Mice living inside stall walls

[Libby2563]

My barn is a modular Amish-type barn built by Horizon Structures. One of its features that I really hate is the open space behind the oak kickboards, which are also separated from each other by a substantial gap (see pics here: http://thesmallhorsefarm.blogspot.com/2015/10/the-barn-is-finally-stained.html). Basically the walls between the stalls go kickboards, 2x4 framing with spaces in between, then kickboards. The exterior and aisle walls also have 2x4 framing in between kickboards and the exterior/aisle pine boards. The gap in between creates a perfect superhighway of tunnels for all sorts of pests.

Over the years I have dealt with wasps making their nests inside the walls, and intermittent mouse problems. Now four times in the past week when I take hay nets down to fill them, mice have run out of the nets and disappeared into the walls. Gross! Yesterday I was cleaning stalls and could hear them squeaking, then was able to see them in the walls by looking through the kickboards.

I don’t think I can redo the walls easily to eliminate the gap, because the framing is inside. Is there a way to fill the gap? I have been googling “mouseproof spray insulation” but reviews are not great and it would take a lot of that to fill all the spaces. (The kickboards are ~12’ wide and 4’ high; 1.75" of space in between would mean that each stall has 28 cubic feet of space to be filled, more or less, and there are 3 stalls…) Any other ideas?

[clanter]

Any other ideas?

get a very skinny tiny cat ?

I know my solution is not acceptable by most, but I put in Just One Bite poison and that stuff works as we no rats or mice in our barns… none

[Libby2563]

@clanter

get a very skinny tiny cat ?

I know my solution is not acceptable by most, but I put in Just One Bite poison and that stuff works as we no rats or mice in our barns… none

LOL. I did get cats last fall. They do hunt but I find more half-eaten moles and birds than mice. I was thinking about moving their food into the barn in the hopes that they’ll spend more time there. It’s currently in the hay barn/equipment shed because they were feral when I got them and that’s where I had space for their acclimation cage.

Is it okay to use poison when you have cats? I know they generally don’t like to eat dead things but they could conceivably catch a mouse after it eats the poison and before it dies…I would feel pretty awful.

[DunByMistake]

I think you’d have to cover your kickboards in plywood or rubber mats to stop mice getting in there. Or stuff all the cracks with steel wool which is about the only substance on earth they won’t chew through.

I’d suggest a water bucket trap over poison. Personally my empathy does not extend to rodents and I don’t care if the little beasts suffer but I do like my barn cats and would prefer to avoid poisoning them. Basically you take a partially filled bucket with some type of cylinder suspended over the top on wire - a pop can works. Put some peanut butter on cylinder and a stick leaning against bucket so they can crawl onto it. They’ll slip off can into bucket and drown. The only issue I’ve run into now is that one of my cats has really developed a taste for peanut butter and likes to lick the can clean!

[Xanthoria]

Our barn cat used an electric rat zapper as a personal food dispenser one winter. He was seen gently removing snacks from “the microwave” and I think he found it quite convenient! If he saw you taking a “full” zapper to the trash to empty it, he’d run up and ask for you to dump it out for him instead.

[Buford]

I have a similar situation between stall boards and metal. The ideal solution is sprayfoam insulation. Unfortunately, that would total about $12,000. I’ve been racking my brain for something to pour in the void but so far have nothing.

[Libby2563]

@Buford

I have a similar situation between stall boards and metal. The ideal solution is sprayfoam insulation. Unfortunately, that would total about $12,000. I’ve been racking my brain for something to pour in the void but so far have nothing.

Yeah and honestly I’m not even sure that’s ideal because they can chew through that if they really want to. Even the stuff that is supposed to taste bitter doesn’t seem to work that much better (according to reviews anyway–haven’t tried it myself).

In a crazy moment earlier today I thought about finding a way to pour gravel in there!

Will look into these zappers…I hadn’t seen very good reviews before and don’t really mind emptying spring traps, but they don’t seem to be catching much. I’ve had a few mice drown in water buckets over the years and always feel so sad for them so I’m not sure about the water bucket trap.

[Simkie]

Terad 3 is a “safe” poison with no secondary risk.

[keysfins]

The zappers are really quite effective, and humane, IMHO, over the water bucket traps.

We had (giant) palm rats find their way into our split AC unit in the kitchen when we lived in the Keys. They came for the water in the condensation pan. We got the mega-zappers that took four DD batteries. There was no muss, no fuss, we found the trap full most mornings. Then we excluded them with steel wool and foam insulation where they were traversing.

Trapping/eliminating mice is likely a never ending process, as long as there are food sources and attractive living spaces. But those zapper traps do work well, even the “mouse sized” ones. Safer for barn cats, too.

@Xanthoria , I had a genuine LOL when you referred to them as “the microwave”. Dang, I miss some of your story gems from back in the UDBB days. I seem to remember a green bean TB’s outing to Golden Gate park, hilarity ensued.

[Marla_100]

@clanter

get a very skinny tiny cat ?

I know my solution is not acceptable by most, but I put in Just One Bite poison and that stuff works as we no rats or mice in our barns… none

Yup, I use the same “Just One Bite” otherwise I had many, fat rats ruling my place.

[gumtree]

Mice and rats go with barns hand in hand. You can try and mouse/rat proof until the cow come home. They will just find somewhere that you haven’t. One can control the population to a certain extent but they will never eliminate them.

Feed rooms, tack rooms can be mouse/rat proofed after the being built. But a whole barn IMO and experience would be very difficult and expensive.

I have never seen/used any type of foam insulation that a mouse/rat can’t, won’t chew through.

[clanter]

@Libby2563

Is it okay to use poison when you have cats? …I would feel pretty awful.

it is OK for us as with our lazy cat who never leaves the house, she would never trudge to the barn… we are careful to collect any rats that do show up, deposing of them as we have many, many raptors (the birds not the dinosaurs) around here

[Xanthoria]

sidebar:

@keysfins

@Xanthoria , I had a genuine LOL when you referred to them as “the microwave”. Dang, I miss some of your story gems from back in the UDBB days. I seem to remember a green bean TB’s outing to Golden Gate park, hilarity ensued.

It was the Lime Green String Bean Trakie-baby! He was quite the walking disaster zone Maybe I’ll take the latest greenie to GG Park - I’ll remember not to go during a breast cancer awareness walk/concert this time… :eek::lol:

[keysfins]

@Xanthoria

sidebar:

It was the Lime Green String Bean Trakie-baby! He was quite the walking disaster zone Maybe I’ll take the latest greenie to GG Park - I’ll remember not to go during a breast cancer awareness walk/concert this time… :eek::lol:

That was it: the LGSBTrakBaby!!! Wasn’t there something about a pram? Fun times, fun times…

[tpup]

Barn cats - feed in the barn. I had mice in same areas. So much mouse poop on ledges in my stalls. I’d see them going in/out of those openings and they were definitely living in the walls. Got 2 feral barn “older” kittens, crated them in barn for few weeks. Within a month of turning them out, mice are GONE. I mean ZERO mouse poop. GONE. I feed my cats 2x per day in tack room. They do wander out but come back 2x per day to eat and sleep in or around barn. I feed them and then lock up tack room. (we were getting raccoon visits when I left tack room open).

[clanter]

Barn cats do not work here as the barn cats here become food for the coyotes, bobcats and owls (who scare the hell out me silently flying over my head )