Can anyone give me sage advice on how to keep mice away from my hay storage?? I have a 12 x 12 room in the back of my barn that I need to use to store hay, but it’s proving next to impossible to seal well enough that mice can’t get in :mad: And I’ve not had luck convincing the local stray cats to reliably stay near the barn… I’m a bit nervous about just stacking it on pallets in there and hoping they don’t get into it, and a bit twitchy about bio-security as I just had my beloved mare suffer through a bout of colitis last week that of course, no one know why or how she got it… How does everyone handle the critter management??
Errr, no mice in a barn is a bit of a lofty dream! :lol:
There’s really not going to be a way to seal off a room that is also healthy for hay storage, so I’d work on making better friends with those stray cats. Who even if they’re around are not going to be able to get under the pallets, but might nab a few when they run out.
Well, cats. But they aren’t strays, their mine. Spayed/neutered/vaccinated.
D-con is the only way to keep mice out of the barn
Yep, it is poison and you have to be careful what else may get into it.
Right now, I have a mice and rat and so a rattler problem in our hay barn.
In the last week have killed a huge rattler, a smaller one and picked a flake of hay I had set in for morning, in the partial dark and several baby rattlers, that had been curled up on it, scurried off as I dropped it quickly.
I am not fond of those encounters of the noisy kind in the dark morning.
We would never put the hay on pallets because of the mice habitat it provides under them.
Better make it a little harder on the mice and snakes and lose some hay on the bottom bale than keep playing russian roulette with rattlers.
Most everyone here with cats and dogs uses D-con and tell me their critters don’t get into it at all and won’t eat the dead mice, but that without that, mouser cats or not, there is no way to keep rodents and so snakes off the hay.
A neighbor has killed an average of 3 rattlers a day this summer around his hay stacks and about as many by his house.
Yesterday he came in at dark and saw something shine by the house wall and yes, another rattler.
I killed one last night at 10PM when I took the dog out to potty, right by the dog door, when the dog alerted to it.
Mice is not the problem as much as what they attract that loves mice menu.
For enclosed rooms where I want to ensure the mice cannot get in, I nail metal drywall corner edging in all the corners and any junction of the roof or floor with the walls. I ensure the door is flush to the floor, and there are no gaps in any of the walls. If there are, the walls are lined with metal (not fiberglass) window screening. Mice can chew through just about anything except metal.
OP - you need to describe your room - is it open (there is no way to keep mice out of open spaces) or enclosed.
Your hay will need air circulation around it, get a Jack Russel Terror, they will keep the rodent population as low as it can get. I’m luck that my barn cat is a wonderful hunter and I stack on plastic covered in loose hay and do not loose any bales in an equipment shed with one open side.
If I could possibly seal up a storage room so tight a mouse couldn’t find its way in I would be curious about what kind of effect the lack of air circulation would have on the hay.
Best way I have found to control mice is with snap traps, keeping the hay up on double pallets and using a leaf blower to blow any fallen chaff out from the bottom of the pallets. Second best way is to only buy second cutting or hays that have little to no seed heads.
I have two places where I store my hay, one next to my tack and feed, and one in a separate building a few paces away. I learned the hard way never to store nice timothy (with those lovely seed heads) in the shed next to the tack. It was a mouse fiesta that winter and the party spilled over into my tack and blankets. Ugh.
I’d be much more worried about finding dead mice around the hay than live ones!
A few might find a home inside the pallets, but hay doesn’t seem to suit them as nesting material. They seem to much prefer soft pieces of textile–fabric, twine, fluffy things. I startled a mouse in the midst of building a nest in my hay shed recently. I have the floor lined with pallets to stack hay, but Ms. Mouse had chosen an wooden box instead–using some batting from an old blanket, instead of hay, to nest. They also don’t seem to like to be up high & much prefer the security of escape holes on the ground.
Cats will keep mice away, or out of sight, at least. Do you have a cat rescue around looking to find a barn home for some ferals?
Please be very careful with poison. While I know many use it cautiously, my vet says he does see cases of ingestion with small animals & very sad outcomes.
I’m with the others, thinking that sealing the mice out would result in too little air flow for hay, and would not be good. Maybe if you still had air vents up high, perhaps with a fan, that might work…or using something like small mesh hardware cloth over openings that would keep mice out but allow air in. I suspect that would just get clogged up with hay chaff and dust, however.
