I was wondering if anyone knew the best way to keep mice out of your equipment. I live in the woods and if I have a peice of equipment or even a truck sit for about a week there seems to be some new tenants. I am a little worried because they like to chew up things, **** and poop (stinky) and I got some pretty new equipment. Will Moth balls work best? If so should I just spread them around in the equipment. Does anyone else have any other suggestions to keep them out? With winter coming they are on the scurry looking for a hide out!
get a cat. or a snake.
mice When I first heard about this, I thought it was a scam. We have a very clean house and we live in the country, a few years ago I started hearing mice under the house (at night, when it was quite) I tried everything except cats and snakes (dont like them) Then I saw this advertisement on TV. Its a devise you plug into the wall outlet and it sends a signal out, that mice dont like. Within 3 days I never heard, or saw any signs of mice. I know you dont have 110v outlets in your equipment, but you run a drop cord and just plug this thing into it. Im not home right now, to get the info/name I also found them on Goggle, type in mice. I think I bought 3 of them for $65, they are worth more than that for one of them. This is the only thing I have ever heard of that really works Good Luck
how about skunks that hang out in your yard. how can you chase away skunks? I think they are breeding under my deck and it stinks every time i walk outside.
LoL Wolf, your in Caleeeforneeuh. The enviro wacko's there would probably rather you tear your house down as opposed to infringing upon the sacred rights of the skunks under your deck. Guess I ain't much help, huh?
Hey Wolf..... why don't you demo the house with a 977 w/4in1 bucket dude.....:tong :drinkup
the environmental whackos wouldn't let me come near the house with a wrecking machine---but I would sure love to, and catch a few of the skunks under my tracks in the process. LOL. maybe i could just push a few big trees over on top of the skunks.
Cat didnt' work and snakes don't like this time of year. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
supposedly mice dont like bar soap, Might be worth a try or else d con
That and Bouce Sheets too It is all worth a shot though
I use a bait to control rodents in my shed. It comes in a solid compressed block, not like the little pellets. You could just lay a cube of it in the floor and it will just sit there until one of the little critters comes along and makes it disappear. Then you know you've fed one.
I have to be careful with poisons. I have a yellow lab that loves to sniff out critters and will eat anything that is even remotely eatable.
Try mothballs. It works most of the time. Unless you have some really persistant mice.
After having my GMC 7000 since 84 the last 2 years I get mice Guess I could get a trap but I can't kill him:Banghead Tore up all the paper towels in the truck and made a nest in the defroster vents. Turn on the defroster and confetti all over me. Hope he don't eat the wires. One Chevy dealer here paved a new lot and mice were eating the electrics on the new cars. They hired a exterminator:guns I'll try some moth balls but I hated them as a kid!:spaz:cussing:throwup They are possibly bad for your health if they carry that hunta virus (sp?) Few on Long Island died from it when the leave droppings.
Just get some old time wooden mouse traps. Usually less than a dollar a piece. Use peanut butter for bait. They cant resist PB. If they are anywhere close they will come to the PB. It is a regular here every fall for the critters to move in. A few day of trapping will move them out via the trash can.
Don't give them a bed and breakfast. Mice smell food, even what's left on wrappers. Be sure your cab is spotless and they won't have as much insentive to invade. They also make nests with any garbage they can find- rags, paper towels, magazines etc.
I can't do it :Banghead
We've tried everything but nothing is a cure all for that problem, moth balls work sometimes, traps others, we even put antifreeze out in containers for them to drink and that works a little, as far as skunks are concerned, feed them antifreeze, it smells sweet and they'll drink it or else use soda pop mixed with fly bait usually golden malerin and they won't even make it back under your porch, but don't let cats or dogs near it or they'll be pushing up daisies too. The other thing skunks like table scraps and mix some gopher poison in with that, if that does'nt work resort to lead poisoning and stay up wind. For the mouse problem if all else fails bring in some rats, mice don't stay long where theres rats around. Better yet employ them give them a job title with responsibility and you'll never see them again or ever know they were there. Same goes for the skunk, hire them and give them room and board under your porch and they'll protest the living conditions and quit and move out.
Mice, rats and cotton tails are my problem. with work slow the equipment has been sitting around the shop available for varmints to chew on. Been feeding the little blue pellets but I think they get imune to it. I have a good air rifle in my PU for the rabbits but they hear me drive up and hide. They can really chew up wiring, had a $400 laser cable chewed nearly in half.
And old cowboy just told me Irish Spring bar soap is the ticket, for packrats. If you could trade packrats for mice you'd take the mice every time!! I'm going to give it a try.
Like said earlier, fabric softener sheets seem to work. That is what I put in my boat to store it over the winter months and have not had any problems so far. Plus they smell good, unlike moth balls. Worth a try anyway. I also use the little electric boxes that plug into the outlet. From what they say, it sends out a signal of somekind thru the wiring that rodents and birds do not like, and ever since I've had it there are not nearly as many birds in my garage anymore.
