Minks in my C Dory!

[localboy]

What farmers use: a good barn cat.

[TyBoo]

This thread reminded me of the mouse trap I built before retiring at the paper mill. They guys in the shop wanted me to leave it as a legacy when I left and they tell me it is still working flawlessly. It has a laser photo eye that trips a solenoid and drops a door when the critter gets half way into the box. Works with a DeWalt battery.

It catches rats, mice and a surprising number of squirrels. I would suggest you make one for yourself but once you figure in all the parts and labor we estimated it cost Georgia Pacific right around $3000. It was also costly to use because every time it caught a critter then two or three of us in the cat shop had to get in the truck and run up to the woods to let it go. That usually took most of the morning. And you wonder why toilet paper is so expensive!

The first rat it caught almost made it out so we did a little rewiring and repositioning of limit switches and it was never empty when sprung.

I am still waiting for the world to beat a path to my door.

[C-Green]

Brass or bronze wool also works good for plugging holes - obviously never rusts. Available at hardware stores and maybe art supply stores.

Jay

[tsturm]

[Marco Flamingo]

I second the bronze wool if they are coming through little crannies.

Listerine works as good as mothballs. I wouldn't use poison. It's the gift that keeps on giving. Mouse eats the poison and stumbles out. Owl (or house cat) gets it. Owl drops out of sky. Bob cat gets it. Bob cat dies. Raven gets it. . . . . Use poison only if you and your neighbors don't want any animals around (including pets).

If you have freezing weather, this won't work in the winter. I bought some "walk the plank" automatic reset traps when the mice were chewing my Muck boots and rain gear on the porch. Check the prices on these because the vary widely.

You hang them on a 5 gallon bucket with a few inches of soapy water in it. Bait the end of the plank with peanut butter. The plank is lightly held out with a magnet. When the mouse walks out, plank drops mouse into soapy water and resets for the next mouse. 5 in one night was my record. Only bad thing was once a young weasel must have smelled the mice and it also drowned. Good for my neighbor's chickens but I could use the weasel's help on the mice.

Mark

[RobLL]

When we lived in the country my Kubota and beater Ford 250 neither of which I used all that much needed bait stations for mice. I couldn't figure out a less lethal system. Both had so many vulnerable locations there was no chance of sealing them out. My fond hope was that the Mus died in situ. LOL

[colbysmith]

Back out on the boat today, before the big blizzard they are predicting gets here.... Cleaned up the wiring that was chewed into, which fortunately wasn't much and accessible. Found the little bugger in the mouse trap. Hope he was the only one, as I only pull up the cover about once a month to check on stuff, so didn't want to leave the trap out there. Picked up the old dryer sheets, which had pretty much lost their smell, and went the moth ball route. Hopefully those will keep their smell a little longer. Placed small sachels of them in various strategic locations. As for the cabin, I have corks in all the thru-hulls, and heavy sponge and dryer sheets in hawsehole. The area in the aft cabin bulkhead where wiring comes thru is filled pretty well with expanding foam, and even if mice chewed into it, the wires are so tight in the hole I don't think they'd get thru. Anyway, the cabin has been mouseless over the past few years. So keeping my fingers crossed the moth balls do a better job, and I'll be sure to replace them when the aroma is gone. As for Irish Spring soap.... I had a bar in our full sized home grill. Haven't used the grill for a little over a month, but opened it up to check today. Yep, a nest in there, but no critter. And the soap had been chewed on...

[localboy]

[colbysmith]

[hardee]

Not to differ with my friend Colby because he is right in that you cannot go back hours or days later, but . . .

Ahhhhh, but you can edit, BUT you only have 30 minutes to do that.

OR

You can look at what the post is going to look like by clicking on the "Preview" button, just to the left of the "Submit" button, and look (and correct if needed), before you press the "Submit" button.

Harvey
SleepyC

[colbysmith]

I probably could have said a little more. But regarding the edit and delete. I think once or twice, after changing my mind on a post, I just went back within that 30 minutes, and edited it to say, "Deleted". Colby

[Marco Flamingo]

I hate meeses to pieces. They chewed on the electrical in my car once. The neighbor yelled "What's going on inside your car?" The white powder is from the fire extinguisher. I laid on the ground, cracked the door, and shot off the extinguisher. Totaled anyway.

Mark

[Robert H. Wilkinson]

[quote="colbysmith"]

[pcg]

Odd that you have to wait 30 min. Why not just let someone delete immediately?

[Robert H. Wilkinson]