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Mice attacks

R

RV-4

Well Known Member
Well today I had the displeasure to find a mice nest just behind my instrument panel on my RV-4..

It took the little buggers less than a day to build their little airborne condo as I had removed the access panel on friday and there was nothing there..

Now the problem is how do I get ride of them..That's the second nest that I find so far in my RV..

I fly off a farm strip so it could explain their love for flying..

Any ideas anyone


Thanks

Bruno
[email protected]
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Get some bobcat or coyote urine, spray some on cotton balls and leave around the hanger. If you can not find a willing bobcat or coyote, a feed store should sell you some in a bottle.
 
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Google "bucket of death for mice" works great! If your a PETA member then don't google it
 
I leave several opened containers of D-Con strategically placed in the hanger for my Cessna and the work shop I am building my -10 in and replenish as necessary.
 
Keeping mice out

Keeping food out of the plane and the area probably helps discourage them from coming around the in the 1st place

I have always put in and around the plane "Moth Balls." Touch wood it has worked for 32 yrs both in my planes and in my collector cars. I put them into a tupper ware container with holes in it. I'm thinking they don't like the smell. My hangers for the last 20 yrs have had dirt floors and have not been sealed very tight. I have seen the little critters around the parameter of the hangers but never near the plane. As well I have put down those little things full of glue that they get stuck in but so far I have not had any get stuck in those. This last yr as my last line of defense I had built some out of tin some panels about 12"high to go around the wheels (for the longer term storage).

Over kill, I'm sure but I HATE MICE.
 
When I flew my HP-11 glider out of Air Sailing gliderport in the middle of Hantavirus Central, I glued little bits of screen door material over every opening larger than about 5/16". I also kept food and nest-building materials out of the glider to the degree practical.

Another possibility is a product called Mouse-B-Gone, which my friends swear by:

http://www.mousebgone.com/

Thanks, Bob K.
 
Half corn meal half plaster of Paris mix in a jar lid, put a jar lid of water next to the dry mix.
Good for rats and mice. Give them constipation.
Bill j
 
I fought the doggone things for a decade in a camper we had. Tried all the "surefire" tricks, none of them work. I tried the Bounce sheets, mothballs, traps, poison, electronic noisemakers (the kind made for repelling mice). Didn't try a cat or a neutron bomb. Thankfully haven't found any in the plane yet. Finally fixed the camper mouse problem - sold it.
 
I leave blocks of rat/mouse poison around the hangar. I find several dead mice every year, but what seems to happen is they find the poison, gorge on it, and die before they create much of a mess.

Having mice in an airplane is bad. Having a long term nest is really bad - rat urine (and presumably all urine) is pretty corrosive.
 
Mice Attacks

Hello Gents

Thanks for all the good advise. Tomorrow I'm gonna buy some of that poison stuff ( stronger the better ) and put some around the hangar.

I tried the mothBalls thing at home to get ride of cats with over active bladders and it worked so I will probably give it a shot.

BTW, I never leave any food ( never have any food in the airplane to start with ) around the airplane so it can't be the cause unless they bring their own lunch to work..:D

The nest I had last year under the floor of the cargo hold was something to be remembered...The smell out of this thing when I removed the floor( riveted in ) was awful..It took me 3 days to clean the whole darn airplane ..

That is why I wanna get ride of them asap as I don't wanna repeat the experience..

Vlad, Yes I remember the threat about the Garage Rat, it is hilarious..

I'll keep you advise of my progress as a mice buster..

Thanks

Bruno
 
I don't have a mice problem because of all the rattlesnakes around my hangar. Want me to send you one? :D
 
MICE ATTACKS

Hi Karl

I think that I'll skip on the snake this time around

Thanks anyway ;)

Do you guys have any ideas how they can actually come in the aircraft other than the tail post??

How they manage to make it all the way to the instrument is beyond me..

Bruno
 
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Traps!

