Mice ate my jon boat cover. Any brand or other ideas to keep that from happening?

[TnRiver46]

1 hour ago, Guitarfish said:

It is illegal to shoot squirrels where I'm at.  I have no idea why they fall dead out of the trees.

I’ve never heard of it being illegal to shoot a squirrel. California? 

1 hour ago, E-H said:

I heard they do work, they don't work....I guess I will give them a try - the dryer sheets anyway.

You aren't too far from where I fish, so maybe certain areas they work better than others.

 

So my plan is....

 

1.  Still waiting for advice on a better brand cover that could keep the mice from chewing through - thicker material.  The one I have is pretty worn even though I covered the holes from the mice with flex tape.  SO new thicker cover.

 

2.  Use a filler of some kind to fill the gaps in the back of the boat where the mice were - either a spray foam or steel wool covered in Ziploc bags (to keep any rusting from getting on the boat).  Just a few gaps - not much space to fill.  This would be just in the summer when the boat is stored and used up there.

 

3.  Try the green water proof insulation flat panels again, that I used before. That seemed to help as the initial cover of the boat - no mice that year but water pushed them in at some point.  See pictures in previous posts.

 

4.  Bounce sheets in any remaining gaps.  Not a fan of moth balls...but we will see on that.

 

5.  If the mice get in again, put a bucket trap under the boat or in a protected area near it.  So I can at least fish without them coming out and running across my feet in the evening...I have one of the humane traps that caught some when I put it in the boat overnight.  I think the bucket trap would probably work a little better outside the boat as another way to control the nearby population.

 

Can't do a cat or black snake...

 

Any other ideas?  Still looking for a better cover brand etc...

Unfortunately , as with all people when it comes to mice, you are over thinking it. You need maximum amounts of mouse death which are provided via dogged persistence with traps and/or poison. There is not structure on earth much bigger than a mason jar that a mouse cannot penetrate . If you leave wooden snap traps (victor brand, number one seller for probably a century) baited with peanut butter and sunflower seed set in your boat and check them every now and then, you won’t have any problems. But mouse traps are the last thing anyone will ever think of when it comes to dealing with mice. The irony is often too much to bear 

[E-H]

5 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

I’ve never heard of it being illegal to shoot a squirrel. California? 

Unfortunately , as with all people when it comes to mice, you are over thinking it. You need maximum amounts of mouse death which are provided via dogged persistence with traps and/or poison. There is not structure on earth much bigger than a mason jar that a mouse cannot penetrate 

Well...Maybe my lucky first year (2 years ago) of no mice in the boat has my hopes up too high.

 

I had 5 mice in my 15' jon boat last year.  I am willing to try anything really.  Started to smell in the back a little.  Had to pressure wash it out to get it back to normal.

 

If I can keep them from getting in the gaps, that would be a win, because I was able to get some out with a paddle and send them swimming.  The others got caught in the trap I had.

[TnRiver46]

14 minutes ago, E-H said:

Well...Maybe my lucky first year (2 years ago) of no mice in the boat has my hopes up too high.

 

I had 5 mice in my 15' jon boat last year.  I am willing to try anything really.  Started to smell in the back a little.  Had to pressure wash it out to get it back to normal.

 

If I can keep them from getting in the gaps, that would be a win, because I was able to get some out with a paddle and send them swimming.  The others got caught in the trap I had.

My aluminum canoe has foam inside the front and back and the mice chewed little burrows into the foam to sleep, so filling the cavities might just give them some warm insulation. Might be worth a try though, I would just keep traps set near the cavities at all times 

[E-H]

11 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

My aluminum canoe has foam inside the front and back and the mice chewed little burrows into the foam to sleep, so filling the cavities might just give them some warm insulation. Might be worth a try though, I would just keep traps set near the cavities at all times 

I think I will put some metal mesh in the gaps then use a little expanding spray foam.  It's really 2 areas in the back of the boat on the sides of where the batteries typically sit.

 

[J Francho]

What I'm hearing (from a pro, no less) is to deal with infestation first and then prevention with the cover. 

[E-H]

2 minutes ago, J Francho said:

What I'm hearing (from a pro, no less) is to deal with infestation first and then prevention with the cover. 

That would be ideal.  Yes.  But it's in the Adirondacks and it's all woods....we are talking almost all woods with the exception of a small 300x300 ft cleared out area for a screen house and small beach area.

 

So if I can kill/capture 20+ mice with a few bucket traps in the immediate area, would it make a dent?

 

If the answer is yes, then that's what I will do.

