Rodents.......

[frank balcer]

Afternoon all! Messed up a few weeks ago and left some food onboard after a day sail. Seems rodents found granola bars and kids oatmeal cookies too much not to have a picnic. I have removed all food stuffs and have cleaned boat prety well. Two weeks later i'm still finding droppings ocasionally. Have set rat and mice traps but have had no success. Anyone have any solutins??? Thanks All! Frank

 

[Timo42]

I have heard

that rats leave a sinking ship, so... ;DTry the bait pellets, they worked in my attic Tim

 

[Dragonfly6689]

Try peanut butter on the mouse traps

works better that cheese or bread. Good luck. Mark

 

[Ross]

Try victor mouse traps with cotton string

wrapped around the trigger and generously coated with peanut butter. D-Con is effective but then you must live with the smell of dead and decaying mouse for a while. ;D

 

[Ctskip]

Catch them alive

with Have-a-Heart trap. A little peanut butter on some paper and within two days you'll have him. Kill him with poison and he'll die and eventually stink. Just be sure to place the trap along a walk way where he walks. Mice don't see very well and like to run along a wall. Plus you can know you have got him by seeing him in your trap, with poison you never really know. Keep it up, Ctskip

 

[Chuck R]

An Ol' wives tale/solution-----

Mothballs,. Yup it works, those rodents will go find another boat. I have put away my boats for the winter using them in the cabin for over 40 years now and never have I seen a mouse calling card come spring.

 

[Rick I]

Formaldehyde

when I put my boat away for the summer (only cruise in the winter) I hang a bunch of those formaldehyde bags you get from Walgreens. Nothing lives!! Got bugs? Got rodents? Got mold? Nothing lives. Just make sure you air the boat before you start living on it. As I said nothing lives.Rick Ihttp://groups.yahoo.com/group/beneteau393/beneteau393 : Beneteau393 Group

 

[Benny]

Set traps and poison and keep food and water

aboard. You need to catch it quick before it causes to much damage. If there is no food or water it will eat the insulation out of electrical wiring and eat holes in the water hoses. Is better to put up with a boat that stinks for a couple of days than to start having odd electrical failure. Although rodents can be found at any marina there are some that are notorious. A couple of years ago we took the boat to a marina in Fort Lauderdale as we were doing the X-mas light parade. After we got the boat back we noticed some rat droppings. We set out rat traps and cleaned the boat thoroughly taking out all food. A couple of weeks latter we noticed the A/C would not come on. Upon further inspection we found the chewed up wiring. Latter on we defrosted the refrigerator and found that he had chewed through the discharge hose that runs to the bilge. (Now that is extremely hard to replace) At this point we realized our mistake in dragging this out and set some poison along with the traps. About a year latter we found the dried up carcass near the macerator pump. We never felt any odors or if we did must have blamed it on the head. An old RV'ers trick is to wrap the inlet of their power cord with those laundry softener sheets and I wonder if they would work if wrapped around the dock lines. We later found out that marina in Fort Lauderdale was having a rat problem due to clearing of nearby lands for condo construction.

 

[RichH]

Ferret !!!!!

Call your local veterinarian to find someone who has a FERRET and who is willing (usually for a small fee) to come to your boat. A hungry ferret will take approximately 30 seconds to rid your boat of rodents, 10 seconds if 2 ferrets.

 

[Mikado55k]

Prevention

I unfortunately had a similar problem as Benny in Port Canaveral, FL. I was away for about six weeks and when I returned to the boat, I found droppings in several locations. Not wanting to kill it and risk odors, I got a live trap. After two weeks of it outsmarting me, I decided to put out death traps. It avoided the traditional traps while taking the peanut butter bait. Not wanting to leave the boat again for an additional six weeks with a rat on board I got those sticky pad traps. A neighbor said to sprinkle broken cashew pieces on it and the next day I had my rodant. That was not the end of the problem. I had just had my main sail worked on and put it in the sail locker until my new canvas arrived. When I took out the sail there were several holes in it and the leach edge was shredded. $1200 later the sail was repaired and back on the boat...........expensive rat!!I now have the round discs that you can get at W/M to stop them from climbing down my dock lines. Also, I always leave a sticky trap on board if I am going to be gone for extended periods.