We live on acreage and lots of mice and chipmunks(rat *******s) around here. I have those plastic mouse traps all over the place outside - bait with peanut butter. The problem is the crows and hawks come in to get the mice before I get to the traps - and they take the traps with them! I had to start using mason string and tie the traps to a weight so I don't have to keep buying more traps. The poison works well too, but I don't want to feed poisoned mice to the birds.

We don't have any that get into the house but I get one or two a night around the outside. The birds come for breakfast everyday!
 
I'll probably get crucified for saying this, but the wildlife enthusiast/nature photographer in me has to...

Please try to avoid using poison to get rid of pests. It may work wonders on the pests, but it also causes the death of higher-level predators which feed on them (hawks, falcons, eagles, coyotes, etc.). As an example, several of the famous red-tailed hawks in NYC have died recently from poisoned rats, pigeons, etc.

Get rid of anything that attracts them (food, "bedding", etc.), seal up the area as best you can, use non-poisonous traps, etc., first, please...poison should be a last resort.

Some of us like to enjoy the predators higher up the trophic chain, and poisons like warfarin and such are **** on them, as much or more so than the intended target.

Thanks for listening...and, I hope, for trying to solve rodent problems in a more "predator-friendly" way.

Steve
 
Flying Scotsman said:
I'll probably get crucified for saying this, but the wildlife enthusiast/nature photographer in me has to...

Please try to avoid using poison to get rid of pests. It may work wonders on the pests, but it also causes the death of higher-level predators which feed on them (hawks, falcons, eagles, coyotes, etc.). As an example, several of the famous red-tailed hawks in NYC have died recently from poisoned rats, pigeons, etc.

Get rid of anything that attracts them (food, "bedding", etc.), seal up the area as best you can, use non-poisonous traps, etc., first, please...poison should be a last resort.

Some of us like to enjoy the predators higher up the trophic chain, and poisons like warfarin and such are **** on them, as much or more so than the intended target.

Thanks for listening...and, I hope, for trying to solve rodent problems in a more "predator-friendly" way.

Steve
Click to expand...

I second the no poison idea. I have almost lost two dogs who ate some poison someone just tossed to get rid of mice.
 
When I hangered in northern WI, on a grass strip with dirt floor hangers, someone taught me a trick of taking a 1' X 4' or so sheet of aluminum, bending back a half inch of each end so that you could hook the ends together, forming a cylinder out of the aluminum that would then fit around the gear leg, preventing the critters from getting in. Not sure how you could do that around the tail wheel though. Perhaps a sturdy stand of some sort to hold the tailwheel off the ground with the aluminum around that.
 
Similar to Damon's approach ...

...I've seen guys that made large inverted cones from either plastic or aluminum that went around the gear legs on nosedraggers. They work (and look) a lot like those collars that vets put on dogs to keep them from licking wounds. They were reportedly quite effective (on the airplanes!)
 
Where are they getting the nesting material from? I hope it's not your seat cushions or any of your paperwork.
 
Back when I owned my Cherokee, I made some aluminum sheetmetal dams to go around the landing gear. I used cheap roof flashing aluminum (Lowes, Home Depot, etc., sells rolls of 14" wide, 50' long for about $35). I cut off long enough strips to completely engulf the wheelpants, and bent the ends over so that they'd hook together and the dam would stand upright on its edge completely encircling the gear and the mice could not get over it.

Now that I've got a tailwheel RV-6, my old sheetmetal dams would only work on the mains...leaving the tailwheel vulnerable as a place for the mice to gain access.

I've thought about building a sturdy wooden tailwheel stand with integral wheel chock that I could lift the tailwheel up and park it on top of the stand, and then wrap my sheetmetal dam around the whole stand where it would be raised up high enough to clear the 14" tall sheelmetal.

ETA: Doh! I just read Damon's post a page back... that's exactly what I'm talking about here!


