Mice!

[tipzythegreat]

@2DogsFarm

IIWM, I might be looking for a safer, cleaner barn.
10+yrs as a boarder & this is your only issue?

There’s not a lot of safety problems going on, certainly somem but overall there’s a lot of things I don’t agree with. But it’s a barn with good footing, my horse is comfortable there (he’s quirky and can be hard for staff to handle), I really like my trainer, turnouts are OK, it’s not TOO far from me and it’s somewhat affordable. There are nicer barns – but they cost a fortune and/or require lessons. My horse has a PSD injury and it’s always up and down with him. I did tour several barns this summer and really liked one but it was another $50 a month and it’s out of range of my vet. There are cheaper, closer barns… but their facilities are lacking. Plus she does mean well and cares about the animals. She may just not realize exactly how bad the mouse problem is… hopefully they’ll do some damage in her tack room…

I will totally look for a pamphlet on that and print it out and leave it around. I hate to be passive aggressive, but it is a serious thing!

And I think we have always had some mice. I just had never seen them until recently. The tom cat passed away and winter rolled in.

[endlessclimb]

Eh, we did this and had a cover to put over it and didn’t have the excessive issues OP is talking about. Barns will always have some mice. The feed the horses drop when eating is enough to keep them around.

[EssexFells]

OK, you’re getting a lot of good suggestions but batting them all away. Not sure what you actually want here? If you are not willing to do or spend anything personally, and the only solution you will accept is for the BM to do it (when she has already shown you she’s not interested in this problem), then you make it a condition of boarding there, and you leave if they don’t deal with it.

I mean, I know it sucks, but bringing about change or a solution requires some form of action on your part, ya know?

A 5gal bucket partly filled with water, with a peanut butter roller at the top is a cheap–guarantee you have all of the materials you need lying around the barn somewhere-- and very effective trap. You can collect lots of mice before needing to be emptied, and it uses zero poisons, so it’s safe for everything but the mice. To empty, just carry the bucket out back and dump in the field. Done.

To keep the water from freezing, add a couple cups of isopropyl alcohol to the water. It’ll lower the freezing point so that it stays a slushy mess rather than freezing solid. (some farmers will use antifreeze-- but that’s not safe to dump out into the ground.)

[tipzythegreat]

Hi @EssexFells - I think you may have missed a few posts – I’m going to focus on fortifying my locker and getting a battery operated ultrasonic repeller for my locker. Honestly I didn’t expect SO many replies on this thread either. But getting a snake or a cat isn’t an option. I can poison them, and the BO will provide the poison, but I honestly feel really bad about that. I’d seriously cry and I know it’s silly to say but it’s true. I could get a no-see trap but I really can’t bring myself to deal with dumping out the corpses. Some boarders did buy some and have put them out. I am debating just keeping everything at home/in my car and hope they get things under control. It’s a new problem, like I said, and I’ve had the same locker 7 years. Never saw a mouse until about a month ago.

As far as the bucket, it is a good idea. We definitely don’t have a bucket, but I think the problem is I am not sure parents and children would want to see a bucket full of drowned/drowning mice. It would have to be left out in a public area because my tack locker is way too small and the area where our lockers are it would 100% get kicked over on accident. It’s like an uneven hallway with lockers on either side. God, can you even imagine that mess And I would certainly be the one to kick it over as I’m stupid clumsy.

I’m just working on spreading the word. Telling everyone to check their lockers and BOLO. I’m hoping when people know, they’ll scare the mice away and lock up the food sources. Plus Spring is around the corner so maybe they’ll move out of the nice heated tack room.

I will, however, talk to the BM about the drowning mouse bucket. The problem is he’s live catching them… and then releasing them in the nearby field. Bless his heart, but they are going to return…

[2DogsFarm]

@tipzythegreat

will totally look for a pamphlet on that and print it out and leave it around. I hate to be passive aggressive, but it is a serious thing!

Serious enough to ask her straight out if she isn’t worried about chewed wiring = fire.
Fuggedabout a “pamphlet”. Are you going to read it aloud to her?
If you’re staying in the barn at least you can be aware there’s a potential for a real.problem if the mice don’t get under control.
In the meantime, buy some poison bait.

I lost my little barncat Verminator in 2015, & have depended - like Blanche DuBois - on the kindness of strays since.
I do see cats in my barn on occasion, but need to put some baits down myself as the mice are getting bold enough to come out when they hear me mixing grain
So far nothing in my galvanized grain storage cans or resin storage cabinet has been bothered.
I did bring my saddle in the house.
I can slack because my horses aren’t stalled.
If there was a fire {knockingwoodlikemad!} they can escape to pastures attached to the barn via drylot they have free access to 24/7/365.

