Looking for mice proof foam

[Phil Waterman]

Hi All


Well it is spring time and in the process of cleaning and servicing the trucks for the driving season. One of the things I check for is critter damage. Even with leaving moth balls in all of the trucks in plastic pans, still get occasional damage. Really don't like using poison give that we have quite a few Hawk, Owls that like the area and don't want them picking up a mouse that has gone outside to die.


Anyway this year it was shifter boots, the photo below is of foam block around the base of the Pat 12 C60L should be the much denser black rubber padding buy have not found a source for that. Anyway used this much less dense gray packing foam, which the mice have ignored for probably 10 years until now.



As you can see I have used fabric draft boots around the starter and parking brake levers. These are out of the same Dupont Cordura fabric that I use for seat covers. So far the mice have left the Cordura alone. You can see though that the Cordura will not hold paint, the boots having been sprayed with black paint.

Oh by the way the other shift lever they chewed up was on 78 Chevy pickup. That was one of the reproduction boots from LMC.

Cheers Phil

[rob love]

On my mk1 carrier, it was the foam in the headsets of the radio that the mice loved. When I first saw slight damage, I moved the headset to hand on the grab bar on the engine cover armored plate. The mice had to perform a high wire act to get to it, and they did, fully removing all traces of the foam.

In my workshop (and at work) we use the metal box type traps that have a tunnel and a paddle wheel in them that move the mice into a trap portion. The traps will get multiple mice, and when the trap starts to smell, you know it has several of them rotting in it, and it is time to empty it. I have had up to five in a trap.

The traps work best situated along the walls, and I'll often make some kind of a defile, where the mice will naturally head for the tunnel. They really do seem to keep the populations in check.

[David Dunlop]

Phil.

If you have access to an active litter box, try putting the dry cat poop in the areas the mice frequent. To them, poop = predator and they usually disperse (unless one of them, of course, wears an eye patch).

David

[Robin Craig]

My sincere condolences.

If I could go back and speak to Noah, it would be the mice and the racoons I would implore to leave behind.

[Phil Waterman]

Hi David

Currently we are cat less hence the mice problem. The cat poo will fit right in with environmentally friendly approach to pest problem we've been using Coyote pee to control the racoons who kept trying for the for the bird seed.

But your suggestion made us laugh, at the practical beauty of the logic.

Rob will have to look for the traps you are talking about, because we seem to get mice in waves that overwhelm the standard one at a time traps.

But finding a foam or something to soak the foam in so mice don't like it is my hope.

Cheers Phil

[Bob Carriere]

....but we have domesticated cats and a few feral cats that roam around the canvass Winter shelters all Winter long looking for a quick snack...... but the cats DO pee on everything so it works as a repellent......even repels us when we open up the Winter garages in the Spring time....... Now squirrels are another story..... and they love eating the plastic insulation on the barn electrical wires....... feeding them off the bird feeder does not help......

[rob love]

Here is the type of trap I use. So do the exterminators who maintain the museum. If the price scares you, compare that to the price of damages the little buggers cause.



https://www.amazon.ca/Kness-101-0-00.../dp/B00004RA4D


And here is a new one to me. They attach a jar of water and a tunnel from the trap area to drown them. https://www.ebay.ca/itm/Kness-Ketch-...4383.l4275.c10

[Grant Bowker]

Isn't there a phrase close to "Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door"?

Clearly the one with the bottle is the "new, improved" Mark 78 mouse trap....

And then: "There's a sucker born every minute". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There%...n_every_minute

[Wayne Hingley]

The water is a good idea. I was told years ago that if you don't want rotting mice in your walls or other places when using poison, just place a pan or bucket of water near the poison. When they eat the poison, it burns their insides and they will go for water, jump in and drown (easy to collect). The only problem is in the winter when the water tends to be frozen (but maybe that doesn't happen in Manitoba ). The collection trap that Rob shows is the way to go, water option or not. Maybe antifreeze will work as a substitute for the water...?

As Bob mentions: squirrels are the worst for causing serious damage and mess. Hundreds of squirrels have "mysteriously" passed away around my property over the past few years .

[rob love]

Originally Posted by Wayne Hingley

The only problem is in the winter when the water tends to be frozen (but maybe that doesn't happen in Manitoba ).

Water in Manitoba is indeed frozen in the winter but does not freeze in the winter. That's because it freezes in the fall and does not thaw until the spring.


Why do I live in this god-forsaken wasteland??

[Grant Bowker]

Originally Posted by rob love

Why do I live in this god-forsaken wasteland??

Because of the treasures you find in your favorite local scrapyard? (that are preserved by the miserable cold and lack of humidity) And because the climate reduces competition for these goodies?

[Wayne Hingley]

Originally Posted by rob love

Why do I live in this god-forsaken wasteland??

Because it builds character.

