Preventing Rodent Damage During Tractor Storage

[Sittingbull2]

I will give you all these rat snakes around here. They are about 4 to 6ft. long. I don't have hardly any mice. But I do have chickens and the snakes like eggs too. So they die from lead poison. But if you want them I will be gladly to send them to you.

 

[D2Cat]

The easy way to eliminate snakes eating the chicken eggs is to simply place a few golf ball in the nest (or round smooth rocks). They only consume one.

 

[PILOON]

As to the 5 gal bucket trapping, you don't need any fancy setup.
Simply have the bucket placed near a rough textured wall, be it brick, stone or rough wood.
Mice can not jump out of a 5 gal bucket!
Peanut butter or corn is good bait.
Once in the bucket feel free to dispose as you wish.

In our cottage (log cabin with more than a few 'gaps' here and there) we had a 5 gal bucket near the stone faced fireplace. Somehow some popcorn ended up in the bucket and we were waken by the thump thump of a mouse attempting to get out.
We then always left bucket there baited with peanut butter and it became a morning routine to dispose of mice.
My tally one winter was 36!

 

[deanocraft]

I tried the Irish Spring soap... The mice loved it! The first time I checked the tractor after putting that under the hood, I found half the bar eaten. Stick with the plastic Tomcat traps. I filled up the space behind my radiator with 3 of them and started killing mice every time I checked it.

 

[Tx Jim]

Cotton balls soaked in peppermint oil placed in/on tractors is a good rodent deterrent.

 

[Ritothebull]

Just get a couple of these guys, they'll take care of the rodents and the snakes. They showed up around 5 years ago and we have been rodent free ever since.

 

[TheMan419]

Just get a couple of these guys, they'll take care of the rodents and the snakes. They showed up around 5 years ago and we have been rodent free ever since.
View attachment 559595

I have not seen them but heard them. We habe an owl in the woods. Decidedly less mice around.

 

[oosik]

Darn - for some reason you were able to get close - and in the day time - most unusual. Mother on the left - young on the right. I do not know what brand they are - not Barn Owls or Great Horned Owls either. I have barn and great horned but they certainly are falling short on mouse maintenance.

 

[Ritothebull]

Darn - for some reason you were able to get close - and in the day time - most unusual. Mother on the left - young on the right. I do not know what brand they are - not Barn Owls or Great Horned Owls either. I have barn and great horned but they certainly are falling short on mouse maintenance.

Their Barred owls and they've been nesting behind my barn for about 5 years, they are here every day so I guess they've just gotten used to me. That photo was from last year when they only had one baby, this pic is from this year and they had two. Also this breed is somewat active during the day, usually around dusk and dawn.

 

[cqaigy2]

I tried the Irish Spring soap... The mice loved it! The first time I checked the tractor after putting that under the hood, I found half the bar eaten. Stick with the plastic Tomcat traps. I filled up the space behind my radiator with 3 of them and started killing mice every time I checked it.

Ok, so they didn't love it or it would have been all gone, just sayin. :laughing:

 

[fried1765]

^^^^^^^
Best solution!

I hate poison for many reasons. The main ones are the poison going up the food chain, killing non target animals and poisoning is a horrible death.

Snap traps are my favorite.

Glue traps work great but they too cause suffering.

I have heard that a 5 gal bucket with peanut butter inside, lid on with 2 inch hole in the center, will trap many rodents in one setting. You can then kill them with CO2 (hose from exhaust pipe into bucket)

Can kill with CO.....but not with CO2.

 

[bdhsfz6]

1. Get a few cats.
2. Keep the cats in the barn at night.
3. Don't let the cats in the house.
4. Don't keep the wife in the barn.

Cute, but not very helpful.
I almost lost my wife years ago when a stray cat came up on the deck. Luckily, we had an epi pen which kept her airway open enough until the EMT's arrived.
Next I suppose someone will suggest adding #5 to the list. "Get a non allergic wife".

 

[Ritothebull]

I think you have a better chance of getting rid of the rodents than all the amateur comedians on the forum.

 

[GirlWhoWantsTractor]

Have not had any problem since using the humane traps I linked earlier, which caught whole groups/families at a time. Of course, I have a lot more wildlife now since, unlike the previous owner, I don't sit on the deck and shoot every critter that enters the yard. Now I have red foxes, silver foxes, bobcats, coyotes of course (mine are super wild--I have never seen one!), three kinds of owls, broad-winged hawks, falcons, and 5 skunks that enter the yard every evening and diligently scavange the yard--all potential mouse predators. Also have no dogs/cats to scare wildlife away. So maybe all that helps.

I also cleaned up the yard so as to not provide any mouse hidey-holes near the house (wood piles, garden follies, and other junk). To get to the house they have to cross bare lawn.

Re specifically tractor storage, some guys who collect antique cars create barrier around the vehicle using metal flashing; one side can be folded down so you can drive out.

 

[tomplum]

Dryer sheets and Irish Spring soap have worked well for repelling mice. Have put in tractor and inside car hood and keeps mice out.

I'm experimenting with spray bottle of fabric softener, spraying around perimeter on the inside of shop. So far seems to be working. Looks like the mice have left and none come back.

Doing this in the area of the equipment, keeping any feed away from that area will help dissuade them from using it as a nesting area. If this is the best nesting area around, focus on the immediate storage area and leave another part of the building, or another building as better grounds for them. It will help keep your sanity. You can still take other measures to slow the population, doubtful that you ever win.

 

[wagne223]

Can kill with CO.....but not with CO2.

I enjoy this forum but the couple of guys on here that feel the need to constantly correct others is really annoying.

ESPECIALLY when they too make incorrect statements!

Sorry I'm not perfect. Yes, CO is the higher volume gas in exhaust, however CO2 is also present.

Add to that, the FACT that CO2 is the most common and widely used method of euthanasia in mice and rats, my mind simply interchanged the 2 gasses.

So to make my simple statement much more complicated,

Once the mice are in the bucket, you can gas them by running a hose from a vehicle exhaust pipe into the bucket. The mice will die from CO poisoning.

Or you can mix baking soda and vinegar which releases CO2 and direct that into the bucket and the mice will die from CO2 poisoning.
There are many demos of this on the internet.

In either case the mice die from lack of oxygen.

 

[Ritothebull]

I used to trap raccoons and possums back when I had chickens but I never felt the need to kill them, I just took them for a ride in my gator and relocated them near a beautifull lake hoping they would be happier there, now the cayotes.... that's a different story.

 

[Teachu2]

Cute, but not very helpful.
I almost lost my wife years ago when a stray cat came up on the deck. Luckily, we had an epi pen which kept her airway open enough until the EMT's arrived.
Next I suppose someone will suggest adding #5 to the list. "Get a non allergic wife".

My apologies - I had no idea her allergy was so severe. Learn something new every day. Is it only cats?

 

[Fuddy1952]

As a kid I remember we had a garden shed ingested with rats and mice. One day Dad backed our 1941 Packard over to it. He took a bunch of balled up newspapers and rags and chinked them all around the foundation, then ran a vacuum cleaner hose up under shed other end taped to Packard exhaust. He let it idle for a couple hours. Then shut it off. A few hours later that evening we went out with a flashlight, checked, dead rodents everywhere.
I don't see evidence of them there since.
If that shed isn't too large maybe you could let tractor idle, and maybe a car or truck exhaust hosed in also, closed up tight.

 

[tjkubota93]

The easy way to eliminate snakes eating the chicken eggs is to simply place a few golf ball in the nest (or round smooth rocks). They only consume one.

That's good advice!