Also, WRT mice and rat traps, just a couple weeks ago I heard a rodent chewing on something in my attic one night. The next day I bought a battery powered electrocution type trap from Lowes (kinda expensive, $30) and baited it with peanut butter and set it in the attic. Next morning, I found a huge rat inside it... deader than dirt. The zapper trap killed it quickly and cleanly, the rat did not pee or leave droppings all over the trap like what happens with mechanical or glueboard traps... much more sanitary disposal of the dead critter. Even though they are expensive, I may buy some more of these traps to place inside my sheetmetal dams as a second line of defense.

The water bucket of death - type of rodent trap sounds pretty entertaining too.
 
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Mice Buster

Well Guys, thank you for the all the suggestions and ideas, keep them coming.

Today as a project, I built a death planque....2 X 1 piece of wood and on top of it I installed a bare electrical wire connected to a wall socket...

Let me tell you 110 volts will do wonder with mices..by the time I finish cutting the grass, I had 3 littles buggers that didn't have time to smoke their last cigarettes...ZAP...next..I can,t wait to see how many I get tomorrow...I hope to zap the darn raccoon that has been walking with dirty paws all over my airplane last week..that will be a bonus..

Regarding the poison,I will hold back as long as my other attack means work and hopefully won't need it..

I also bought a couple of these electronics devices that plug into a wall socket and are supposed to create noises that only the rodents can heard...we'll see how that works...

I will report back the results..

Cheers

Bruno
 
Death bucket set

Death bucket (no water) locked and loaded in hangar this afternoon. I will report results.
 
I put a black rubber snake, coiled, on the floor back around 1990 0r so. Haven't had a mouse since. Before that they'd come in regularly.

Seems silly but that's my experience.

Dave
 
I'm trying a product called Cab Fresh in my popup that I am storing in my hangar. its gotten mixed reviews in my internet research, but I figured I'd give it a try. One benefit is that it actually smells quite nice! Its efficacy lasts 90 days, so you do have to replace the little bags it comes in periodically.

To be honest, I have never had a problem with mice taking up residence in my airplane, but I have seen evidence of them being in my hangar. I really don't want them to wreck my camper or my airplane, so I am being proactive with the use of Cab Fresh.

I found it at Menards, but if you google it, they also have a website.
 
Regarding the rolls of aluminum flashing - a lot of it comes now with a plastic film on it for corrosion protection, presumably. Mice can climb hard plastic without problems, their claws are extremely sharp. The flashing with plastic would be no problem for them to climb.

The electronic noisemakers are worthless, at least the "best" ones that I bought. Supposed to cover 1000 square feet, I put two in the camper. No dent in the number of mice I trapped.
 
Mice on the offensive

Well gents
It looks like my new squatters didn't like having their flying condo removed from the premise..

Yesterday i removed the instrument access panel and surprise, my new neighbors had built themselves another flying condo..all that in the space of 3 days....
So I removed their accomodation once more and also removed all the insulation off the firewall ( due to be replaced anyway) .I also opened up all the panel ( floor,cargo etc..) to have a look for any trace of their whereabouts but didn't notice anything unusual....

So yesterday I started going on the offensive myself by first rigging a water bucket, 2nd putting traps with poison inside ( yes the type where once in they can't come out so no danger to the wildlife and 3rd my deadly so far electrical planque( zapped 4 squatters so far)

The problem is where are they???? They're in the airplane somewhere but where so today I bought one of those electrical trap...if they go in,they get zapped and can't come out,I will leave it on the cockpit floor and I hope to catch the little buggers.I also got a borescope to check the inside of the wings for any traces of my squatters.....

It's amazing that they being so small creates so much problems..

More to come..

Bruno
 
Bob Kuykendall said:
When I flew my HP-11 glider out of Air Sailing gliderport in the middle of Hantavirus Central, I glued little bits of screen door material over every opening larger than about 5/16". I also kept food and nest-building materials out of the glider to the degree practical.

