How to get rid of mice?

[Glenn]

What is a good way to get rid of mice in the smithy?

The weather has turned wet, and cold will follow. Then the mice will start looking for a home for winter. I just want to be prepared for them this year.

[Alan DuBoff]

Glenn,

Don't have enough experience with the smithy, but I like cats!

Traps may work ok also. Cats are renewable, with mice!

[Ten Hammers]

I just use those poisin packets some years. Sometimes I forget. Don't usually have an issue. The local farm store sells poisin in bars, packets and wax pieces that can be nailed to a piece of wood.

[Dan OHare]

Ten Hammers has good advice- all of those products by D-con are effective. You can run a trap line even though the price on pelts is down lately. If you have a mouse problem and opt for the trap remedy you will notice quick results and put a big dent in the population right away, then it tapers off. If it doesn't and your trap line regularly produces lots of victims then take a look around and asess the situation- you are probably inadvertently providing ideal conditions for them, i.e. food/shelter etc. There is a lot to be said for keeping a clean shop. If you have a bigger problem such as rats, then I suggest from experience you avoid the poison option and stick to traps because traps work immediately and poison doesn't. This can leave you with the body of a sizeable critter mouldering away inside a wall or cieling somewhere, whew! A friend of mine who keeps his motorcycle stored on a trailer in the back room of his shop keeps a bunch of mothballs scattered around the bike on the trailer. Before he did this he had trouble with wiring being chewed on by rodents- no more since the mothballs are on gaurd duty. Happy hunting. Dan

[irnsrgn]

hungry cats or a friendly black snake are solutions for a mouse free workplace.

Food and water are the two main reasons mice congragate, farmers come up with some ingenious methods of rodent control, due to the large amount of food around the farm.

A 5 gallon bucket with a few inches of water in the bottom and a pop or beer can suspended at the top on a wire so it can revolve and with some peanut butter smeared on it and a piece of wood laid against the side for easy access works quite well, as the mice jump on the can it revolves and drops the mice into the water and they drown. Another version is a bucket about 3/4 full of water with popcorn floating on top, and a ramp for access. Mouse smells popcorn, jumps in to what looks like a solid area of food, mouse drowns. These are simple methods and easy to make, but buy a cat litter scoop to remove the victims daily or the smell is overpowering.

[BT]

Since my shop is located in a heavily wooded area, I keep the D-con bait packets out year around. The bait packets pretty well keep the mouse population under control for me.

[Jymm Hoffman]

Try spreading moth balls around. It really works, my dad uses them every winter in his camper and antique cars. I use them in storage areas where I don't have to put up with the smell.

[the_sandy_creek_forge]

My shop's in the barnyard at my parent's farm, so I rarely have mice problems (good old blacksnakes and bullsnakes) but I did have a spider problem, specifically those big "tunnel" spiders (not sure of the scientifical name) that build a little tunnel in the corners and spring out when you reach for something. They were a problem until I discovered that a couple of toads will either eat the spiders or eat the flies, thereby starving the spiders. I just have to be careful that I don't step on the little greenish brown buggers when I am working. (That and my daughter thinks it really cool that there are toads living under my storage shelfs )

[Mr Smith]

Here's a story... just in time for Halloween!

I was hardening a drawknife in our oil tub one day. Whilst I was doing so, something bobbed up to the surface. "Hello" I thought "Someone dropped a rag into the oil tub!"

Not so.

When I checked the 'rag' a bit closer, it turned out that a rat had gnawed through the chipboard lid of our tub, driven on by the smell of waste cooking oil, fell in and drowned.

To this day, my favourite tongs are known as "the rat tongs."

[Woody]

A one word answer is "CAT". A longer answer is what people have mentioned above, remove what is attracting them in the first place, food and water. Also the sticky traps are less of a hazard than the poison baits such as D-Con etc. Last, deny the little buggers acces to your shop, seal door and other openings so they cant get in. Any small hole such as around pipes etc that is open to the outside can be stuffed with steel wool. They will try to chew their way through that and it will lacerate their innards which will cause them to bleed to death before they can ever get inside. Snakes only work in the warm months, remember they are cold blooded and hybernate in the winter.

Woody