MICE!!!!!!!!!

[Ski213]

I feel your pain. I live in the country and they're just a reality here. I've won a battle or two but the war wages on and I'm pretty sure I'm losing. I've tried a lot. By a lot I mean everything the net and every old school country boy I know has to offer. Some stuff helps a little but those little dudes are hard to deal with.  They like cover. The one thing that I did that made a big difference was to create a buffer of grass kept really short 20' outside the fence into the field. That helped more than anything I've done. There was a cat that helped  but he graduated to eating rabbits and is no longer of any assistance. 

[Bass Turd]

Hillbilly Gopher Trap - 12 gauge, fishing string, rat trap

[webertime]

Well this is escalating nicely.    

 

Napalm Moat could work.

[Gundog]

35 minutes ago, Bass Turd said:

Hillbilly Gopher Trap - 12 gauge, fishing string, rat trap

That is just brilliant. 

[Further North]

Not buying it.  Gun's too nice for a hillbilly.

[Torn Thumb]

It might be unrealistic depending on the condition of the barn but you can stuff steel wool in entry points along the base of the wall/floor. They get that metal taste and don't want to continue forward. It's worked in my experience but I guarantee nothing.

[Gundog]

2 hours ago, Further North said:

Not buying it.  Gun's too nice for a hillbilly.

What were you expecting? Something like these...

[Redlinerobert]

Found one of two of my old boga grips.  Smells like mouse urine.  Tried vinegar, didn't work.  going to trash it I guess and buy a new one. 

[riverbasser]

most of yall are NO help just so you know. lol. I got rid of one huge wharf rat, took boat to work and was vacuuming and started to pressure wash when he jumped out. easily 10 inches without tail.

[J Francho]

That's eatin' size.

[Bass Turd]

 

28 minutes ago, riverbasser said:

most of yall are NO help just so you know. lol. I got rid of one huge wharf rat, took boat to work and was vacuuming and started to pressure wash when he jumped out. easily 10 inches without tail.

Got rid of...? lol. He made it back to the barn before you did. AND he smelled nice for the ladies...

[Redlinerobert]

2 hours ago, riverbasser said:

most of yall are NO help just so you know. lol. I got rid of one huge wharf rat, took boat to work and was vacuuming and started to pressure wash when he jumped out. easily 10 inches without tail.

We try. 

[Darren.]

2 hours ago, riverbasser said:

most of yall are NO help just so you know. lol. I got rid of one huge wharf rat, took boat to work and was vacuuming and started to pressure wash when he jumped out. easily 10 inches without tail.

Time for you to move to Florida. There are enough
Pythons there to take care of any pest...or pet problem.

[Gundog]

4 hours ago, Darren. said:

Time for you to move to Florida. There are enough
Pythons there to take care of any pest...or pet problem.

Yea but do you have COBRAS?!?!?!

[Darren.]

1 hour ago, Gundog said:

Yea but do you have COBRAS?!?!?!

No sir. No venomous snakes in my collection.

But there are more than enough pythons in FL
to handle your issue  

[Gundog]

Just now, Darren. said:

No sir. No venomous snakes in my collection.

But there are more than enough pythons in FL
to handle your issue  

I wonder who would win in a fight? A cobra or a python or a mouse? Or maybe a python with a mouse's head? Too much to think about. 

[Darren.]

38 minutes ago, Gundog said:

I wonder who would win in a fight? A cobra or a python or a mouse? Or maybe a python with a mouse's head? Too much to think about. 

Well...my smaller ball pythons have absolutely
ZERO trouble with mice and small rats. Zero...
No worries there, mate  

[DogBone_384]

On 8/1/2016 at 5:49 PM, Bass Turd said:

Cats

X2 - I have two cats who go outside.  I have no squirrels, birds, pests in the yard... the only mice we get are the ones they bring home dead from the marsh across the street...

On 8/2/2016 at 2:30 PM, Bass Turd said:

Hillbilly Gopher Trap - 12 gauge, fishing string, rat trap

DEFINITELY NOT LEGAL IN MASSACHUSETTS.....

