Stowaways???????
- Thread starter woodster
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Mice? sticky traps- Get 'em at the grocery store. They walk across them can't get loose, and you dump them overboard.
Had two in my home kitchen- a week later - no mice.
Had two in my home kitchen- a week later - no mice.
At least for the white feet guys, cute as they may be, they are disease vectors for the Hentavirus, which is serious. So in my world they've gotta go.
Peanut butter and mouse traps work pretty well. Probably should wash pathways with bleach to reduce the scent the little guys follow to food or shelter where possible. Get rid of sources of food, nest material, and well, you can't blame a bloke for seeking shelter in a cozy cabin. But you have to make it an unpleasant place for the critter to be.
Peanut butter and mouse traps work pretty well. Probably should wash pathways with bleach to reduce the scent the little guys follow to food or shelter where possible. Get rid of sources of food, nest material, and well, you can't blame a bloke for seeking shelter in a cozy cabin. But you have to make it an unpleasant place for the critter to be.
You need to get them out of there ASAP. For some reason mice and rats eat electrical wires and very soon your systems are going to start going down.
As mentioned sticky traps should get them, but when dockside in the Keys, they were a constant problem. Someone mentioned that the little pests needed water and to poison my bilge water with bleach. Make sure there are no little unbleached pools of water behind a frame, rib, structural member, etc. Never had a problem thereafter; no drinking water, no mammalian pests.
As mentioned sticky traps should get them, but when dockside in the Keys, they were a constant problem. Someone mentioned that the little pests needed water and to poison my bilge water with bleach. Make sure there are no little unbleached pools of water behind a frame, rib, structural member, etc. Never had a problem thereafter; no drinking water, no mammalian pests.
Victor trap with peanutbutter but with an addition. The mice can sometimes lick the trigger clean, so the thing to do is after you put the peanutbutter on, unwrap a section of old fashioned gauze, almost like fine cheese cloth and tie it around the peanutbutter. Tighten it to the point where the peanutbutter is just starting to ooze out of the mesh. When they go to lick it off, their teeth snag the cheese cloth and springs the trap. Be careful most of the stuff they sell in pharmacies under gauze are the non-stick pads which won't work.
I have done this in a house attic before and it worked great. Should work very well in a boat.
Agreeement
I mus agree. Had this problem years ago. While living aboard and traveling North Carolina in the fall. The mouse made two nests but traps got him in the night. I heard the snap. They are very disruptive to every thing about boating.
Peanutbutter is only half...
Peanut butter can be licked off. Use a piece of bacon on the trip release and coat it with peanut butter. Eventually, they'll pull the bacon and make a quick trip to mouse heaven.
Alternate that someone told me about (a non boater by the way) and I have never tried, nor heard of being tried by anyone for that matter.
Close up the hatch, route the exhaust from any petroleum engine for 15-30 minutes. Air out cabin for 1-2 hours and then clean out visitor's bodies. Sounds simple... If you decide to try it, let me know if it works.
Peanut butter can be licked off. Use a piece of bacon on the trip release and coat it with peanut butter. Eventually, they'll pull the bacon and make a quick trip to mouse heaven.
Alternate that someone told me about (a non boater by the way) and I have never tried, nor heard of being tried by anyone for that matter.
Close up the hatch, route the exhaust from any petroleum engine for 15-30 minutes. Air out cabin for 1-2 hours and then clean out visitor's bodies. Sounds simple... If you decide to try it, let me know if it works.
I have used this stuff called Fresh Cab. I got it at Tractor Supply but you can get it on Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&ke...vptwo=&hvqmt=e&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_70zkdld36n_e
It looks like a big tea bag and it is full of wood chips and other herbs... mice hate it. I had a mouse in the heating vent of my house and it would scratch behind the walls. I didn't want to kill it behind the vent (because of the smell). I put some of this in the vent and the mouse left the same day... and the room smelled great too. Since then, I've used it in my shed and it has done the trick there also.
http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&ke...vptwo=&hvqmt=e&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_70zkdld36n_e
It looks like a big tea bag and it is full of wood chips and other herbs... mice hate it. I had a mouse in the heating vent of my house and it would scratch behind the walls. I didn't want to kill it behind the vent (because of the smell). I put some of this in the vent and the mouse left the same day... and the room smelled great too. Since then, I've used it in my shed and it has done the trick there also.
If you put Decon in your boat, and leave the cover off to the bilge when you leave your boat for the weekend...they will eat the Decon and then go to the bilge for water and die.
We got a mouse when we loaned a big coffee pot to our club. The people who borrowed it threw away our big coffee pot box and returned the coffee pot to us with a box found in a shed. The mouse must have been in there. We put some Decon out...and when we returned to the boat.... we found the dead mouse in the bilge.
We got a mouse when we loaned a big coffee pot to our club. The people who borrowed it threw away our big coffee pot box and returned the coffee pot to us with a box found in a shed. The mouse must have been in there. We put some Decon out...and when we returned to the boat.... we found the dead mouse in the bilge.
Glue traps are so cruel. Better to use regular snap traps and use preventative measures. I take it your boat is on the hard. How and where are they getting on in the first place? I like the cat idea.
don't know if they are coming up the stairs or climbing the power cord or air hose...i have no food stuffs on board...and i can't remember ever putting a mouse in my pocket with other tools....it is a mystery to me...but i do like the suggestions so far....i really hate having them on board even if they are so cute....was working in the boat Saturday and one just walked up to my shoe and crossed it like i didn't even exist.....i don't want to poison them because i don' need a grave yard of mice on my boat that i can't remove...and even though there is little room below the cabin sole those little buggers can get in the darn est places....
regrids
woody
Poisons force them to go to water. In a house, this means to leave the house. In a boat, this usually means to the bilge as others have mentioned. The oils work well in tight quarters and should be your first line of defense, but you'll need to have a way out for them. Snap traps are about as humane way to kill them as you can get. Glue traps work wonders as there is no mess, but if you have ever watched a mouse in a glue trap...well, i simply don't have a heart to torture them and they have been known to chew off a foot to escape.
Now, if you don't mind killing things and it does not bother you how they die...we use the Bucket method when dealing with an infested house...could work on the boat too.
If you use water, they drown, if you don't you can let them go, but when letting a mouse go, you better move him a mile or more or he'll be back.
http://youtu.be/aSk79YcuIRQ
Ok, I'm the odd man out. I like the humane traps. I had a couple of the little guy in the house and these traps worked very well. In the morning I took the little fellows for a ride to wrk and let them go in the bush. The OP really needs to find the source of entry. Mice will eat your ulpholstery! Find and elinate the source of entry. Then round up the "guest" humanely, job done.
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U don't want to use poison unless U R sure they won't go off and die in some inaccessible spot in your boat where U can't get their poor dead (stinking, rotting) bodies out. Mind U, if you can wait it out, the carcasses dry out and don't smell any more, (might take a few months). Best to use traps, and then to discourage their or their relatives return, I have used mothballs successfully, but you need to place them in those inaccessible spots. My $.02 anyway.
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