Replies

1. 
   LRutherfor1 | Jun 25, 2002 04:33am | #1

   I'm really not being condescending about this, but have you considered keeping a cat in your shop?

1. 
   Tanner | Jun 25, 2002 04:41am | #2

   That is a good idea, but I don't think the cat would stay in once I started up the machines... We live on a farm and have outside cats that "police" the area, but they are also fed everyday, so I don't think they take mousing to seriously.

2. 
   forestgirl | Jun 25, 2002 05:51am | #3

   My experience with chewing mice is that they're usually active in an enclosed or sheltered space that would make good nesting or sleeping quarters, not something like a standing-out-in-the-open dust bag.  Some rodents (ground squirrels, for instance) like the taste and/or texture of the insulation found on telephone wires and such, but I don't think mice have this affinity.

   Rather than a cat (and I have 2, love 'em!), I'd suggest D-Con bait traps placed in the backs of cupboards and behind machinery (every 12 or 15 feet or so).  That has worked for us in our garage (my shop).

   forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl   ;-)

3. 
   sschefer | Jun 25, 2002 05:56pm | #4

   I have had to use D-Con before and it is certainly the permanent solution to your problem.

   However, you have to be careful about the other animals that might be around. They are just as fond of the taste and it will kill them just as fast.

   There is one solution that a lot of people forget about and that is mothballs. Just take a few and make a line around your DC. The mice wont cross the line.

   Steve - in Northern California

1. 
   forestgirl | Jun 25, 2002 06:38pm | #5

   Ahhhhhh, I've made it policy to stay away from mothballs.  Their primary component is naphthalene.  Nauseating and potent stuff, and not to be left where children and pets can get to them.  Nasty, nasty (my personal opinion, scientifically expressed as Yuck!)

   PS:  Some are made with paradichlorobenzene, also nasty stuff.  Whatever...yuck.

   forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl   ;-)

   Edited 6/25/2002 11:46:43 AM ET by forest_girl

1. 
   sschefer | Jun 25, 2002 06:57pm | #6

   LOL, well that certainly explains why Bears don't like em either.. Maybe its not such a good suggestion... I hereby rescend my recommendation for the use of mothballs. Besides, its really hard to get those darn moths to hold still long enough to pluck them off.Steve - in Northern California

1. 
   forestgirl | Jun 25, 2002 09:52pm | #7

   Steve, do you administer anesthesia, or do it the old-fashioned way? LOL!forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl   ;-)

4. 
   LD | Jun 26, 2002 05:58am | #8

   I had mouse problems before I insulated my shop.  After insulating it, I just put mouse traps on each side of the door openings.  You need to used the Victor traps that have the plastic swiss cheese on the trigger pad.  You also need to put two side by side as mice will sometimes jump over one but if they do, they  land on the other one.  Just put them on the floor side by side with the pad as close to the wall as you can.  Put them on each side of the door opening or any opening where mice come in.

   The advantage to the Victor traps is that you don't have to bait them.  Just "Set them and forget them".  Of course you'll have to check them periodically.  But if you forget, your nose will tell you.