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Hangar security

R

RNB

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1. We live in a rural area and it is time to prevent mouse intrusions. I've seen and sprayed for ants at my public airport hangar. Do I need to put out stuff for mice? I am doing so at home.
2. If I am flying locally, say for up to an hour, I leave my hangar open. I increasingly have more stuff in the hangar, should I do a better job shutting the door?
3. Does anyone worry to the point of something like putting a game camera in a hangar?

Thanks.
 
RNB said:
1. We live in a rural area and it is time to prevent mouse intrusions. I've seen and sprayed for ants at my public airport hangar. Do I need to put out stuff for mice? I am doing so at home.
2. If I am flying locally, say for up to an hour, I leave my hangar open. I increasingly have more stuff in the hangar, should I do a better job shutting the door?
3. Does anyone worry to the point of something like putting a game camera in a hangar?

Thanks.
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1. Try to get a cat. Works in my hangar. No idea why the cat stays around, but it does. I also have an ultrasonic mouse repelling device, but it's hard to say if it works or not.
2. I close and lock the hangar door when I fly, since I share the hangar with others. And if something happens and I have to land at another airport, I'd like to not worry about the open hangar door. And from time to time, the local PC-6 jump plane starts up right in front of the hangar, and closing the hangar door reduces the stuff blown into the hangar.
3. I have a motion-actuated web camera (Tapo C220), which is how I found out about the mice and the cat. And from time to time some spiders.
 
Hard to seal a hangar, but try anyway. What I do:
- A strict rule for no food, or food trash (fast food scruff) in the hangar.
- I use the large rat size sticky pads. These are the only things I found to work - and a couple of times a year I catch a small snake. I hate snakes. I put the sticky pads at the front corners of the hangar along the wall. The critters tend to follow the walls.
- The door is mostly shut, never open when I’m not in the hangar.
- I have motion sensor cameras in the hangar - useless for rodents.

Carl
 
I leave mouse/rat poison in the corners of the hangar.

I leave the hangar doors closed, but unlocked if I'm out and about on a day when the airport bums are around. If the airport is empty and I'm going somewhere, I lock the door.
 
No possible way to keep mice out of a hangar - they can get through an opening as small as 1/4 ". I keep expecting mice but haven't discovered any. I audited by placing a bunch of glue traps - no joy - so I doubt that there are any at the hangar. My storage pole shed at home, though...different story. I tried a lot of stuff including a variety of traps and poisons, but finally solved the problem when I saw a couple of feral cats on the building's security cameras. I recruited them with a heated cat house and feeding/watering them daily. They've been living there and laying waste to the mouse population for almost 6 years now. Very effective, but it's a big commitment - vets, food, medicine, attention...not really practical as a hangar strategy. If you don't know whether or not you have mice, I'd set out some mouse traps and glue traps. If you find mice, or evidence of mice, then I'd go with some poison bait stations and some traps. That's about all you can do in that setting.
 
I hate mice and how destructive the little jerks are. I decided mouse bait IN the hanger was a bad idea, just like food, it attracts them. I put bait stations outside by the ends of the hanger door and around the end of the hanger. Be sure to change the type and style of bait every few months.
I’m not sure that glue traps wouldn’t also have attractant on them and might draw in a saboteur that makes it to your stuff.
 
My hangar has several electrical outlets scattered around. I got some of the ultrasonic rodent repellers from a big box home store and stuck them around. It took a few days but I haven't had a mouse since. And for most of that time, a bakery was storing inventory there, too, albeit in mouse-proof containers.

Dave
 
TYK said:
I hate mice and how destructive the little jerks are. I decided mouse bait IN the hanger was a bad idea, just like food, it attracts them. I put bait stations outside by the ends of the hanger door and around the end of the hanger. Be sure to change the type and style of bait every few months.
I’m not sure that glue traps wouldn’t also have attractant on them and might draw in a saboteur that makes it to your stuff.
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I use the glue traps for diagnostic purposes only. I have found them to be the most reliable mouse indicator and does a good job of letting me know if I need to escalate to bromthalin-based poison bait stations. I have tried a couple of the ultrasonic things and found them to be completely ineffective.
 