Another possibility is a product called Mouse-B-Gone, which my friends swear by:

http://www.mousebgone.com/

Thanks, Bob K.
Click to expand...

Nearby, when I flew my glider in Truckee, CA, the locals swore by spraying Lemon Pledge around silplane trailers and campig trailers to keep mice out.

After finding a mouse under my parachute in the cockpit after one night tied down I tried it and it worked. It smells better than mothballs to...:)

They were little field mice though, it doesn't work on the Arizona pack rats...:eek:

Encouraging these guys to stay in your yard does help -

its-hot-mum-cubs-B.jpg
 
Lemon Pledge

Hi Gil
Lemon Pledge, hey it is worth a try,nothing to lose and it will smell good in the process

Thanks

Bruno
 
Mice Attacks''The Sequel''

Hello Gents

Well It has been over a month since I started having squatters mice in my RV and still hasn't abated..

Yesterday while getting ready for a long cross country I found a nest in the pocket in the back of my seat.There were a bunch of little new borns mices with the mother in there.There was also another one just behind the instrument panel ( where I found two previous ones before ) with a mouse still in it.

After slowly removing the panel and making sure the mouse was still in the nest, I swepped it out of the aircraft with a broom and took care of the renter before she could get away(Photo attached )
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I also had 2 drowns mice in my death pool ( water bucket '' best device so far '') and one in the electrical trap on the cockpit floor.

Since I removed everything that they could chew on, they took a liking to electrical wiring...:eek: This is no longer funny.

As you can see, it is getting to be quite a problem and I was wondering if it is possible to hook a battery ( 12 volts ) to the airframe without damaging the components of the aircraft as a way to electrocute them if they touch the aircraft.

I will probably try that http://www.mousebgone.com/ thing as it seem to work unless you guys tried it and it proven not to work..

I'm open to any new suggestions you may have as I'm running out of ideas.

Thanks

Bruno
[email protected]
 
We just called the exterminator last week for a problem rat/mouse under our bathtub.

They have mouse/rat traps that have an entrance and are about the size of a shoe box. They also sell them at hardware stores for around $30.

Best,
 
Mice need a food source and water source nearby. Usually VERY nearby. Eliminate that source as best you can. After that, set those 99 cent spring traps all over using peanut butter as bait. It's possible to have hundreds of mice but I suspect you have much less. Keep setting the traps daily...in the area they enter the hangar if you can figure that out. Place the traps along walls as mice use structures to navigate. Before long there will be no more mice. Good luck.
 
The soda can in your bucket-o-death needs to have a good-sized stripe of peanut butter smeared all the way around the middle of the can... a large enough stripe to fill the air with the irresistable smell of peanut butter to attract them.

As to the 12v battery.... 12 volts isn't going to electrocute anything.

These work pretty well (http://www.victorpest.com/store/mouse-control/electronic-traps). I have one of their large rat traps and it got a rat that had moved into my attic on the very first night. Got another one when I left the unit sitting outside my back porch just for fun. They're pricey, but do kill very quickly and cleanly without the potential fire hazard of your homemade 110v AC zapper.
 
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No glue traps

Use anything EXCEPT a glue trap. Especially around your airplane.

Years ago we had this little mouse that ran along the wall past the Christmas tree and into the kitchen. Three nights in a row, same thing. Could never find where it came in or exactly where it went.

Did not want my new bride to think I was cruel, so no mouse trap. No sir. Instead got a glue trap. Big enough for a rat. Dropped a piece of cheese right in the middle and put it along the baseboard behind the Christmas tree.

That night, my wife and I sat there and watched and waited. He showed up and stopped under the tree as expected. He checked out the cheese for just a second, then placed his front paw on the glue trap. Right away he knew he?d made a big mistake. He jumped backward up into the tree with the trap still stuck on his paw. In just a couple of seconds of thrashing, he managed to glue several tree branches, and some garland and icicles to the trap. When he stopped, my wife sat there stunned, looking at this pathetic little creature staring at us hanging upside down like some sort of grotesque Christmas ornament.

