Mice in my equipment! Aaarrrrgh!

[Frankencelery]

I have a 30 x 60ft pole barn that has several stalls for horses. I don't have any horses, but I'd love to keep my trikes in there. However, I keep all my 3-wheelers in my garage and park my car outside, because the mice will destroy all my trikes! I keep my older riding lawnmower out there, and if it sits more than a week, it will have a nest inside the engine housing. Drives me nuts! Last week I found one running around inside the flywheel housing, and it was a big*ss field mouse too. How the heck do they squeeze in there? I smacked the side of the engine several times and then one ran out. Then I tapped the starter a couple times to scare any others out, and when I finally did start the engine, it still pureed out another one. Nice.

I really want to put my damn car in the garage and the trikes in the barn, but I don't know how to get rid of the mice. The 3 cats seem to be useless, spending most of their time begging for food at the back door. Would it help if I fed them in the barn, or would I just end up feeding cat food to the mice?

Ok, not really a 3-wheeler question, I know. I should have titled it "How to protect my trikes from rodents?"

[RedRider_AK]

Jeez, pureed field-mouse! Maybe something like those ultra-sonic pest repellers or something? Or just brush a rat-poison paste on your wiring and upholstery when you leave your trikes in the barn...

[stoney420]

im not to sure about brushing rat poisoning on the wires and upholstery like red rider said cause i beleive most, if not all of the rat poisoning is made so they like the taste of it but its poisonus so it kills them, so they may die but theyll eat the wires and upholstery first lol, but if you could find something that they will avoid that may work..
i know it may sound mean to some ppl but maybe try not feeding the cats as much so they have to hunt there own food, obviously dont starve them to death but make it so there usually still hungry and will find there own food...
or another option would be to buy a bunch of rat poisoning and put it in the barn and eventually it will kill most of them off but they may crawl up in something and die there which would stink like hell and u also gotta be careful that the cats, or even kids dont eat any of it.. could also try the old rat traps but it sounds like u have alot of em in there so that would take a long time, i wonder if they make those "poison bombs" for mice like they do for fleas and lice, maybe u should ask a local pet store about that.. or call an exterminator and im sure he would give u some tips or if u have the extra funds and want the barn back that bad could hire the exterminator im not sure what they cost tho but im sure it aint cheap. but myself, if i couldnt find any mice "poison bombs" i would use alot of rat poison and put it places where kids(if u have any) and cats wont get to easily, and would also try keeping them cats nice n hungry.. wish you luck tho, those mice are a pain right in the A*S

[Dirtcrasher]

Leave the oil fill cap off, then put it on and fire it up once in awhile. That ought to crunch them up, LOL!

I would definitely feed the kitties in the barn.

[RedRider_AK]

Leave the oil fill cap off, then put it on and fire it up once in awhile. That ought to crunch them up, LOL

Somehow, I doubt mouse guts are a good oil additive... :lol:

[85ytz250n]

Just use a good rat poison, give it a couple weeks to work though. Dont park your car out there till they are all dead or you will have dead mice/rats in your car. If you dont feed the cats as often they will definetly eat what they can catch, unless the field mice gang up on them, then you may not have to feed the cats. Usually when I poison rats in a barn I put some feed out for like a week or so, that way they get used to it and then you jut put the poison there instead of the food.

barry

[badasskfx]

throw moth balls all over the place works for me. put them in the air box of the machines your not riding etc etc

[SWIGIN]

you got to seal off the building too or they will come back

[Bryan Raffa]

:idea: stop feeding the cats and the mice will dissapear!

[ccdhowell]

My dad used to leave out bowls of Coca-Cola. He said that rats/mice can't burp and after they drink the sweet coke their stomachs will pop. Not sure if it is true, but dad swore by it and it did seem to work. Only drawback is the same as rat poison, they die all over the place and have a terrible stink.

[atc4everbob]

Hell, the mice in my garage are worse than the Taliban! They just keep coming back. I think they hold meetings out there every hour on the hour. It's getting to the point where I knock first before I enter my garage. I don't want to piss them off. I'd be in trouble if they ganged up on me. Some are nearly big enough to ride my Big Red. I swear they move my 3 wheelers sometimes...