[EssexFells]

ok yes I missed that you do have a plan of action, sorry.
BM is an idiot if he thinks you can catch and release mice. Tell him that they can travel a mile to get “home” (or, else he’s just dumped them near someone else’s barn/house and that’s supremely uncool).
There’s a version of the bucket trap where there’s a lid that flips around so they fall in (and then you don’t have to see in the bucket):

[snowblaze]

The best mouse trap, and the captured mice are not visible.

I Discovered The Greatest Mouse Trap Ever Invented! Amazing New Design....

[tipzythegreat]

Hey y’all – just wanted to give an update.

The BO and BM have installed several traps and offered to dispose of dead mice. One of these is the big bucket that was suggested. They also said the one cat has caught a few mice. She asked us to seal up our food as well – so I am hopeful we’ll see a reduction soon.

Thanks for all the ideas, everyone!

[endlessclimb]

Great news! Hope they find a more appropriate place to go.

Live catching/releasing mice has me chuckling. I only took pity on one mouse, and it was a super tiny baby baby, caught by the tip of the tail in a snap trap. I got the shovel out, got ready to dispatch him… looked at him… and said, “buddy I don’t know why but the forces that be said you get a second chance” and I released him in the grass by the pond.

[MsM]

I am currently dealing with house mice. I knew I have had them in the basement and set out snap traps and caught quite a few. The peppermint scented spray this past Fall did seem to discourage most of them. The spray has long since worn off and I just caught one, Will reapply when I stop catching them down there. The stuff discourages them from coming in but I dont find it is strong enough to drive them out once in.

I realized recently that I have them in the attic. Had some work done and the guy said “There are a lot of mouse droppings up there!” So now I have traps up there too. Caught one and the trap nosily bounced on the attic floor when it sprung.

Just to add to the fun, we also found termite damage in my entryway and are treating for termites. Got a few companies to do inspections/estimates. One guy tried the big upsell. In addition to eliminating termites, he thought they should also replace all the attic insulation, get rid of the mice, and add metal plating around the house to “mouseproof” Total cost was north of $10,000 Thank you, no, I am not convinced I am facing a mousepocolypse.

[luvmyhackney]

To be honest the best thing to repel mice is Raplast. I sprayed it in my office and around the perimeter of the horses stalls, plus my car wiring. Haven’t seen one in my office since I sprayed or in my house. I don’t see them often in the barn, really rare but I have 1extra large black snake and some smaller ones that patrol the area.

[Alpha_Mare]

‘Tougher than Tom.’ You can buy this herbal deterrent and put little paper packets around all your tack. It’s herbal with peppermint being the strongest scent.

There are also herbal sprays that you can put on feed room shelves and corners.

You will have to clean everything where they’ve been first (same day) before putting this down

[luvmyhackney]

Does peppermint deter mice? I’ve had mice get in and eat candy canes before, so I question if that works or does the scent have to be crazy strong to work.

[JanM]

I know people who claim it does, but it has to be real peppermint essence, and not the cheaper imitations. You put it on cotton balls, and put it around, and the mice leave.

[clanter]

@Alpha_Mare

‘Tougher than Tom.’

never heard of it thanks for the info, this sounds like a good product to use in the goat barn

[Carol_O]

Agree, bucket traps with peanut butter work.

[JanM]

I use chunky peanut butter, I figure the smooth lets the mouse have a better chance of not triggering the trap, while the chunky peanut butter is harder to get the chunks out of the bait holder. So, I used chunky pb to get the mice nailed the first time.

[MapleBreeze]

I started using the tomcat bait traps and it smells wretched but cleaned out an over infested laundry room quickly. They are really easy to move around to different areas of house and barn day by day. Stuck it in my car one night to fix whoever lives there.

[Equibrit]

I had a problem with mice crawling into the warm engine bay of my truck and eating the wiring.
Hung a breast pad soaked in peppermint oil in there. Mice left. I have a pack of rodent murdering terriers for barn etc. but REALLY didn’t want them pulling out the truck wiring again.

[ZuzusPetals]

What smells wretched? The traps or when the rodents die and start stinking up the place? I removed an old mouse corpse in a glue trap from an office and still for a few days that smell lingered. The damn thing was taunting us from the beyond.