Please have a psychotherapist on the ready! Consider this a public service announcement. ..............and your ONLY warning!
Just got done with one of those except it was a rat in the fan belt and all the carnage it caused when everything came unraveled. #1 son was not pleased with the smell, we got to fixing it when it was plenty ripe and the water we got all over trying to clean things up made the smell worse.
Soybean thief.....
Had a Miller generator welder giving me a tough time. Brought it into the garage to work on. Stupid me had quite a few field mice nest in it. Fixed the wiring a week ago and had to go get pellets 20 bucks, and 4 traps. Got 7 so far, gonna pay for it for a while. Lol
What i started using last year around the house are glue traps - the larger ones (maybe 6”x3”). i just lay them on the floor in areas where mice travel (next to the wall) or where they visit. I don’t even bait them. Caught about ten in the house in the Spring , then pretty quiet during the summer. Caught two more yesterday.
How the hell did a mouse get into a computer? Bucket traps work great, you tube has hundreds of them. Joe H
I use glue traps also. I put a dab of peanut butter in the center of them. A big mouse or rat can walk away with it if there is only one or two feet stuck to it. I learned that the hard way. They should be screwed to a small piece of plywood or something similar.
Victor electric traps work well, catch small mice or big rats but expensive.
I've seen glue traps with only legs attached... Goo! So, we've got mice in the shed and in the barn. With both places being more or less outside is it smart to stick traps out there with any kind of bait? I fear drawing in more rodents than were there in the first place... (Maybe I've asked this before?) I'd love to get rid of the ones that are currently running around machines but I don't want to invite more to come along with the sweet, sweet smell of free peanut butter.
Barn cats
Yeah, I'm trying to avoid that option... I'm also hoping that soon enough the barn will be sealed up enough that they couldn't get in or out, but I know that is basically not an option with mice.
They seem to love the blower ducts on our Deutz engines. Apparently the area up against the oil cooler is especially cozy...I've removed colossal charred mouse nests from there before.
According to my woman, they are furry and cute......they are just trying to live their lives. She is the ultimate animal lover
Thankfully we have no rats here, so nasty. I like the big boxes unbaited against walls, no way out for them and they will still go in there if there is already some in there. I've found since moving to a concrete yard last year, never seen a single one outside, or in the shop.
Vetech I'm fine with them as well as long as they aren't messing up my stuff. And I'd prefer them not pee and poo everywhere. My wife is terrified of them.
Thoroughly enjoying the rat-free status here as well. https://www.alberta.ca/history-of-rat-control-in-alberta.aspx
Be glad you don't have pack rats, those mice are amateurs compared to these things. Mice might bite a few wires, pack rats will strip the vehicle.
I have a rat story told to me by a guy who worked for a Cat dealer. This guy I will call Ryan got to work on a Monday morning early. The parts manager came to the back and asked him to go to the storage room and look for a engine block for a early D8, like before 14A models late 40's/50's. He found it-manager told him to dig it out get it ready to ship to Chehalis. He asked the manager why would anyone need that, never you mind was the reply. The Chehalis shop was restoring this old D8 for a old retired logger. The previous Friday the engine had just been set in-place before 5 pm and the fellers in the shop decided to all head to the local watering hole. That night the alarms went off and the local security guy shows up but doesn't know what he's looking at but it didn't look right, he calls the store manager. Manager shows up and probably crapped himself was Ryan's guess. When the boys left to go drinking they left the overhead hoist hooked to the engine sling. A insurance investigator was summoned he climbed up and looked the overhead hoist over----------and found a Fried Rat. The rat had shorted out the ancient hoist which lifted the engine out of the frame--dead headed the thimble/hook--cable let go dropping that engine from what Ryan said was 20 plus feet. It tore up a lot more than just the engine. A happening. NC tried to keep that one all {Hush, Hush}. The hush, hush must be said with a British accent---- Terry Thomas.
I want to try one of those co2 cartage powered bolt traps. Pack rats are the worst, we discovered a big den next to a pump house while trenching once, the bugger had found his way inside and was taking PVC fittings off a shelf and taking them underground. Looked the plumbing section at HD when the hoe bucket came up.
Pack Rats and Chipmunks at Salem MO BILs farm, will carry off what can drag or bury in acorns and nest materials where any sized hole for said products exist. Mice get into farm tractor brake housings, have to vacuum the areas as much as possible over a year. Leads to frozen adjuster threads for brakes and inability to adequately stop if pack much in there, dread a fire from friction application.
Had a John Deere tractor one time, started it up and magnets came flying out around hood. Seems a chipmunk or 2 decided to make a nest under the flywheel and the acorns started stripping the magnets off and detonated. Lol That took a little time and a bit of money to fix. I have 2 cats that are too old to hunt. Looks like it’s time for a kitten.
This is why you don't want electronics in heavy equipment. Those little critters can sure mess things up, yes they have the whole world and have to pick your items for home.
See how she likes them when they chew on one of her shoes.. Death hath no furry.
My mother complained of a noise in her rv's heater last fall. It was a severe vibration in the fan. Seems that someone made it halfway through the fan before it switched on. Rat Bond was not as successful as James when it came to ventilation system ingress. His other half landed on the heater and was BBQ'd nicely. I've also been having a difficult time with critters getting into the cab of the Menzi. Soap, dryer sheets and peppermint oils have been useless. I tried Wong-Tu-Yick brand of Chinese Wood Loch Oil soaked onto a dryer sheet and that did the trick. It made my eyes burn for the first few days but it certainly drove out every critter for a couple of months. It's easy to refill. It also made the cab smell quite nice. It's good stuff on achy muscles and joints - sort of like liquid aspirin but better. I always have a bottle in each truck for medical needs.