Can you post a link. I do have a power outlet in one machine.
Sorry, I should have been more specific. It is a box that plugs into the 110v outlet in my garage. Do a quick search for "electronic rodent control" and you will see what I am talking about. Good luck, mice can be such a pain:drinkup
What we used in a dump was a ferret,leave him in the cage over night in each machine,moving him daily and the vermin get his scent they are off very quickly as he is their natural predator.Now they tell me that any ermine urine will do the trick also, but I can vouch for ferret pee as it did work for us on the compactors and dozers and a Toyota van once where an undesirable long tailed bucktoothed critter took up residence.
Ohhhh! come on stock tell the whole story....or I might.
Well mule and myself were on our way to a job and were sicker than a small hospital from being on the razz for the weekend before.(long before we knew alcohol was still in the system the following morning) It was around the middle of January and it was bitter cold,Mule threw the nose bag down under the seat rolled up a pair of leggings and nodded off, how he managed to sleep is beyond me the side door was missing the door seal and the back door was held closed with a wedge of wood jammed down behind the back bumper. The exhaust was broken on the haul road for the umpteen time, the noise and fumes did nothing to aid my sickness or headache.We rattled along our journey when something moved under the dash,there was a bone curling squeal Mule jumped in fright kicked the dash and out popped a rat. Now to say I have a morbid fear of rats would be an understatement,saw the rat braked ;mule slid forward hit the rat who sank his teeth in to mules boot, while trying to have his tail freed,by now I had the door open and had vacated the vehicle which was free-wheeling into a hedge with mule roaring to have the rat removed.To shorten the story we were late for work,the van had to be rescued only to be left behind the digger I was driving,and your's truly tracked back over it with Mule nose bag and flask still under the seat.So all in all it wasn't a good day for mule.Happy now Mule.
Ahh, tis a shame there's not a Utube video of this adventure. I would have been LMAO if I had seen this. Stock abandons the moving vehicle and leaves mule to deal with his new found aquaintance firmly attached to his boot...and the hedge row! I would be laughing to tears. :falldownlaugh
Remember in the movie Aliens(unedited version) ..they had these centurion robots ..whit armor piecing exploding tip high caliber chain gun's ..couple thousand rounds each.. Remember they were guided by sound, infrared and motion radar ... That'll fix the mice..even vandal's...just remember to unplug them before you go to work :thumbsup..
and for the squirrels this was my problem. Did a job and the guy went belly up. So I left the Lull on the job from past January as the bomding company was doing squat. I figured machine may as well sit there as clutter my yard and I won't look so slow . Drive over start and charge the batteries every few months runit coat the pistons. Start machine up and batteries crank it over and it starts right up. Go to extend the boom and hear two pops! I say this is not good! How could this happen just when I just started the machine, We all know things all break but the odds of first extension on boom is wierd Get out and start to look:cool2 for reason for the noise. I see the hose sheave or trolley is not in good shape. Also the hoses and cable is in the same boat. :jawdrop, While assessing the damage Mrs. Squirrel runs out in a hurry. I take the back cover off the boom and see a very nice nest:crying Problem is part of the nest was sucked into the cable pulley at the back of the boom and was jammed so tight the cable anchor snapped.:Banghead Now I say she left let's clean the boom out. Bright yellow shirt around the pulley and parts of a sweat shirt amongst other things like insulation. Start to put my hand in there and remove some stuff. Then next trip for my hand and I feel something that feels like poop. My hand recoils rapidly in disgust:shf Error on my part it was not poop it was a baby squirrel with no hair. Now the poor b*****d is dangling out the back of the boom with it's rear feet kicking in the air. I gave up on any further work and pushed him back into his nursery. Figured the machine sat so long whats the difference. Hope his mother came back. That was about 5-6 weeks ago so this Saturday he was grown and gone. Well I just brought up a squirrel for 400+ in parts and a days labor :woohoo
Ahh, the travails of being a...Dad?
We use Irish Spring too. Works like a hot dam and it smells way better than moth balls
I wasnt gonna read all the post so this may be a duplicate...... In the combine and other stuff that sits we use some stuff called "Cab Fresh" it looks and smells like ceader chips and its in a net baggie, throw a bag in under the seat every fall and no mice in the spring . get it at a farm store or I get mine at the tractor dealership's (all of them around here have it). Good luck Pj
Thanks PJ I am going to try and find some. Maybe I will do everthing. Irish spring, Fabric Softener, and a few moth balls. It is cheep enough after finding a mouse house in one of my trucks it would be worth any try.