Back to Phil's question: Im not aware of any mice-proof foam or plastic products, they seem to love the sport of chewing through both. However, I don't think they will chew on rubber. Would it be possible to use a thin rubber product to wrap your foam block? Or perhaps encapsulate the foam in a leather sheath? Again, I could be off track, but I don't recall ever seeing mouse damage on rubber or leather products.

[rob love]

Originally Posted by Wayne Hingley

Again, I could be off track, but I don't recall ever seeing mouse damage on rubber or leather products.

According to google and Orkin, mice don't mind chewing through either of those products.

https://www.orkin.com/rodents/mouse-...-can-mice-chew

Here is a video of the mousetrap with drowning attachment.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCIlIEPR0bc

[Wayne Hingley]

OK... maybe rubber & leather are off the table... along with low gauge aluminum mesh (who knew?).

Thanks for the research video Rob. Mouse trap videos are a new source of entertainment for me. I was waiting to see the rat eat the mouse...

[Phil Waterman]

Hi All

I've been getting much entertainment from the responses. I forgot to mention that I think mice have it in for my family, My daughter and her husband have had two Hondas that the mice liked to chew on the wiring doing several thousand dollars to the cars.

Years ago the mice took out the clutch on my HUP they built a nest on top of the throw out bearing, when I pushed in the clutch to start the engine the nest was thrown out by the spining. The nesting material lodge in the pivot point of the spring disk and the clutch would not engage. It was pull the transmission look at the pressure plate assembly, the problem was very obvious disassemble the pressure plate and put the whole thing back in.

One of my old methods was to just leave old antifreeze jugs with just a little old antifreeze laying on there sides with no cap. Worked pretty well but not sure if it is any more environmentally friendly than Decon. Beginning to think along the lines of peanut butter on some 220 volt contacts. But probably have to redo the peanut butter after each grilled mouse.

Cheers Phil

[hrpearce]

Rats have recently chewed out the ignition wiring on one of the bosses 4 wheel bikes and eaten the fibreglass heat shield under the bonet of her tractor.

[Bruce Parker (RIP)]

Originally Posted by hrpearce

Rats have recently chewed out the ignition wiring on one of the bosses 4 wheel bikes and eaten the fibreglass heat shield under the bonet of her tractor.

Rats. That sure raises the stakes. The neighbour behind me tried chickens that attracted rats. One managed to find its way into my garage to feast on blue box recyclables and my wife's bird seed.

War...and my traps, sticky pads and wit wasn't enough. Agricultural grade poison is what finally done it.

I'm no longer a virgin. I shall never let my guard down or look at the garage the same again.

Oh, and I learned something else. There are actually people who advocate for humane treatment for rats. Catch and release kind of thing. Same A-oles that forced me into having that rat attracting blue box.

[David Dunlop]

All this mouse talk jogged my memory.

Back in my university days, I expedited for three summers at the Uof M Geology Department Field School out at Star Lake, Manitoba in the Whiteshell. We had two cooks came out each year and an assistant. One year the assistant was the wife of an RCMP officer who had been transferred in to the local detachment for the summer.

The three gals and I were organizing a lunch for ourselves one day, and the assistants husband had dropped in for a coffee and quick visit. The assistant put a piece of bread in the old two slot toaster on the counter and pushed the lever down. About 15 seconds later, the bread suddenly popped out of its slot and a smoking mouse arced out of the other slot onto the counter. It hurled itself onto the floor from there and shot out the door, leaving a smoke trail behind it like an air show participant.

The three gals let out such a scream, the assistants hubby actually had his hand on his holster for a second until he realized what had happened. Then he started to laugh. And his wife walked over and punched him in the shoulder.

So maybe Phil needs to set out a bunch of toasters.

David

[rob love]

A cake pan with about 1/4 inch of coca cola will catch mice (once the coca cola dries into a sticky goo) but, unfortunately, it will also attract them. They get stuck in the coke and die. We used to find a couple a week stuck in the spill pan under the coke dispense in the junior ranks mess every week.

[maple_leaf_eh]

Originally Posted by rob love

A cake pan with about 1/4 inch of coca cola will catch mice (once the coca cola dries into a sticky goo) but, unfortunately, it will also attract them. They get stuck in the coke and die. We used to find a couple a week stuck in the spill pan under the coke dispense in the junior ranks mess every week.

And why the Barrack Warden insisted that every Monday (especially after a hearty party weekend) the garbage cans were emptied.

[Corey Myronuk]

rodents..i hate them ..my shop is bordered by turkey barns on 3 sides and 4.75 acres of waist high grass on the other..yep..rodent factory.

make a mixture of 1/3 flour, 1/3 granulated sugar and 1/3 poly filler.

mix well and leave around in locations where you find droppings.

hard as rock mice/rats will be dead as fried chicken in no time. the poly filler isnt toxic and is set up by the time the rodent expires so if a cat or owl gets it things should be ok. just a little chalky.