I was pushing all that fruit trash into the neighbors garbage hole a few days ago when I saw one of those little b@stards crawl up out of a vent. Hopefully, it smelled all the produce and decided that was a better place to live than in my backhoe, it could eat like a king for years. I'm surprised it stuck around on the drive over there.
I'll have to try that. Every year we fight mice getting into our forage trucks at the farm. We've tried all of the usual suggestions like you did and still find mice in the trucks.
Just bought some to try on both mouse prevention and aches and pains! Link Ingredients: CAMPHOR (SYNTHETIC) 1mg in 10mL, MENTHOL 1.6mg in 10mL, METHYL SALICYLATE 5mg in 10mL I'm a big fan of Camphor and Menthol. We'll see how it goes. A bit pricey to just spray all over the place but I'll try the soaking a dryer sheet trick.
I usually purchase this via Ebay. I will purchase a dozen bottles at a time which gets it down a bit cheaper. If you have an Asian market close by, they normally carry this stuff. A bottle will normally last me 4-6 months around the house. It only takes a dozen or so drops to load a dryer sheet to bomb the cab of equipment. At $15 a bottle, it will go a long ways. If you really want to have some fun, drip this down the small of your wife's back and watch her dance when she starts to sweat it down her butt crack! Or, touch sensitive body parts with this on your hands. You WILL get a cursin'! DO NOT rub your eyes with this on your hands. You will be in pain for a good 5 minutes or more until the burn passes. This is great stuff for achy backs, hands, etc. Apply on your neck and temples if you get a headache.
A big fat black snake or three is the best rat control.
You must be in the deep south. My snakes quit working here around September. The mice get thick in the equipment when the snakes quit working. And my shop cat is not the hunter he used to be as age is getting the best of him.
The hawk I posted a picture of in the picture thread caught at least one good mouse. I wish I could train it to go into the barn! On potentially a good note, I watched mouse hop out of the backhoe and it couldn't find an exit to the barn. Maybe that means they can't get in too!
Don't tell my wife but I may have seen a mouse in the garage last night... My shop, which is connected to the garage, has doors which don't seal too well, so it doesn't surprise me, but if it was a mouse it's the first I've seen in the garage proper. I guess my 10 pack of traps will come in handy. Boo.
I think the CAT is afraid of the snake..... Provide a printed snake schedule for the cat.
Couple of months ago we had a mouse come into the garage, climbed the tire of the minivan, somehow got access to the heater duct in the back of the van. It either starved or suffocated, but it died unknowingly to me until I start smelling something dead. It got stronger and stronger. Had the kids help me find the source of the smell figuring it was left over McDs hamburger or nuggets that had fermented. Couldn't find anything. Finally, it became about unbearable, I opened the louvered access panel in the rear of the van where the tire iron was and there it lay, thankfully within reaching distance. I reached in with a napkin and removed it while the kid's skin crawled - mine did too actually. They did think it was cute. It ate up the cabin filter and who knows what else. Haven't had any issues, thankfully. Couple of months go by, my in-laws are in the van with us going to kid's football game and its a bit chilly. I turned the heat up and the PUNGENT smell of ammonia about knocked us out. Little bugger left a gift that keeps on giving. I'm still smelling it to this day. And we have a cat in the garage! I keep a chicken/rat snake in the barn, but he goes on vacation around September like Treemuncher mentioned.
Gross!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow-bellied_marmot I had one of these, very large mouse, we call Rock Chucks. It took up residence in my CX160. i checked the oil. didn't notice anything unusual. Fired up the machine, shortly there after, a huge noise, sounded like someone throw a rock into the fan. Turned out to be a Rock..Chuck. It apparently took up residence in my radiator cowling and found the fan. Took out fan, radiator and some other components. Costs me $7K to fix it. Stunk like dead a rat for a month.
Use pine-sol to wash out the smell of the mouse.
7k!! Yikes
I hate mice.
Especially the ones that weigh 11 pounds.
That's a first for me to hear of that. It's usually the pack rats in the woods around Mt Rainier that are the problems. You only see those way up high. Usually when they are disturbed they make a sound like a whistle. Yours must have sounded like a steam train.
Outdoor only mouse trap. That's great.
This is what I dragged out of a Lincoln Electric Tractapac PTO welder that I bought, and that I've been repairing. About 15 litres of rodent nest debris, turds, and trash. It wouldn't turn over, and I was wondering why.
Rats, mice & rock chucks. A young guy I knew years ago working at a shop, well he liked to hunt buzz tails. He kills this 20"er and throws it in the trunk of his car, he gets home opens the trunk-it's gone. He looked all over that car. Months later he and his new wife are on a honeymoon starting in Seattle, staying at some ritzy hotel. He opened the trunk and here's that buzz tail all curled up on top of a suite case, it's head half smashed in but alive. Mean while the bell hop is flipping out scaring everyone on the sidewalk. He killed it again and threw it in a garbage can, cops showed up. What a start of a honeymoon. From rodents to buzz tails.
Great story Truck Shop! What's a buzz tail? Never heard of that, also how did it live that long? OzDozer- I've got a wood splitter that looks pretty similar. I tried yanking her started last year and as I did all that fluff started coming out. I haven't yet messed with it.
I'm presuming a rattlesnake? Aighead - the Lincoln Tractapac was purely a product from Lincoln Electric Australia, it was designed primarily for farm use. Originally it came fitted with wheelbarrow-size wheels and 32V DC power for drills, grinders, etc - but later models of the Tractapac had 14" Holden wheels, plus 10A 240V AC power, as well as 225A welding ability. They're a handy little unit. https://www.facebook.com/LincolnEle...60s-for-the-best-mobile-wel/1551289635031581/