Mice

[reynoldston]

Don't drive the car very often but took the car out to do some shopping. Didn't go 2 miles and the check engine light came on and I just made it home a because the car ran so bad. I checked it out with the scanner and the engine knock sensor was bad. Now I know why I hate working on cars because they mounted the knock sensor under the intake manifold and it was a all day job just getting to it. Then when I do get to it I find a mouse nest and they had eaten the wires. It wouldn't of been so bad if they would of left me with some wires to work with but they ate the wires right down into the plug and to replace that wire and plug I would have to replace the complete engine harness. Another 2 hrs. just fixing the harness because its all shielded 22 gauge wire. Sure am thankful I can still do my own work because I would of hated to see that bill if I had taken the car to a repair shop. Just HATE working on modern cars :thumbdown:

 

[Carscw]

I have a spot in the yard where I park cars/trucks and mowers I do not use often.
I planted peppermint. Keeps mice snakes and just about any animal away. We also use peppermint oil in the house and shop to keep spiders and other insects away.

 

[reynoldston]

The problem we have here is that its winter and the mice just like a nice warm engine to build a nest in. Someone also told me that moth balls also work good for keeping the unwanteds out?

 

[Boobala]

The problem we have here is that its winter and the mice just like a nice warm engine to build a nest in. Someone also told me that moth balls also work good for keeping the unwanteds out?

A good friend of mine kept hearing noises in his ceiling, after going into the attic space he discovered he had squirrels up there, so he used a sling-shot to scatter mothballs throughout the attic. Other then a slight odor of mothballs for a short while, that took care of that problem, he found and patched the hole in a soffitt where they gained entry. He said if you remove some electrical swithes and receptacles in your walls and pour in a FEW motballs there , you prevent roaches, ants, spiders etc. from intrusion, guess it beats payin big bucks for the pest control guy . .......:cool2: Boobala

WARNING... WARNING ... ! ! ! If you decide to do the electrical items , ......... TURN OFF the POWER FIRST ! ! !

 

[reynoldston]

I have a spot in the yard where I park cars/trucks and mowers I do not use often.
I planted peppermint. Keeps mice snakes and just about any animal away. We also use peppermint oil in the house and shop to keep spiders and other insects away.

I sure like the sounds of the peppermint. I get snakes around my house and camp in the summer time and I say the only good snake is a dead one. They seem to grow in herds around my house and camp for some reason. I find my Ferris dose a nice job on the snakes. I will have to see if the peppermint will grow up here in the north country.

 

[bertsmobile1]

Well I go the other way.
Got a 4' diamond python in the ceiling, so no rodents up there.
Downstairs is a cat that gets locked in the workshop over night and only fed in the mornings when I open up , so nothing down there either.
Huntsman spiders abound so no cockroaches.
The alpacas in the padock next door put pay to the brown snakes, the cat seems to have been lucky with the odd snake in the workshop padock and the 2 stud males are in isolation padocks on the other two sides
The blue tonge lizard keeps the snails in the gardens to an acceptable level and seems to have the better of the cat, for now.
We tried geese fo a while but they kept on attacking the customers so they had to go, Yumm free range geese.
Got a bright LED lightball hanging in one of the trees with comes on at sunset which draws most of the flying bugs into the trees which makes the spiders & bats very happy.
That works very well but takes some declipine to remember to keep all lighting low in the office or the curtains drawn.

I hate paying for things I can get for free.

Now if I could just find something to clean up thses bloody Aussie flies.

 

[reynoldston]

Brown snakes, blue tongue lizards, and diamond pythons (OH MY) Sure glad I live in the northern NY. I will be picking up some poison for the mice, I haven't seen any mice in the house but one bad A** nest in the car engine. I couldn't live in my house if I had a 4' snake in the celling. I just have a fear of snakes which I just can't help myself with. Doesn't that big snake in the celling stink?

 

[bertsmobile1]

Problem is we get field mice plus both the imported black rat & the native rat.
Field mice do not take baits as they live on seeds so they are difficult little buggers to get rid of.
Black rats are easy std rat traps or baits will work fine.
Native rat is also hard to catch or bait so natural means work best.
Pythons are not poisionious and make excellent pets.
Back when I wore short pants all the plumbers & eletricians kept "pet" pythons that they would toss into ceilings or under houses before they went in.
We lived on a bay and there were water rats every where & some got to be over 1 foot long, which is how I learned to shoot.

It takes a while to get used to living with nature and letting nature work for you instead of you fighting nature.
For instance we have the chook house adjacent to the dam, a bit of a walk from the house but chook houses attract mice. Brown snakes principal diet is small warm blooded animals ( mice for example ) and you don't want brown snakes near the house as they are both deadly and very agressive. However black snakes eat principally cold blooded animals like frogs, lizards & other snakes so you put the chook house near the dam where there is liable to be black snakes and use the blacks to control the browns. Blacks are very passive so you just need to stomp your foot on the ground and they will slither off in the exact opposite direction.

The python does occasionally get a bit whiffy but that is nothing comparred to the cattle at the water trough 20 yards away, or the farmer opposite who top dresses every year with chook droppings.
Then there is road kill, always the odd kangaroo or wallaby and occasional wombat rotting by the side of the road.
We are on the "rural" side of the river so road kill stays there. The other side is "residential" so the council removes road kill in a day or so.
The really annoying pong comes from garbage that all those "nice clean" people from "nice clean" houses with "nice clean" cars dump in the turning bay at the cattle gate
And of course, no sewer here either so there are some nice pongs from the septic tank when the wind is blowing the wrong way.

 

[Stevie-Ray]

I live near the Great Lakes, so I have a lot of spiders. Since it's a rural area, there are a lot of mice, also. I had my house inspected for entryways for rodents, found 2 and sealed them off. Also recently had a new roof put on. The OSB was pulled for inspection and there was no sign of critters, so that was nice. Since the house sealing, I have killed about 3 mice, and the traps have remained empty for the last few months, so maybe this was the last "family." Since this is the time they are generally most prolific, I can only contend that the sealing was a big plus. We have snakes all over the back yard, especially under the deck, and they are welcome here, as they keep the bugs and rodents down as well. We have only one pit viper to be afraid of, and they are quite small in number, and rather shy, so I generally don't worry about those. There are also at least 2 cats from the neighbors, mousers, that are also quite welcome here. I haven't had to resort to oils or whatnot, yet, but intend to try it out in the garage, where I haven't had trouble, but don't want it to start, either. I spray my house twice a year with Ortho Max Home Defense, against the spider problem, as we have a problem with Brown Recluse spiders, which have some of the most potent venom in the country, and which my wife has already been a victim. I have personally killed two of them on the deck, and started spraying it along with the house. There is also Northern Black Widow here, but I have never seen one. Good, because the BR is cause enough for concern. We also have Coal Skinks, and they likely help to keep a lot of the bugs down. Lastly, we have frogs up the wazoo. Tree Frogs, Chorus Frogs, Bull Frogs, you name it. The Tree Frogs used to dot out house so much that we could see them on the off-white siding at night when we pulled into the driveway 200 feet away. I can't even imagine the bug problem we would have without them.