What do you guys do to keep mice out of your machines? I've tried bounce dryer sheets and moth balls. No avail. Every time I start the machine up, atleast 3 run out of it. Today I chased one with a pair of sandals throwing one at it making it slow down enough to whack it a good one then get a shovel. Really getting annoying. What have you guys used?
a guy around me swears if you prop a broom against it it will keep the mice away leave decon for them
Cats work for me.....
Bars of Irish Spring original soap. That's what a lot of antique car and truck people seem to use. Plus it smells waaaaaayyyy better than mothballs.
put some whole cloves in a bowl in the machine.
Try sticky pads when you catch one and there still alive just snip there feet off with a pair of sissors (if you recycle). Be worned thay do squile
Decon works the best for us. We also leave antifreeze in bottlecaps for them on the weekends, and when on holiday. Best Regards, CD
I'll second the antifreeze, works faster than decon they usually don't get far enough to cause problems after a drink.
I might be an @sshole, but one thing I don't do is cause anything to suffer, in a long term, or unneccessary manor like that. I thought about the antifreeze before but I know I'll forget about it and then have in all spilled through the engine compartment. I was gonna use fly bait and pepsi which kills just about anything almost instantly as well. My other issue with these is the mice dying inside the machine, somewhere I can't reach then I have to smell it.
I agree House2Home; the mouse is just doing what it's suppose to, torturing it won't stop all mice from getting into things. I'm against the antifreeze idea also unless there is a way to make sure only mice get it. I have been using the little bait boxes that way it only targets the mice, you can get a pack of them at lowes or???? for around 5-6 $$'s These have worked for me, I don't care for any of the loose baits on the markets, too easy for other critters to get into it. If you don't want to kill the mice then you can make a trap with a 5 gal bucket a piece of string, peanut butter and a toilet paper roll insert. You just tie the string across the diameter of the bucket with the roll slipped over hanging in the middle, smear some peanut butter on the roll. When the critters go out to get the peanut butter they climb onto the roll it turns they fall into the bucket and are trapped until you let them out.
I use a similar bucket trap at my hunting camp year round except we use a small board with a wire through it that flips once they get so far out. Works great. I'm all about killing them, just not cutting their feet off. That's just unnecessary, for me anyhow.
Okay you guys who had to start talking about the mice? Just today I was trying to troubleshoot a problem on a Cat haul truck with the indicator telling the operator the primary steering had failed when in fact it hadn't! After a few dead ends I decided to check wiring from sensor to the control module. Removed front cover from cab to access the control module. What do I find but two wires chewed on one cut right through making intermittent contact that was giving me fits during the trouble shooting process. Only good thing was the little bastards did leave me enough wire on the control module to splice on a new plug assembly. I think this is the first time in over 40 years at this location that I have had a problem with wires getting chewed on!
I got mice to. Started up my 06 Super Duty today for the first time in two weeks. The air conditioner/ heater control only stayed on defrost. Opened the hood and there was a mouse nest built out of the jute insulation and has what appears to be small vacuum line hose pieces in it. So far I can't see where the hose is missing from. Never had a mouse nest in the truck before.
With the bucket trap, if you use antifreeze instead of water, it keeps the smell down and it never freezes during the winter, also the smell of antifreeze attracts them as well.
Mice can raise gain with wiring it seems to be one of their favorite foods(??) For those using the antifreeze please make sure nothing else can get into it, I've seen the results from ** on pups and other pets.
You would think that tier 4 would have that covered complete with sensors.
I can't imagine the work involved in replacing the wiring harness on my mini. The war department thinks dryer sheets, moth balls, and Cab fresh is the answer. I think her old wives tales are malarky. Those products smell, just like a bathroom smells but that doesn't keep me from using a bathroom. We still have a mouse problem after all her anti mouse treatments. As said on here, new antifreeze is pet safe with a bitter taste added. I use, decon, mice sure go through a bunch of it, maybe a groundhog got into it ? If I could rent a guaranteed mouser cat, I'd pursue the fostering route, if it was an option.