1. Mice generally leave evidence (droppings). If you see that then yeah measures are needed. Personally I just use mouse traps. With bait there's too much chance of them crawling into some place you don't want to die.
2. Totally depends on your specific location/visibility/access. If you're wondering then probably should close the door.
3. For peace of mind, yes. Best is if you have internet and a cloud camera but barring that make sure your game cam it's in a locked box or something so it can't be tampered with. What you don't want is to not have it and wish you did.
 
I Close and lock door when I fly. There are Plenty of easy, expensive things for someone to easily grab out of the hangar. Only takes a second.
We have a snake or two that live in our hangar walls and keeps the mice population to zero. If only I could find something to deal with the 100 varieties of spiders we cultivate inside and around the hangar.
 
Mice do not like the smell of peppermint or cinnamon. Mix up some peppermint or cinnamon oil in water with a few drops of dish soap and keep in a spray bottle. Each time you’re at the hangar, squirt some in openings where they can enter as well as random edges where they typically travel. Your hangar will smell nice and the mice will find a different hangar to hang out in.

Now if I could just keep the spiders out, I would have it made.
 
Dan 57 said:
this might be a telltale about the frequency of your flying ;)
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Considering a spider can build a web overnight, I guess flying could be a daily event. :unsure:

Ever since a black widow decided to build a web across the door I always inspect the opening before entering. Last week it saved me from a new wasp nest that was only a few days old.

My problem pests are mud daubers and wasps. One day, I arrived at the hangar and a beehive was on the roof. Apparently a swarm of honey bees had decided to locate on the edge of the roof above my entry door and a beekeeper was capturing them. I decided that it was too windy to go flying that day……
 
Webb said:
Mice do not like the smell of peppermint or cinnamon. Mix up some peppermint or cinnamon oil in water with a few drops of dish soap and keep in a spray bottle. Each time you’re at the hangar, squirt some in openings where they can enter as well as random edges where they typically travel. Your hangar will smell nice and the mice will find a different hangar to hang out in.

Now if I could just keep the spiders out, I would have it made.
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There are a lot of OWT's about repelling mice. In my pole barn, I took everything out and sprayed the entire thing, ceiling/walls/floors, with 8 oz of peppermint oil concentrated extract in the foam cannon of my pressure washer. I literally coated the place. Humans couldn't go in there without intense eye-watering. It was impressive! Didn't even faze the mice, however.. My anecdotal experience with peppermint oil was the same as with the so-called "ultrasonic repellants"...that is, absolutely worthless.
 
Eliminate what they like to survive. I do my best to keep everything in sealable tubs, use metal trash cans and keep zero food in anything but fridge. As opportunists, mice will take what they can get, and mechanical devices (traps) and no food/housing (rags and paper), they move on to the next hangar. I built a 12'x12' fairly well sealed "office" in my hangar corner that has a de-humidifier, A/C and heat. keeps tools/stuff in good shape, hard for mice and bugs to easily enter. Several spring traps for the perps, and I stay pretty free of rodents.
 
TYK said:
I hate mice and how destructive the little jerks are. I decided mouse bait IN the hanger was a bad idea, just like food, it attracts them. I put bait stations outside by the ends of the hanger door and around the end of the hanger. Be sure to change the type and style of bait every few months.
I’m not sure that glue traps wouldn’t also have attractant on them and might draw in a saboteur that makes it to your stuff.
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Unscented Glue boards exist.

