Preventing Rodent Damage During Tractor Storage

[goeduck]

If the snakes are also eating mice you may want to reconsider the golf ball idea that kills them and find another way to keep them from the eggs.

 

[jmc]

I had this brainstorm I want to try but keep forgetting: With your vehicle closed up in the outbuilding, hit the panic button on your key fob on a regular basis.

 

[Ritothebull]

Best thing I ever did was get rid of the chickens, I live out in boonies and those chickens attracted more predators than you could shake a stick at.

 

[FreedomFamilyFarms]

I had success this winter with the ZTR in my shed with a bucket trap, moth balls, and cayenne pepper. Coated the surface of the mower and all the cracks and crevices in pepper every month or two. Pulled several dead mice out of the bucket with no damage to the mower a couple feet away. Mower got a good spraying this spring.

Wish I had a pair of those owls. Seems a shame to let all that owl food go to waste.

A beef or chicken broth can works great as an axle on the bucket trap. You can gently punch the holes dead center with a clean nail and drain the broth into a cup for later use.

Now if I can figure out how to keep the dog from licking all the peanut butter off the can when I leave the shed door open...

 

[GirlWhoWantsTractor]

Wish I had a pair of those owls. Seems a shame to let all that owl food go to waste.

That's easy. Leave some large standing dead trees in your woods. Owls will nest there.

 

[FreedomFamilyFarms]

That's easy. Leave some large standing dead trees in your woods. Owls will nest there.

I may try that. The shed is at the edge of 10 acres and there are some cottonwoods growing that I don’t really want to keep but they’re not worth cutting for firewood...

 

[goeduck]

We had owls in our big barn for years that kept the mice under control along with fox until bald eagles nested on the propety then the eagles took out the owls. Such a shame. Then coyotes overtook the foxes. Now we rely on coyotes and weasels, nowhere near as good. Coyotes will not go in the barn which is where the fox would den. That property does not have a house on it so the fox were welcome caretakers and would scamper when we went to cut hay or feed the cattle.

 

[Fuddy1952]

That's easy. Leave some large standing dead trees in your woods. Owls will nest there.

Yes!
I was a dummy and cut down a very large dead hollow tree not far from house down over the hill. That night at 2 a.m. a screech owl landed on my open window sill and screeched! I'm sure telling me I cut down it's roost. I got an owl call and at night can call them in close to the house now.

 

[GirlWhoWantsTractor]

We had owls in our big barn for years that kept the mice under control along with fox until bald eagles nested on the propety then the eagles took out the owls. Such a shame. Then coyotes overtook the foxes. Now we rely on coyotes and weasels, nowhere near as good. Coyotes will not go in the barn which is where the fox would den. That property does not have a house on it so the fox were welcome caretakers and would scamper when we went to cut hay or feed the cattle.

It does seem like coyotes are creating a problem by overpopulating in many places. In an intact system, the animals are in balance, but we are far from that. We've eliminated or reduced apex predators because we fear them, and to protect our stock, which is understandable I guess. But seems it creates more problems in the end.