Regular mouse traps since then. Better to be thought of as cruel than to be known as an idiot.
 
Repeat

I'll repeat a previous post.

Place a CD player on continuous loop with either Slim Whitman or rap music. Place a razor knife nearby. The mice will cut their own throats.:eek:

Don
 
agreed

cfiidon said:
I'll repeat a previous post.

Place a CD player on continuous loop with either Slim Whitman or rap music. Place a razor knife nearby. The mice will cut their own throats.:eek:

Don
Click to expand...

The only thing wrong with rap music is they misspell it......they forget the first letter is a C.
 
The Sequel

Hi Guys

Thank you for the suggestions.I bought a bunch of spring traps today and will set them inside the aircraft on the floor and in the cargo hold and hope to get the ones still in the airplane.

Neal : I 've got the electric trap already ( see pictures ) and it works really well, I just need a couple more..

I didn't leave my 110 VAC zapper unattended, I just plugged it while cutting the grass with the hangar doors open to see if it works and zapped 3 mices in about 1/2 hrs..As you said, too dangerous and a fire hazard to leave connected with nobody around.

I think that they are coming into the a/c via the flaps linkages...I used to keep the flaps retracted in the hangar all the time and didn't have any mice in the airvraft but I've been leaving them down occasionnally lately and I'm pretty sure that's the road they're taking to get in the aircraft..That's the only opening so it has to be the one entry point..

I will never get completly mouse free in my hangar as it is a tarp cover thing. The owner of the farm I fly out off doesn't let us built hard structure hangars sadly..I am the only one with mice problems so far amount all my flying buddies..

I just ordered some ''Mouse be Gone'' stuff so lets hope it works..

I will report the results..

Thanks again

Bruno
 
Like virtually *all* animals, if you want to get rid of them, you *have* to get rid of whatever is attracting them. Otherwise, you'll be involved in an endless cycle...where there's one, there's a boatload more, and they reproduce quickly, so they'll just keep coming back.

And the good, old-fashioned spring traps are probably the least cruel method out there...essentially, they kill instantly. Just make sure you don't put them somewhere that will inadvertently catch/kill something you don't want to (I set one to catch a rat that was going onto our roof, and instead of the rat, I got a blue jay...felt terrible about that one :( ).
 
I would check your wiring very carefully.

I had a headset sitting on a shelf in my hangar and the rats decided to chew the insulation off the cords. I had noticed some nicks on it before but I assumed I had closed the tip-up canopy on it and cut the wires. Then I noticed they had gotten worse and worse.
 
I've done really well trapping rats with an electric trap and a mixture of equal parts cheddar shreds, real bacon bits, dry cat food, and walnuts. Different rats seemed to go for different items, but I caught a rat every night in my garage until I ran out of rats. :)

The electric traps are nice too. For you and the rodent... (As for cruel, I think the glue traps someone mentioned not to use for other reasons, are actually the worst in this regard.)
 
Predators

I grew up in Kansas, and for mice control in the barn there were cats. IMHO that is what cats are for, killing mice and other rodents. Given you are flying out of a farm why not hire a couple of farm cats. Feed them sparingly, they do need to be hungry.

As long as the hanger is a safe place, with water and a steady supply of mice the cats will hang around. And on a farm there will always be a steady supply of field mice.
 
sahrens said:
As long as the hanger is a safe place, with water and a steady supply of mice the cats will hang around. And on a farm there will always be a steady supply of field mice.
Click to expand...

As you've noted, predators are probably primarily bottom-up regulated by numbers of prey...that is, predators don't, generally, "keep the rodent population down". It's the rodent population that feeds the predators and determines how many there can be.

