Mice! Gnawed their way through everything!

[UrbanHenBilly]

Hi everyone!
I have a super mouse problem in both my garage and coop, and this year I want to do something about it! They are unbelievable.
I bought the house 4 years ago, the house itself is 100 years old and the outbuildings about 40. The lot behind me is more or less unused and so I have a lot of brush and trees that crowd my property and harbor no end of rodents.

The mice have gnawed their way completely through the sill of the coop, the horizontal wood beam that meets the concrete foundation. They've nested in the tar paper and gnawed huge holes in the roof (soffits and fascia) of the coop.

Right now, the coop is gutted, completely. I want to get a fresh start and do it right. I'm replacing chewed and rotten wood right now.

What do you folks use to keep mice out? I was thinking of running a roll of aluminum flashing from 6" below the concrete foundation up the wall about 2 feet or so. What do you think?

This is less about getting RID of existing mice, but more about PREVENTING mice from entering once I fix this building up.
Thanks for your help!
Bill

 

[En Plein Air Farms]

Krimanitly.
Just a bump, hopeful someone can offer good advice.

Have you caught any in traps so they can be identified? Might they be Norwegian Rats?

 

[ekemily]

I think you are going to have to try many different solutions. Sticky traps work well, as do the traditional slap traps. I wouldn't put out poison. There's no telling what could eat the dead mice. Hardware cloth works very well to keep out rodents. Make sure all of your feed is put away in galvanized trash cans or something similar. Make sure there is no feed left out in the run or coop. Or, you can always try to do what my neighbor does.... sit outside on a swing all day and shoot at them with your BB gun.

 

[dieselgrl48]

Are you able to to put poision out?We had Rat and mice here and Darn I forget what it's called but it;s little green ball's.We had moved out of our house for 3 months with the outside kittie's and then moved back and the Rat's and mice were back.I put the ball's in the rat hole's around and the rat's had gotten back in corncrib We store garbage in one side there.I got a pkg.of those One Bite things and put a couple in there and I got HUGE RAT and sure there are more.I have to be cafeful with the blocks and ball's here due to kitties dog's and my neighbors dog but you can put them in confined area's with very good result's.Flashing etc. will help keep them out but it wont do them In sorry.Unless you want to call in an expensive Exterminator.There are a lot of good rat/ mice homemade trap system's online for free.

 

[savingdogs]

I have a cat that takes care of this problem for us.

 

[UrbanHenBilly]

Wow, that was quick!
They're mice all right. I've caught them and seen them plenty of times. As a matter of fact, when I gutted the coop this weekend and hosed everything down, I came back later on and there was one mouse, chewing on a piece of wet, rotten wood, calm as can be under the flashlight beam.

These guys are everywhere! It doesn't matter how much I bait, because I have 3 acres of neighbor's scrub land that houses an army of them. I'm talking 20+ years of disuse, so I have vines that are thicker than my legs in that lot.

The thing that annoys me the most is, in the garage, there's nothing for them to eat, but still, they're everywhere. I have to figure out how to keep them OUT.

 

[UrbanHenBilly]

Traps and poison work well if they're inside, but how do I keep them outside? I'm going to be spending an awful lot of time and money replacing structural wood, so I would be happy if I didn't have to repeat this anytime soon. Thanks!

 

[UrbanHenBilly]

I have the green poison sticks and the slab traps baited with peanut butter. My mice even ate through the poison box I stored away and finished off the whole thing. Didn't seem to slow them down a bit...

 

[allieloveschickens]

I had a rat problem at my old house, I tried to poison it but it ate the poison like popcorn the little devil! Fortunately I have a cat who is a great hunter, he pulled it out from under the fridge and killed it, left it waiting in the living room for me-- gross, but fantastic! I would suggest a good mouser or two, rodents don't like to live in the same area as cats so even without catching all of them the cats can repel mice and rats. Just make sure you keep any small chickens/chicks out of their reach!

 

[ekemily]

Oh, I also wanted to say that you can try ultrasound devices. Also, there is a paint or stain that you can use to deter chewing and eating. I don't remember what it is called though. Of course, moth balls should work too, if you can handle the smell.