Mice!

[tipzythegreat]

I board at a competitive HJ barn and have been there for a decade. Recently we lost the cat police and there has been a huge influx of mice. At first they got into my treats which I can understand and consequently removed all food from my locker.

A week later they were back in my locker and one ruined my saddle pad! There was fuzz, droppings and urine every where. I pulled everything out of my locker AND FOUND THE LIVE BUGGER!!! Of course I ran away squealing and crying because that’s the most efficient way to deal with it, obvi

Talking to other boarders, several people have had mice issues. In fact, there are now baby mice scurrying all around the place. Others have reported the issue and nothing is happening.

I mentioned it to the BO and was told she’d give me some poison or to go and buy some traps for myself.

Guys, what do I do? I don’t want to shell out to kill the little critters and I don’t want to poison them but they are legit ruining my stuff! My locker doesn’t close flush so I’ve literally just taken my saddle pads out of my locker for the time being. That’s also not a solution…

[2DogsFarm]

Poison is the best & most permanent solution.
Just be sure you get the kind with no Secondary Kill.
It makes them bleed out internally, so any other critter that eats a dead mouse doesn’t also get poisoned.
Other Poison baits are neurotoxins & besides being a not-so-nice way to kill them, passes the poison on to anything that consumes a poisoned mouse.

[Christa_P]

Any chance of working with a feral cat group to replace the cat police? Groups in my area are regularly looking for barn homes for feral and semi-feral cats.

[trubandloki]

Yes, is the barn owner not willing to get more cats? That is the best solution.

[beau159]

@tipzythegreat

I board at a competitive HJ barn and have been there for a decade. Recently we lost the cat police and there has been a huge influx of mice. At first they got into my treats which I can understand and consequently removed all food from my locker.

A week later they were back in my locker and one ruined my saddle pad! There was fuzz, droppings and urine every where. I pulled everything out of my locker AND FOUND THE LIVE BUGGER!!! Of course I ran away squealing and crying because that’s the most efficient way to deal with it, obvi

Talking to other boarders, several people have had mice issues. In fact, there are now baby mice scurrying all around the place. Others have reported the issue and nothing is happening.

I mentioned it to the BO and was told she’d give me some poison or to go and buy some traps for myself.

Guys, what do I do? I don’t want to shell out to kill the little critters and I don’t want to poison them but they are legit ruining my stuff! My locker doesn’t close flush so I’ve literally just taken my saddle pads out of my locker for the time being. That’s also not a solution…

The bigger question is: WHY ISN’T THE BARN OWNER ADDRESSING THE MOUSE PROBLEM? I’d be furious if mice were destroying my tack. (Because they do if they get access to them.)

I can’t understand why your BO would tell YOU to go buy traps. It’s their barn!!

[tipzythegreat]

@2DogsFarm

It makes them bleed out internally, so any other critter that eats a dead mouse doesn’t also get poisoned.

Any idea how fast it takes them to die? I also don’t want to find 'em dead in my locker…

YES I ASKED ABOUT CATS! @Christa_P and @trubandloki we have a rider who works at the human society and I asked if she had any “Working cats”. We brought an “office cat” in back and she just watched the mice run by…

[tipzythegreat]

@beau159

The bigger question is: WHY ISN’T THE BARN OWNER ADDRESSING THE MOUSE PROBLEM? I’d be furious if mice were destroying my tack. (Because they do if they get access to them.)

I can’t understand why your BO would tell YOU to go buy traps. It’s their barn!!

THANK YOU!!! What if they actually destroy something really valuable? We are paying a lot to board there and be there!

[Christa_P]

For cats you really need to find some that have survived by hunting and have that instinct, hence true ferals or from a barn cat mom.

[tipzythegreat]

It’s just a matter of… I can’t do much without permission. Or unless I’m willing to pay for the cat and take care of it, you know? And I’m not. That’s just too much to ask me to do on top of paying to ride there!

[Christa_P]

I understand, I was just mentioning that not every cat is cut out to be part of the mouse police. If you go that route it needs to be one or two that want to hunt.

[FjordBCRF]

The first barn I was at, we just set traps. There were barn cats, but they were mainly up in the big barn and we were I the small barn across the street. These are effective and really nice if you don’t want to see the dead mouse

https://www.amazon.com/Victor-M250S-Touch-Upgraded-Electronic/dp/B074Y2PW1X/ref=asc_df_B074Y2PW1X/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=241960413056&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=9669766561102581065&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9015286&hvtargid=pla-408165222381&psc=1

Our problem started at the beginning of December, and we trapped upwards of 30 mice. I grossly joked that we had a really morbid mouse advent calendar

[tipzythegreat]

I agree! We were just hoping one of the existing cats WAS willing to help out

[tipzythegreat]

omg EW! Lol!!!

It’s just like… I don’t want to BUY the traps and empty them and deal with it at all as a boarder. I mean, as a human being I wouldn’t want to do it in MY house either. But I just don’t think I could do it guys I really don’t think I could! And should I have to??? But ugh. it’s just a crappy situation.

[FjordBCRF]

I know hahaha. I would get daily mice reports

Our BM at the time said they would set traps, but with that many mice it was a couple of us that ended up doing it because of the sheer number of mice. Should they? Yes. Or find a good mouser cat at least.

[LCDR]

A black rat snake for the barn would do the job nicely. I have be been at two barns that had them, and they were very efficient at mouse control. That was a total of about 20 years at those two barns, and I also never saw a horse bothered.

Though there was one day one of my horses would not eat his grain. Then I noticed the snake in his feed tub, just waiting for a tasty mouse to come by. Usually the snake just calmly hung out install corners under the feeders.

[luvmyhackney]

So I despise and am terrified of mice. Go get the electric traps and the replaceable trap area.

It electrocutes them and you can empty it without opening. It flashes green when the trap has caught something, plus I have it on WiFi and it sends alerts if something is caught or battery gets low.

Works great!

[fourfillies]

Your BO needs to hire an exterminator. If you are seeing lots of mice you have mice squared. The options I have in my little barn at home are my pervue. Not the case at my boarding facility.

[tipzythegreat]

@LCDR

A black rat snake for the barn would do the job nicely.

My #1 fear is snakes LOL but that being said they aren’t super common in Michigan. I don’t know if maybe the winter is hard on them? Anyway it’s again a matter of what I can and cannot do.

I hope it doesn’t sound petty but I don’t want to invest much into the killing of the mice! While zapping them is a great solution, I feel like my BO or BM should be handling this.

Yes @fourfillies! I think so too. She’s like, “it’s the winter and it’s warm so they are in the barn and if anyone has food, they’re going to come in”

She hasn’t even sent an email telling everyone to seal their crap up. It’s just really frustrating. I don’t want the responsibility of eradicating the mice to be my job or financial burden!

[beau159]

@tipzythegreat

It’s just like… I don’t want to BUY the traps and empty them and deal with it at all as a boarder. I mean, as a human being I wouldn’t want to do it in MY house either. But I just don’t think I could do it guys I really don’t think I could! And should I have to??? But ugh. it’s just a crappy situation.

If you, and many of the other boarders feel the same, then you all need to go TOGETHER and talk to the BO.

[ZuzusPetals]

@beau159

If you, and many of the other boarders feel the same, then you all need to go TOGETHER and talk to the BO.

And tout de suite. It’s a human health risk.

I agree with the exterminator approach. If someone instead decides to do kill traps, please do snap and not glue. Glue is a horrible death.

Important: What became of the barn cats?!