Is Mickey living with?

[Raz]

This appears to be the year of the mouse here in Vermont. Mickey and Minnie have been busy. It started with a nest in the fly wheel housing of the rototiller. Thank goodness I noticed before I started it up. That's happened in the past. It ain't pretty. The next one was on the lawn mower. While servicing the tractor for winter I found one under the instrument panel next to the gas tank. When we came home from a fall trip we found a chewed napkin in the car along with the tell tale droppings. Not good. Next I went to change the cabin filter in the truck and you guessed it. One very large nest above the filter. Unlike the Subaru (car), the filter prevents entry at least until they chew their way in.

We had mice years ago in a Honda. Back then you could remove headliners, seats, and panels without disturbing sensitive things like air bags. I visited several extension service web sites. Mouse damage can be very costly and downright dangerous. According to the experts forget soap, dryer sheets and mint. They are temporary repellents. Traps in the car were the first step. Raz 3 mice 0. Next I went after the points of entry. In both vehicles removal of the cowl below the windshield revealed a broadway for mice. A piece of aluminum screen hopefully will do the trick there. There are also two louvered vents in the rear of the Subaru hidden behind the bumper cover. I put screen there too.

So far none in the house or the Trillium. I'm wondering, any one else got mouse issues? Raz

[rabbit]

But Raz, they're just so darn cute with their little beady eyes and all.

jack

[Thomas G.]

They love my Kubota tractor. There is a ledge under the hood that makes a nice vantage point to sleep and chew wires.

[mary and bob]

I found in a car magazine that I get a reference to a product called "Fresh Cab". It's a smelly stuff in small mesh pouches that is supposed to repel mice. I bought three boxes of it from Amazon and put it in my daughters popup, which had a mouse problem last winter, and in our old popup, teardrop, pickup, blazer, fairlane, and my car that are all setting for the winter. We are in our winter campground now and I found that they are selling it in the camp store, although at a much higher price than Amazon. A local camper dealer told me to put poison in a pet proof container under the camper near the tires, and that way you get rid of the mice before they can get inside. I've taken mostly empty peanut butter jars, cut a hole in the lid, and put the poison pellets or chunks inside. I've also used butter tubs and similar containers. They eat those pellets like crazy.

[Maggie R.]

Oh yah, "they're just so darn cute"

Re: poisons ... Raz and I just want to keep them o.u.t. ... It has been pretty interesting to find the pathways Mickey & Minnie can use to get inside the Forester and the Frontier . It's amazing how many there are! I guess the manufacturers don't have mice in the factories, eh?

[mary and bob]

I looked all over my daughters popup and couldn't find where they were getting in. And to keep them out from under the hood of a car is impossible. So using the poison gets rid of them before they can get in and do damage. I was concerned about mice dying in a vehicle, but I'm told the poison makes them seek water so they will die outside. A few years ago I spent $1000 for new canvas for the popup, the mice chewed a golf ball size hole in the wing top that I was able to patch but I don't want any further damage so the repellant and poison is my best solution.

[cpaharley2008]

I remember going out to my shed to get on my tractor to cut the grass, sat down on the seat and it moved, a big ole black snake was curled up on the seat, needless to say, I ran so fast...
I did not cut the grass that year and hired someone else to do it, the snake had a new home, but the point of the story is, I did not have any mice in that shed!!!

[cpaharley2008]

Originally Posted by mary and bob

I looked all over my daughters popup and couldn't find where they were getting in. And to keep them out from under the hood of a car is impossible. So using the poison gets rid of them before they can get in and do damage. I was concerned about mice dying in a vehicle, but I'm told the poison makes them seek water so they will die outside. A few years ago I spent $1000 for new canvas for the popup, the mice chewed a golf ball size hole in the wing top that I was able to patch but I don't want any further damage so the repellant and poison is my best solution.

The problem with poison and mice are cats, they can eat the poisoned carcass and get really sick.

[Thomas G.]

Originally Posted by cpaharley2008

The problem with poison and mice are cats, they can eat the poisoned carcass and get really sick.

Owls. too.

[Raz]

Two sites I found helpful. The first is the cliff notes version. The second, the "Moby Dick" version.

Control of Mice | University of Kentucky Entomology


Prevention and control of house mice, Mus musculus

[Thomas G.]

I use conventional spring traps. I bought a half dozen and screwed them to a 1x6 board about a foot long. I set them all with peanut butter as bait. I will almost always find about 3 with the bait cleaned off and sprung, then the unlucky mouse in the 4th or 5th trap. Pays to play the odds.

Another good bait is strips of cloth super glued to the trigger. Little buggers love to gather nesting material and will tug on the cloth until.....

Another good trap is a 5 gallon bucket with a small teeter totter board pivoted off the edge. The bait is on the end in the center, so they walk toward the bait, slide in and the teeter totter resets itself automatically. You can add water to the bucket in warm weather to drown them, otherwise you can catch them alive, give them a good scolding then let them go.

[santacruzer]

The "Moby Dick" version is great, well worth reading, thank you!

I once kept my hunting Jeep parked year-round outside a cabin on a ranch, and had a constant problem with mice and rats. One even expired inside the air cleaner once...not a pleasant discovery. It was a pretty stripped-down vehicle, so the damage not as significant as it would have been with my good truck, but it's still nasty to deal with.

Besides the damage they do, mice & rats need to be taken very seriously. In California (and elsewhere I imagine?), deer mice can carry the hanta virus, and you may remember reading about 3 recent deaths from hanta virus of people who stayed in the tent cabins at Yosemite. I won't use poisons around the house because of my dog, but I've gotten pretty adept at setting and placing traps!

[Jared J]

Fresh cab helps. Pure peppermint oil helps. Cats cure the problem. They wiped out all three farm yards of ours.

[David Tilston]

I am not a cat person, but I live with three of them. Two of them don't care at all about mice, the other is an avid mouser. Him I like.

[mary and bob]

I don't have cats and no neighbors do either. And my poison setups are in buildings where cats can't get at it, although the poisoned mice could get outside and be eaten by something. Since we are snowbirding it for three months I can't be managing traps. So between the choices of preventing damage, or saving some critter, I have to do whatever to prevent mouse damage to my stuff. Has anyone had any luck with the electronic repellers?

[Dextersp1]

Try moth balls - put them in a open top container. Before you drive away, cover the top and store - preferably in the bed of your pick up or someplace you can't smell them.

[Cyndi B.]

I had a mama mouse get in our pop up. She must of had a couple generations of babies before she moved out because because she had one fine nest. She kind of laid off the upholstery after she found the paper towels and toilet paper. The lady that recovered was so good she was able to recover what wasn't damaged to repair what wasn't damaged so bad. And they just don't poop either.

[rgrugg]

Every winter when we go south we leave a car home. I put a bag of mothballs on top of the engine and a big pan of then on the floor under the engine. Have had no mouse problems since I started doing that. Had many problems before I started doing that.

[cpaharley2008]

I bet the moths leave you alone also

[glamourpets]

Around here, its rats that are a problem. They are similar to mice, but bigger and smarter. I had one steal a half a subway sandwich from the front seat of my work truck. The entire thing was gone. The only remains were a few crumbs. They also chewed up a vacuum hose behind the dash. Why they were attracted by the vacuum hose I don't know, as they didn't touch anything else.

It surprises me that automotive manufacturers have not considered screening vent holes to prevent access. Raz, I see you are in Vermont. I do wonder if ice formation on those screens is a possibility.