yeah, i think i will go will all suggestions as well. the other day i popped the hood on my work truck and the darned pack rat just looked at me! besisdes that there are some good suggestions here. i also want to pick up a few barn cats for the shop. will have to stop feedind the critter's deacon though. we also have problems with beaver's clogging up our creek. it's always something:Banghead
Mice are a problem for me also. The poison bars are effective but seem to attract them in for a meal. And it seems after one mouse has scented up a machine others find it. They get in my ac/heater on my grader. Switched the fan on high one day and had chopped mouse souy blown out the vent. Got creative another day when I knew one was in there. Turned the heat to high, left the fan off, and opened the doors. Waited all day for speedy gonzales to come out with his sompreo on, empty canteen, white flag, and go "senor it's hot in there". No luck that day, but he was dead in there the next day when I took the seat out to look. Can't stand the smell of there poop and pee, and man does the ac/heater circulate it good. The cab fresh stuff works, mine lasted just a month or two. I have a tupperware full of mothballs in the machines now. Seal it up when in machine, open the tupperware when I shut down.
I was going to say , you will once one of them has had a leak on your circuit boards, but then I read this Man, you aint got a hope in hell with a heart like that. :notworthy
Skunks under the deck? That's easy. You'll need a flashlight, a tennis racket and an air horn (the kind in a can). Irish Spring might be a good idea.
I heard a good way to keep pest away (mice) is to use human hair. The mice will not set up home in equipment if they smell presence of humans (that being the hair). It's sorta like marking your territory. IF you go to a barber shop to get your hair cut ask if you can take home a bag of hair or if you cut it at home sweep it, and put it in a mesh bag and put it in your piece of equipment that you might think mice are taking shelter at.
Might be a bit of a old wives tale that.
Well I went today to get the machine running after the squirrel nursery. I left the rear boom cover which is 16" x 18" 1/4" shaped steel on the back of the carriage. In my zeal to test it I retracted the carriage and now have a rear boom cover that is bent up fairly well. :Banghead I heard it pop out and it went about 30 feet from the machine. I knew what I did as soon as I heard the noise.:throwupIt would have been cheaper to put the squirrel up in the Hilton. Another thing to fix
Oh man! you did not deserve that, no justice for having a heart. :drinkup
An easy way to control mice/rats in buildings and machinery in buildings is to make a self feeder for them to dispense mouse/rat bait. Get some 11/2" PVC pipe and some T couplings and caps. Cut two 6" pieces and one 12" piece. Insert the 6" inch pieces into the sides of the T place the 12" piece in the top hole glue them in place. Purchase some mice/rat bait that is in 3/4" by 1" pieces. Fill the 12" piece and place a cap on top then take plumbers strap and fix them to the inside walls of your buildings. Mice and rats like to run along the inside walls of buildings. They will go into the 6" pieces of PVC pipe and eat the bait. When one piece is gone another one falls down to take it's place making a mouse/rat self feeder. The poison/bait is contained your pets cannot get to it and the mice and rats will just go off and die. At first you will go through the bait fairly fast then as you get them under control it doesn't take much bait to keep the population down. You just have to remember to fill them once in awhile. One feeder about every 12 feet is enough around the inside of a building. Airedale
mouth balls work but stink to high heaven, dryer sheets work too but loose effectiveness after a while, my recomendation is to purchase some all weather bait chunks. Take a chunk, and handle it with pliers only so as to not leave a scent and insert wire through the bait chunk tie it near areas that mice seem to use for entry or access, Two or three spots should do the trick.....IE Intake, cab, elect harness, etc. best of luck!
Don't like bar soap? What do they use to bath with?
Unless your pet eats the poisoned mice.
I went to put my gloves on one morning to grease up my machine. felt like a wad of cotten in the end of my glove I couldn't get my hand in them. I took my hand out and looked inside and a mouse jumped out at me scared the **** out of me. I found out that if I didn't leave any paper towle in the side of my machine the mice usually weren't interested in it.
Mothballs: I have heard that they will cause plastics, rubber, to and some wireing to deterioate.
We had a huge mouse problem in our horse barn which houses about 30 horses plus me and my g/f live above the barn. we tried just about everything but poison as we also have 6 dogs on the property and did not want any of them getting the poison. the plug in thing worked really well and the mice in our walls disappeared for about 3 days until they realized that the noise was not gonna kill em and then they were back in full force. what finally got rid of all the mice was this fall rats decided to invade the barn and the mice will not co-habitat with rats. i tell you having rats in our walls really made us miss the mice when outlets and light switches began to stop working. not to mention how much louder the rats were. long story short ended up tying poison all over the barn in places where dogs could not get it. just be sure to tie it with little steel cables or they will just eat through whatever you tie it with. was a real pain cause the rats ruined our vapor barrier in our bedroom walls and their pee and poop actually rotted one corner support of the building so we had to gut our bedroom to repair the mold and support and also had to do some rewiring. also if you ever find the access holes they are coming in through plug them with steel wool. they hate chewing it.