We store hay in a loft, and on the ground floor of our barn, up on pallets. We don’t have a cat, and our JRTs would love to help, but aren’t allowed to roam free in the barn (too many hazards, including horses that would stomp them!). We use snap traps and that seems to keep things under control. See mouse poo, we set a trap. I also try to keep attractants out of reach, like all grain products, horse cookies, etc. are closed up and garbage can is covered.
As for poison, we only use the type that they eat right there and die, and that’s only in the crawl space under our house. I don’t want any chance my dogs can get hold of it (whether poison alone or once in a critter) and also don’t want to inadvertently poison other wildlife, like hawks, owls, etc.
Here is a home made mice trap that works well, but won’t be 100%.
There is some water at the bottom and mice drown there.
There are several ways to make those, with dowels with peanut butter in the middle, some like this picture, your imagination is the limit.
I have not used that, but some here have and said it gets many at first, then just some here and there:
I knew you all would have good ideas…Thank you so much, I really appreciate the time and effort you put in to help!!
Bluey - YIKES!!! I like to think I can suck it up and be brave, but rattlesnakes might be more than I could take…what a way to start your morning =(
The room is in the back section of my barn, it was the previous owners woorkshop at one time (LOL…it came complete with the 1983 calendar still hanging on the wall!) so it is enclosed with a door on it, and windows and a vent, so I think I’m okay as far as air-flow goes. But as with everything on this property, it hasn’t been used or maintained for decades before we arrived here in the fall of 2012…which is likely why we are wildlife central =(
The stray cat I had high hopes for has been AWOL for the last few weeks, I’ve seen her at the park next door, but she is forsaking me and my very generous employment arrangements =) {sigh} she’s also about to pop with another litter of kittens (the other reason I was trying to tame her…that needs ‘fixing’ - literally). I’ve been trying to find a rescue that will let you adopt a cat to be a barn cat…this seems to be a big sticking point for the SPCA and the rescues I’ve spoken to…
My husband was just commenting yesterday about the mouse poop he saw on the (detached) garage floor (this is a two car garage I have 42 bales of hay in right now).
In fact, it is bat poop, but that’s ok. 
Much better than rattlesnakes. I would just die–I hate those things. I’m about 4 hours east of rattler country, but it’s not unheard of for one to hitch a ride and show up.
I’m in the let the hay breathe camp. I’m sure someone is giving away kittens somewhere…call around to some local barns. You may luck out and get a good barn kitty that got some training from mom.
mouse b gone
Has anyone tried Mouse-B-Gone? My farrier swears by it, he puts it around his greenhouse every fall to deter rodents looking for a warm winter home. http://mousebgone.com/
For mice I’m a fan of the Rat Zapper Ultra.
Rattlesnakes–nope no way I could cope with that. Just freaks me out thinking about it.
Yeah many rescues insist on indoor homes. Craigslist will have a ton of kittens in the spring. You can also ask at your vet’s office, if they have farm clients they would probably be less judgypants about it.
Most of our barn cats hunt reasonably well, but one is extraordinary. Anytime we’re working outside, she brings us mouse after mouse after mouse - and insists on laying them down on your shoe until you pet her and say think you, then she’ll pick it up and trot away with it. It’s like she thinks she’s our mom. :lol:
Greatest cat in the world. But I have no illusion that they do anything but slightly suppress the mouse population / make it less visible.
Look for an organization that has a TNR (Trap, neuter, release) program. They will help you trap this cat and get her spayed.
Your employment opportunity might not be any better than the neighbors. You have to make the payment better to lure her there. Payment equals yummy cat food and a comfy place to sleep. Yes, feed your barn cats, they still hunt and stay healthier.
Please do not put any more domestic cats outside – a moved in stray is one thing, but the damage done to native wildlife populations is astronomical!!
My hay shed is not air tight but is 100% mouse free, thanks to a very wonderful black rat snake who moved in to the cozy stack. Beautiful creature, although I have only seen him/her once, when I grabbed him to see if I could convince him to eat the annoying mouse in the run-in. Must have not been an enticing mouse though, he quickly was back to his hay den.
He does fold his laundry very neatly! http://on.fb.me/1re1E1l
