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.

 

[Deere Dude]

Build a PVC Mouse & Rat Bait Station - YouTube
I watched the video and it was a little corny but I liked the concept anyway.


I saw this video of a mouse poison station so I bought a 10' piece of PVC and a bunch of fittings and made 4 of them. The attachment is basically the overview.

Poison is my friend for mice and hopefully I kill them around my wood piles and barn and garden. A squirrel ripped the top off one because I made them so the just slid on top for checking poison easily. I wired the top down on that one.

I am not very concerned about critters eating poisoned mice as we have no pets, just fox and raccoons and armadillos and skunks and buzzards.

 

[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.

 

[MossRoad]

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

Carbon Dioxide Poisoning Causes and Treatment

 

[AlbionWood]

My understanding is that as the mouse metabolizes the poison it kills the mouse but is also converted to a substance that will not harm a cat if the cat were to eat the mouse.

Oh, if only that were true. Unfortunately it is not. Rodenticide is spreading through the entire food chain, even deep in the forests (because of illicit marijuana grows). It's been found in everything, insects (which feed on the dead rodents) to Owls, Hawks, and Pacific Fishers.

Poison NEVER simply kills the target; there is always some dispersal and unintended effect.

Exclusion and repellent are the best and most effective methods. Seal up the structure, and put repellent in the tractors, and set traps to catch what gets in anyway.

Remember there is an inexhaustible supply of new rodents out there, so trapping and poisoning at best give you a temporary reprieve. Likewise for predator control - cats, owls, etc - they will reduce the population but never eliminate it (that would be like eating the seed corn).

 

[AlbionWood]

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

This is the best advice in the whole thread. Standing dead trees are essential for a huge number of birds, most of which are beneficial. (Several species of owls among them)

 

[Ritothebull]

My owls have a perfect spot behind my house, a couple limbs were broken off this tree during a storm a few years back but you can also build a nesting box. Just google owl nesting box and there are lots of plans, owls will nest in just about anything.
A water source will also help attract them, mine use a cattle trough near the barn.

 

[sdef]

I have changed my ways and do not like any method that causes suffering of the animals. I have had excellent luck with bagged moth balls from Lowes; do not recall the brand. While clearing my homestead beginning in early 2013 and to completion of my metal shop building in the spring of 2017, my tractor sat outside in the woods under a car cover and my UTV sat in similar conditions for over a year. We do have mice but they were kept at bay with a few of the bagged moth balls in strategic locations inside each vehicle. Now these vehicles are kept pretty secure in the shop building but bags of moth balls are still used .

 

[Deere Dude]

This is the best advice in the whole thread. Standing dead trees are essential for a huge number of birds, most of which are beneficial. (Several species of owls among them)

X2. I cut down a dead for a long time 50' tree for firewood and there weren't any branches for nesting or perching. When it hit the ground I saw 2 baby cranes about 2 foot from a big hole in the side of the tree They were about 8" long. Not a good day for me.

 

[GirlWhoWantsTractor]

My owls have a perfect spot behind my house, a couple limbs were broken off this tree during a storm a few years back but you can also build a nesting box. Just google owl nesting box and there are lots of plans, owls will nest in just about anything.
A water source will also help attract them, mine use a cattle trough near the barn.
View attachment 559985

So true, a water source will attract wildlife sometimes more than even food. This was one reason I put in the small ponds in the ravine.

Bird houses are a great way to attract various birds to your property. Birds eat bugs, grubs, spiders, and all sorts of garden pests, plus being pretty to hear and see. Farmers used to put up swallow houses for a reason. Bats and flying squirrels will eat insects all night long.

In the 5 years I've been here, I've tried to restore some kind of balance to the land, in various ways (versus former owner who mowed every square inch and shot everything that moved, even doves). Now the critters come in droves (actually my skunks come when I call ) Haven't even had to set my humane mouse traps in a couple of years, but I remain wary.

I guess the point is, nature when left somewhat alone, will balance itself.

 

[GirlWhoWantsTractor]

X2. I cut down a dead for a long time 50' tree for firewood and there weren't any branches for nesting or perching. When it hit the ground I saw 2 baby cranes about 2 foot from a big hole in the side of the tree They were about 8" long. Not a good day for me.

Bless your heart....I know we're taught to tame everything, remove everything in the landscape that isn't as neat and tidy as our living rooms. In the first year there was a standing dead tree quite prominent as you enter the property, and without thinking I cut it down. Out ran a family of voles. There it lay and there it still lays. Looks fine.

I had a magnificent pine, must have been 100 feet tall, 6 foot diameter, and I don't know how old, broke in half during a severe ice storm. Broke my heart too. I had a couple of guys that came every day for the first couple of years to do various chores, including quite a bit of clearing out fallen dead stuff in just the one area around the ponds that I wanted to "civilize." They were itching to clear that thing out; the huge fallen piece and the 30-foot-tall standing piece. They couldn't understand why I wanted to leave it. I said cut off all the small branches but leave the rest. Makes me happy to think of the critters that will make their homes there.

I also have a fallen hollow red pine trunk in the woods which during the winter when I like to walk around to see all the tracks in the snow, I realized a bunny was using the trunk as a safe pathway from its burrow to the creek. So that stays too.

 

[GirlWhoWantsTractor]

I have changed my ways and do not like any method that causes suffering of the animals.

Bless your heart too. I work in animal rescue, including mostly wild animals, and I've seen many a hunter find a baby squirrel, raise it, and lay down his guns forever.

(I need to state here for the record (esp on an all-guy forum) that I am not anti-hunting. In fact, I wish everyone had to hunt for their meat. They would appreciate it more, respect it more. And the animals get to live a natural, free life until they are killed.)

 

[Chris In Gallupville]

I struggle with this problem and its effects on tractors and, worse yet, my truck.

Peppermint: does seem to help. I buy concentrated oil of peppermint, dilute with H20 and spray under the hood, on every piece of fabric and wherever else I think the little buggers might try to hibernate. I would say this helps and I find the peppermint aroma to be pleasant.

I also invested in the ultrasonic pest repelling devices and if I know the truck will be parked a while, I put one of the devices on the end of an extension cord and put it right under the hood. I also put the devices in about every outlet in the barn. I know that consumer groups don稚 give them much respect but in my main barn, I see hardly any rodents and these ultrasonic doohickeys must play some part in that.

My new tractor will have to winter in the pole barn and I値l def keep the area under the hood pepperminted up and I値l use a repeller, too. Better safe than sorry. Oh yeah, I also welcome neighbor and feral cats to the barn. One good cat is worth a gallon of peppermint and a truckload of ultrasonic anything痴.