Since this thread was started back in 14 I've had my share of issues with mice and rats costing in the upper tens of thousands of dollars in damage in and around buildings and equipment. The cab fresh and those products that use smell to deter mice or what we call stink sweet works by putting a scent on those mice that get into it and once they go back to their nest, they are rejected by others till the smell goes away.........or until the rest smell the same, basically your right, they don't work with much success if any. Here is one option nobody has ever mentioned before anywhere that I'd been told that works and for the most part is legal. If you house your machines overwinter in sheds, put the machine inside, remove all pets and shut it up tight and fumigate the entire shed and leave it shut up way past the time allowed to go back inside, for individual machines say for example a dozer, toss a tarp over it, stake that down all the way around and fumigate that machine and walk away and wait for the time period to run out before removing the tarp. I've had some farmers I do work for claim this is there method that works to rid machines of mice in one shot and they either do this several times a winter in sheds or once done, they then start to put out bait on and around machines and in the shed once the known population is dead. Any other method uses the mice to either eat it or get caught in whatever trap your setting, this method fumigates the entire shed and machines and kills everything inside no matter where they hide. I'll admit, after the amount of money I've spent on every known poison or trap with limited success or shall I say success after the damage is already done, this option is really gaining ground for my line of thinking. Hire an exterminator to go after the problem and cure it in one shot and then keep the problem at bay the best I can after that. The issue we've been having with mice is, we leave machines set out of jobsites, the mice are attracted to the machines and get inside them and then we bring back home dozens of machines, once inside the buildings or in the shop, they hop off and before long we're over run with mice, rats and whatever else hitches a ride home we don't know about. This summer after bringing home one of my dozers, we thankfully dropped open the belly pans outside the shop in order to wash it off, literally dozens of rats ran out the bottom as we started to wash it off, if we hadn't washed it off first due to a blown hydraulic line, those rats would have been locked inside the shop before they got out of the dozer. Turns out once we got it washed off, there were bushels of corn inside the belly pans...............it took some thinking as to how it even got inside in the first place, turns out we were doing some landscaping across the road from an elevator and the dozer sat there a week or so before we got the job done due to rain and picked it up, that must have been enough time for the rats to think it was there new home and stock pile the corn inside it and climb aboard for the ride back to my shop. Well guess what, those rats didn't run off, they ran for my other sheds and set up house, along with apparently every other mouse and rat that's hitched a ride home on my machines. The rat problem was so bad this summer, even the cats ran away in fear.
Speak with a local pest service, they have access to Block pest poisons that are routinely changed up to kill the vermin. The recipe has to change pretty often to keep working where have watched the little critters eat DeCon and keep coming back for more unaffected. The Rat baits are color coded as they change recipe, the critters bleed out internally and desiccate where do not stink. Same stuff as active component as Blood Thinner meds for humans.
I have the best success with ratak . They have thinned the active ingredient out so much that the critters have eat most of the bag to kill them. They dry up and don’t stink also. They seem to really like it though because I’ve tried other brands next to ratak and they eat the ratak first . https://www.oxfordfeedsupply.ca/store/p566/Ratak_Rodenticide_Pellets_-_400g.html
I have a cat and dog so no ** or Decon Have caught mice in a bucket with little diesel in the bottom. Used diesel just by chance. Had a slight leak in a storage tank and bucket was there to catch until I fixed it
I use the boxes, will catch more then one, and easy clean up for around the house. Definitely need something at the yard, found some droppings in my truck cab over the summer. Anyone found a good solution to put around the tires to stop them from being able to get onto the truck? I wonder with a hoe, the only place for them to get from the undercarriage to the house is the slew bearing, I wonder if you put a big line of grease on the top of track frame if they'd go through it? At least there's no rats to deal with here, that's nice.
Moth Balls.
Haven't had good luck with them. So many times there is droppings right next to them, like they don't bother them. Maybe some brands better then others? Trying to figure out something so they can't physically climb the tires, so there is zero chance of them getting into anything.
I wouldn't worry too much about them climbing, most classify as Olympic Class pole vaulters and long jumpers. Try cider vinegar