i would not bait them at the same time you are trying to repel them. Either use the traps then repel them, or don’t use the traps.
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Don’t know if anyone has mentioned this but you might consider a Victor Multi Electronic mouse trap. I have one near my feed storage. It will zap up to 10 mice at a time and drop them into a hopper drawer; a light blinks when the drawer needs to be emptied. Its cleaner and seems more humane than other traps and baits and I don’t have to worry about accidentally poisoning another animal. It’s kind of spendy for a mousetrap but I find it works well enough to justify the cost.
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I don’t know why you aren’t just stuffing gaps with steel wool and being done with it altogether. What am I missing?
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OP, your locker mate isn’t the problem. She’s a symptom of the problem.
So, what’s the problem? Bad barn management practices.
Management that doesn’t care about mice will be slack in other important areas too.
I would leave this barn and find one with good care.
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Mouse borne viruses can live for days in dried mouse urine. This urine can be stirred up by sweeping or cleaning, or just handling objects in the mouse inhabited locker, these airborne particles would then be distributed around the entire locker room, potentially infecting anyone who uses it. Breathing in aerosolized infected mouse urine is exactly how you contract hanta virus.
A lot of these diseases are very rare, I know, but I have the pleasure of knowing a lovely lady who contracted the plague several years ago. She survived, as it is fairly treatable these days, but it wasn’t exactly a pleasant experience.
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Update! Mice proofed my locker last night, including stuffing all gaps with peppermint scented steel wool and sealed with duct tape.
I also left a few bounce sheets behind on my linens, just to keep them smelling nice. In case they still decide to break-in, I set three traps on every shelf. Over kill? I think not. Will be checking the traps tonight to see if I was successful or not.
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Like I said in an earlier post, every other aspect of this barn is wonderful. Clean, friendly environment (minus the mice in the locker room), full-day turnout in spacious paddocks, indoor with fantastic footing, the trainer is wonderful and very knowledgeable, and accommodating in other ways.
I’d have a hard time justifying moving solely due to the mice situation. The only other show barn option in my area is twice the price, shorter turn-out days, old mouldy barn, and some of the staff there are less than competent. On top of that, the trainer goes away for the winter to her house/farm in Florida, so for those who can’t afford to take 3 - 6 months off of work to go ride in Ocala, you’re pretty much out of a trainer for half the year.
The next nearest show barn would be further south, approximately 3 hours away. So my options are rather limited.
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This. Plus a mousetrap.
Mice chewed through a hard plastic container; a Thinline pad; and leather reins that I had conditioned with Hamanol (I think it kinda smells like bacon grease?)
There’s nothing wrong with “layered defense.” Use as many layers as you can afford.
G.
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That’s all very informative but this is one boarder at one barn with one locker and a laissez-faire BM/BO.
All of us that have horses and barns have some measure of exposure to these furry little things. This boarder is trying to manage how or if those things can access her locker. She can’t fix the whole barn.
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Be proactive and just buy her a lockbox, have her initials put on it and give it to her for Valentine’s Day from all of you at the barn. Otherwise, ignore it. Ps, rats and mice will chew through plastic. We had to have boarders put all treats in the refrigerator.
https://www.lowes.com/pd/SentrySafe-…SABEgJWXvD_BwE
Second update: problem leaser walked into the locker room to see my newly mouse-proofed locker. She promptly got rid of her treats - no gift giving required.
That, and I captured/killed my first mouse even after the “mouse-proofing”. Things are looking up!
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Sounds good! I guess you’ll have to see if they start avoiding your locker, or it becomes the mousie equivalent of a haunted house and teen mousies start daring each other to go in there to impress each other.
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Yeah, it’s barn management’s job to handle their staff and you trying to lay down expectations for all the other boarders, parent this teenager, give instructions to their staff member, and lay down rules like you own the place is over stepping your boundaries in SEVERAL WAYS.
Hate to break it to you, YOU are a bigger problem than the teenager or the cookies at this point.
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I laughed too hard at this :lol:
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She didn’t lay down rules, though. She made a suggestion that most people agreed with, minus the one, in which case she was trying to figure out if there was a good way to convince her to go along. If management doesn’t want to deal with it, she doesn’t want to have to move, and everyone is willing to do something to work it out themselves, that doesn’t make her the problem.
Glad the mousey problem seems to be getting fixed, OP!
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If I had a fellow boarder texting me to remove something I’d be a little put out. I don’t keep treats in my locker all exposed for mice for this reason but yeah fellow boarder has no business texting me about anything management related.
It also appears the OP already dislikes this person and while we all know that person at the barn, it’s odd that it’s an adult versus a teenager.
Clearly said kid (oh no she’s just leases) complied. I’m also willing to bet the kid knows the OP doesn’t like her and in classic teenage style, ignored it to stick it to the OP. Not saying that’s right, but bet that’s what happened.
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Or the BM may have talked to the kid about the treats and had to do something about it. May not have had anything to do with the OP mouse proofing her locker.
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I guess I imagine it as “Hey so and so, me and all the other boarders have been trying to figure out how to get rid of the mice in the tack room and figured that either moving treats or putting them in a bin is the easiest way to do it, and want to see if you will get in on it with us.” or something like that. Which to me doesn’t sound bossy at all. But, I’ve been at barns where the barn owners would drop the ball on certain things and the boarders would have to get together to figure out how to fix it, with BO’s permission (not everyone wants to automatically move for one thing that is easily fixable), so to me it just isn’t that big of a deal.
Now if it was “Please remove your treats so we can get rid of mice, or get a bin for it.” I could see that coming across as harsh and maybe inappropriate. I didn’t get the impression that was how the OP worded it, but it could be the case.
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I understand it’s difficult to keep up with the older posts, but please read thoroughly before you make any first-hand judgements or assumptions. I would love to hear an explanation on how I was laying down expectations (or simply making a suggestion), trying to parent this teenager (by avoiding her at all costs, this is the LAST thing I want to do) and lay down rules, which sounds pretty aggressive in my opinion.
Since we’re here making salty assumptions and not adding any value to this thread, you seem to be a problem child as well. :lol:
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