[Further North]

Look at it this way: Be glad it's not a capybara infestation...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capybara

[Catch 22]

Sticky traps work.I knocked off a dozen of them in about 3 days in the garage.They ate half a box of cinnamon chex before I knew of the problem.

Just be glad you don`t have to deal with chipmonks or skunks.

C22

 

[Gundog]

2 hours ago, Catch 22 said:

 

Just be glad you don`t have to deal with chipmonks or skunks.

C22

 

 

[FluffChucker]

This is a timely post. Just two weeks ago I had a mouse or chipmunk get into my boat, and proceed to elude me and my traps for 3 days. Thinking it had probably just got out of the boat, I loaded up and headed down for league fishing night.  As I'm sitting in line waiting to launch my boat, I noticed that my plastic screw in drain plug is completely missing.  Knowing that a replacement will be impossible to find at 6pm in the north woods, we pack the gear back up and leave with our tail between our legs. The whole time I'm completely confused by how the plug was missing. It was always supposed to stay attached.

Sure enough, I get home to find it laying on my garage floor, chewed up. I then looked into the plug hole itself where the threads are, and see that those too have been completely chewed out. Since then, I've declared war on all small rodents and set about 6 traps in my garage just in case one of those little buggers thinks about pulling a fast one on me again. I'm still fairly bitter about that little pest for causing me a night of fishing. He may have won the battle, but I will win the war. No mercy.

 

I attached a picture of the plug I'm talking about just because my description ability sucks.

[Bass Turd]

15 hours ago, DogBone_384 said:

X2 - I have two cats who go outside.  I have no squirrels, birds, pests in the yard... the only mice we get are the ones they bring home dead from the marsh across the street...

DEFINITELY NOT LEGAL IN MASSACHUSETTS.....

I'm from Texas... we just have to point our double barreled doorbell down... (It really cut down on solicitors...)

[Further North]

In NW WI...we have a gopher problem.

Where I live it's 13 stripped gophers...which are prairie versions of chipmunks...and pocket gophers.

While pockets are annoying...they push up 2 ft. diameter piles fo dirt in your yard...and chew the root systems of trees and bushes to shreds...there's not a lot you can do about them short of elaborate schemes involving poison, traps that look like something left over form the dark ages, and pumping their tunnels full of propane and adding a spark...all of which is fun...but in the end doesn't do diddly squat...

The 13 striped critters are another story.  We've had success with a two pronged assault on their universe.

1. European based hunting dogs, given free reign.  Specifically German Shorthairs and Brittanys.  There's 3 acres of fuzzy sudden death surround our house, most recently in the form of Spike-the Damp* who inherited the mantle of vermin stalker from Halo the GSP. These two clowns will spend hours in highly focused and single minded pursuit of a single rodent.  Stalk, wait. move, stalk, wait move...repeat until the hapless critter pops out of a hole in the ground to intersect to intersect the continental version of sudden death from above.  BTW...the last stage inevitably happens when I am not home...initiating a phone call that starts with "Your d*mn*d dog..."
2. Part two of this strategy involved the purchase and deployment of a rimfire sniper solution.  .22 long rifle will work, as will a .22 magnum...but in between those solutions lies the absurdly tuned and finessed solution of the .17 HMR.  The .17 HMR, inside about 100 yards, is like shooting a frozen rope...for the more technologically oriented folks...it's like a laser.  At those ranges, there's less than 1/4" drop...you buy a good scope with good magnification...zero in on the critter's eye...and you feed the scavengers...every time.  I'm a crappy rifle shooter (I'm a dedicated shotgun guy, a grouse and woodcock hunter since I was in single digits...I shoot fast and I don't aim...and even I can punch a ***-striped ticket 99.9% of the time with the .17 HMR.

*Long story short: Spike is a Brittany who can get wet in an 8:00 AM rainstorm and who has such an incredible under coat that he's still damp at 3:00 PM...

[Gundog]