 

Thank you.

[TnRiver46]

49 minutes ago, E-H said:

That would be ideal.  Yes.  But it's in the Adirondacks and it's all woods....we are talking almost all woods with the exception of a small 300x300 ft cleared out area for a screen house and small beach area.

 

So if I can kill/capture 20+ mice with a few bucket traps in the immediate area, would it make a dent?

 

If the answer is yes, then that's what I will do.

 

Thank you.

You’ll never get them all but getting rid of the ones that climb into the boat certainly can’t hurt! Do you live near where you store it? Frequent checking of the traps and just looking into the boat often will surely be better than storing it for months without looking inside. I’ve seen mice get into everything, exclusion is literally impossible (my boss claims a mouse went into space with John Glenn according to his journals). If Houston couldn’t keep one out of the space shuttle, I doubt you can keep one from getting under a boat cover.  If it was my boat, I would leave traps in there all the time and check them about twice a week.     

 

@J Francho, I always wanted to go pro as a kid, who knew it would be going pro in varmints? Haha

[J Francho]

[Jigfishn10]

I had stored a Yamaha 9.9 in my shed for a couple of years. When I took the motor down to the mechanic to give it a tune up and whatnot he found a mouse inside the cover. 

 

Those little guys get into everything.

[E-H]

30 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

You’ll never get them all but getting rid of the ones that climb into the boat certainly can’t hurt! Do you live near where you store it? Frequent checking of the traps and just looking into the boat often will surely be better than storing it for months without looking inside. I’ve seen mice get into everything, exclusion is literally impossible (my boss claims a mouse went into space with John Glenn according to his journals). If Houston couldn’t keep one out of the space shuttle, I doubt you can keep one from getting under a boat cover.  If it was my boat, I would leave traps in there all the time and check them about twice a week.     

 

@J Francho, I always wanted to go pro as a kid, who knew it would be going pro in varmints? Haha

So my typical late spring summer...

 

6 hour drive to the lake to get the boat there.

Fish over the weekend.

Leave the boat.

2 or 3 weekends later drive up again.  Sometimes I stay 3 days for a long-weekend.

Rinse/repeat....until Late August.

Bring the boat home (a sad day).

 

So the 2 weeks with nobody there is their infestation period...

[J Francho]

Buy stock in Tomcat and D-Con.  

[TnRiver46]

13 minutes ago, E-H said:

So my typical late spring summer...

 

6 hour drive to the lake to get the boat there.

Fish over the weekend.

Leave the boat.

2 or 3 weekends later drive up again.  Sometimes I stay 3 days for a long-weekend.

Rinse/repeat....until Late August.

Bring the boat home (a sad day).

 

So the 2 weeks with nobody there is their infestation period...

I now see the dilemma! A lot of our customers have mice get into cars they don’t drive frequently. @J Francho is correct, keep poison in there and make sure it’s fresh! Traps and poison do the same thing, kill mice. Traps are reusable but you gotta reset  them unless you use a repeating trap like the bucket suggested above. But if you catch a whole bunch, then you have pretty foul bucket in your boat. The poison at least let’s them have the opportunity to die elsewhere (although they could still die in the boat).

[volzfan59]

I've never used dryer sheets, but I have used moth ball. Put some in a few disposable bowls around the interior and bilge are before putting the cover on. Scattered some moth balls about on the ground. No mice, no insects, no squirrels, no cats... nothing.

[BassNJake]

7 minutes ago, volzfan59 said:

I've never used dryer sheets, but I have used moth ball. Put some in a few disposable bowls around the interior and bilge are before putting the cover on. Scattered some moth balls about on the ground. No mice, no insects, no squirrels, no cats... nothing.

Before I had a garage, I pretty much made a moth ball and gravel parking area.

Probably used half a dozen boxes or more.

The dogs stopped peeing on the trailer tires too.

 

Probably ruined the environment in the process

[TnRiver46]

On 3/29/2021 at 4:16 PM, BassNJake said:

Before I had a garage, I pretty much made a moth ball and gravel parking area.

Probably used half a dozen boxes or more.

The dogs stopped peeing on the trailer tires too.

 

Probably ruined the environment in the process

Haha!!! My coworker has a neighbors dog that pees on his tire and on cold mornings his truck won’t break loose and go because the wheels are locked up. He swears it’s because the dog pee froze on them 

[E-H]

Again - Appreciate all the input.  Still looking for a decent cover that would be less likely to get chewed through by the critters?  I need to replace mine very soon.