I usually don't have much trouble with them until late summer (NOW!). That's when the b@st@rds are looking for winter shelter. I usually use Ropax bars (poison). It thins them out fairly quickly.

[Frankencelery]

Lots of good ideas. Bryan Raffa said not to feed the cats, but you have to feed them something, or they'll just leave. I guess the trick is to feed them less, so they're hungry.

Also, as much as I'd love to, I can't seal up this barn, it's just too open, and has a dirt floor. I fantasize about putting in a concrete floor. Oh, the things I could do with it then! I'd have my shop out there as well as all my trikes.

I've thought of poison too, but I've got three dogs, and it would be like them to eat a dead mouse that had been poisoned. The cats.....well let's just say I'm not a cat lover and I wouldn't really miss them.

I went out there tonight just to see what's what, and there's a mouse nest in my basket case 200x and my buddy's XL125 airbox too. I was too tired to do anything about it tonight, but tomorrow, I'm going mouse hunting, if there can be such a sport. Bastards!

[Trouble]

lazyboy, .22 , cooler, case or 2 of beer, and shoot every mouse you see! :D

[Bryan Raffa]

get more cats then..:lol: :postwhore

[ceaserthethird]

Like everyone Said - Feed the Cats Less Food & set their food in the Barn .

Set up mouse traps with Peanut Butter ( Giant Mouse Traps )

[Scooter77]

circle your stuff in baited traps lol. Or you could just do what i did and poison the hell out of them..just put a few bowls of rat poson around.

[_brad_]

I also have had good luck with cheap old mouse traps tipped with peanut butter... The key is to mound on the peanut butter. That way they try and take it all at once then SNAP!

I got a mouse one day with a gopher trap (basically a big azz mouse trap) and the trap slaped the mouse so hard it decapidated his head off!

It was great.

[atctim]

I bait my mouse traps with a small piece of fresh bread. I mold it around the bait spot - top and bottom - that way when they are working to get it off - "S N A P " - dead mouse. I usually keep about 4 traps baited out in the garage - this year seems particularly bad for mice around here.

[Frankencelery]

An update- I didn't want to use snap traps or poison, for fear I would end up hurting the cats or my dogs, so I used a half dozen sticky traps. Know what I caught? Crickets. Bajillions of crickets. So that was useful. I can probably use snap traps, but only in a couple locations, so the bigger animals can't get to them. I can just see my lovable golden retriever tearing across the yard with a moustrap on her face!:lol:

[Mosh]

Pure peppermint oil is a natural deterrent for mice.I dont know if it works,But it is safe to try and wont hurt the other animals.It has to be pure pepperment oil though,no imitations or extracts.Set some cotton balls soaked with the stuff in your airboxes and they wont go near it.It burns thier noses badly.That is what they say to do in garden books and natural remedy books.

[brapp]

try bread soaked with borax.and confectionary sugar. they eat it and then take t to thier young and it kills them and ants and anyother insecs that woudl eat it.

[Rawlins350x]

I feel for you man. I've had problems with red squirrels living in my attic for the last 6 months. They're chewing my wires, pulling out my insulation, and only go knows what else. I finally found out where they're getting in and fixed the problem (hopefully:rolleyes: ) Definatly watch the poison you choose if you have other animals around that will gobble mice up. I think snap traps would be your best bet (i'm sure your dog will learn its lesson after the first encounter :lol: ) As moshman355 said. Pure peppermint oil might do the trick. I know my neighbors use it to keep the deer out of their garden in the summer.

Good luck! And lets just hope you never have to deal with the evil reds:beer

[jenndnn3]

Fire the current cats they suck at their job, especially if they are threathening to leave due to being unfed. If you have that big of a mouse problem that within a week they are movin in, you are feeding your cats way too much.

Pick up a nice set of wild toms....

[Rawlins350x]

Maybe you should hire sykolincoln to come sit in your garage. Here's a thread with a picture of his credentials... http://www.3wheelerworldforums.com/showthread.php?t=72887

[80'427]

My grandma ties a string to the flipper of the trap then uses peanut butter when they try to eat the pb they pull on the string. Get you some good old wild stray cats like they have on farms with too many toms around. Ones you can touch or catch except in a live trap. They will clean up the place and come back for more. But then you have to get another dog to eat the cats.