man's bucket mouse trap really does work. Had this family in my garage and got 'em in
  2 nights.           I used a stick of firewood for a ramp.

   







______________________________
Charles