That's sort of what I was alluding to, and actually is the real problem...it's unlikely that he'll ever get rid of all of them in that environment, so killing them is pointless unless the hangar is completely sealed up. More will just keep coming in, forever.

Since he clikely an't keep them from coming in the hangar, might as well try to keep them from entering the plane itself somehow. Although the predator urine scent stuff might have some promise for keeping them at a distance...
 
Cats

One word of warning.

If you use cats, be sure to have them "fixed" or you will trade a plague of small furry critters for a plague of larger furry critters. And while they will probably not make a mess in your plane, they can sure make a mess ON you plane.
 
The sequel

Hello Gents/ Gals

Well today I caught one more in the water bucket and 2 more with the electrics traps so I will eventually ( I hope) run out of victims...

Just to clarified things up a little,I don't keep any kind of food whatsoever in the hangar,I even pulled out my survival kit so they couldn't get to what's in it..I just load it everytime I go flying..

I also make sure that every entry point I can think of is being closed(keeping the flaps retracted being one of them and the tail wheel off the ground being another one)

I ordered that Mouse be Gone stuff last night and I can't wait to try it out..

With the cool temps coming up over here,i'm gonna be busier with my squatters if I can't find the right solution...

Brian''. I'm having the same dream lately:)

More to come....

Bruno

P.s: I've got a few cats running around,hopefully they're doing their parts
 
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I am a bit suprised about the mouse/rat invasion.
I never had a problem with them in the plane, which is used fairly often.
Now the old Bronco has had a few mice, but it sits for months at a time.
I just supposed the smell of a recently flown plane was a turn off to a rodent.
Especially if you used Avgas. Those toxic lead salts may have something to do with it.
I got rid of the mice in the Bronco pronto. I ran a hose from the exhaust into the window and ran it briefly. They moved out.
 
Mice update

Well Gents...

It is a no-win situation....I still have mice in the a/c but at a different level now..so I guess I must be getting them faster than they can reproduce...

Last week, I totally dismantled the aft section of the aircraft so I could clean all the parts ( Stab, elevators etc...) of all the craps my squatters left behind...The smell is a lot better now...

I also had an exterminator come to the hangar where he set a bunch of trap( Shoebox type ) about 10, around and inside the hangar with poison to create a feeding zone around the a/c so that they don't enter it anymore...

Having to empty the a/c after every flight is not funny but I don't have a choice...

Hopefully I will eventually win that war...

Bruno
 
i guess everyone has their talents but i have always been able to stay ahead of the mice. they aren't very wary. i have ALWAYS left snap traps set in my polebarn, basement, hangar etc. in a place where i can see them. some times they sit for months but i catch the new squatter the day he moves in. my thoughts about poison is that they die in some inaccessable place and stink forever.
the trick with a snap trap to prevent having your bait cleaned off is to ''crimp'' a kernel of corn [no, not canned] onto the trigger and then cover with peanut butter. they will consistantly lick off the peanut butter but always want the corn for dessert. catch rate is at least 90% when you use the corn.
man, and i can build airplanes too!
 
RV-4 said:
Well Gents...

It is a no-win situation....I still have mice in the a/c but at a different level now..so I guess I must be getting them faster than they can reproduce...

Last week, I totally dismantled the aft section of the aircraft so I could clean all the parts ( Stab, elevators etc...) of all the craps my squatters left behind...The smell is a lot better now...

I also had an exterminator come to the hangar where he set a bunch of trap( Shoebox type ) about 10, around and inside the hangar with poison to create a feeding zone around the a/c so that they don't enter it anymore...

Having to empty the a/c after every flight is not funny but I don't have a choice...

Hopefully I will eventually win that war...

Bruno
Click to expand...

bruno, i can't believe this terrible story. i guess you can never stop them from being in the hangar but about keeping them out of the plane, there must be a way. how do they get in? figure that out and you have problem solved.

good luck with the lyme issue too.
 
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