Fabricate rings around your tires from aluminum that are easy to remove. Put a glue trap on the outside and inside of the ring. To expand on food as an attractant, I don't eat in my airplane.
www.catchmaster.com

Max-Catch Unscented Glue Board Traps

Secure your space with Max Catch Unscented Glue Board Traps. Non-toxic, easy to set up, and effective against mice, spiders, and insects indoors.
www.catchmaster.com www.catchmaster.com
 
MacCool said:
There are a lot of OWT's about repelling mice. In my pole barn, I took everything out and sprayed the entire thing, ceiling/walls/floors, with 8 oz of peppermint oil concentrated extract in the foam cannon of my pressure washer. I literally coated the place. Humans couldn't go in there without intense eye-watering. It was impressive! Didn't even faze the mice, however.. My anecdotal experience with peppermint oil was the same as with the so-called "ultrasonic repellants"...that is, absolutely worthless.
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You may be right but I don’t have a mouse problem. It probably due to the fact we have some red tail hawks that police the airport for field mice.
 
Plenty of intersting advice on the mice... very entertaining.

In respect to cameras, I needed security after a half-wit tried three times to break into the hangar a couple of years back. We have no services of any kind at the airfield so the only practical answer was to go solar. I purchased three EUFY wifi cameras and installed two outside the hangar and one inside the hangar. The outside cameras have in-built solar charging and the inside camera has a small externally mounted solar charger. A 200W Solar panel on the hangar roof is connected to a truck battery and provides power to a 5G Router with a SIM-card in it. The cameras work well - at any time I can use the APP on my phone from anywhere in the world to see what is happening in and around the hangar. It alerts me to people coming and going and I can record intrusions, I can also communicate by voice through the cameras, which has been handy when my daughter had problems getting into the hangar one day. For the earlier-mentioned clown who was trying to get in, footage was sent to the police, the guy was identified and spoken to.

A game camera would also work, but you're best to get one that sends you photos via text message so you don't have to go reviewing data cards all the time. Real-time video is much nicer to have in the case of a problem needing immediate action.

The external camera facing my apron is also great for determining local weather at the airfield as I have a 40 minute drive to get there and it can be quite different to the weather at home. This is especially relevant in winter when the airfield experiences fog. I can delay my departure and avoid standing around stomping the ground to keep warm until the fog lifts.
 
Kyle Boatright said:
I leave mouse/rat poison in the corners of the hangar.

I leave the hangar doors closed, but unlocked if I'm out and about on a day when the airport bums are around. If the airport is empty and I'm going somewhere, I lock the door.
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Please do not use poison. The mice will ingest the poison than exit the hangar. Raptors, including owls, hawks, eagles, and cats, foxes and so on then eat the mice and end up poisoned.
There are lots of mouse trap bucket traps on youtube that can be effective without poisoning the raptors and other predators.
 
In AZ my biggest worry are scorpions ugh! I always kick things on the floor before picking up. Always spray CYkick to keep the little buggers down.
 
planenutz said:
I purchased three EUFY wifi cameras
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+1 vote for Eufy cameras. What I like about them is that there's no cloud-based subscription service, and your data is presumably private (or is supposed to be anyway, though you never truly know these days).
 
mburch said:
+1 vote for Eufy cameras. What I like about them is that there's no cloud-based subscription service, and your data is presumably private (or is supposed to be anyway, though you never truly know these days).
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Yes, good point. Not having to pay a subscription was definitely a factor in my decision (because I'm tight). The resolution is good too. The picture below is just a screenshot from my phone of somebody walking their dog past the front doors but on the APP its easy to recognise features and the resolution is much better. I can often recognise people up to 200m away.

As for privacy - well yeah... these days you never know, but I'm prepared to accept the risk for the hangar. Not sure I'd have one in my house.
 

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I installed a 'Simply Safe' system about a year ago, pretty inexpensive and easy install, non-monitored but for $10 month I get text messages anytime the cameras see something, doors open etc. Can arm/disarm and view cameras from my phone/ipad etc. Very happy with it.
 
Webb said:
Mice do not like the smell of peppermint or cinnamon. Mix up some peppermint or cinnamon oil in water with a few drops of dish soap and keep in a spray bottle. Each time you’re at the hangar, squirt some in openings where they can enter as well as random edges where they typically travel. Your hangar will smell nice and the mice will find a different hangar to hang out in.

Now if I could just keep the spiders out, I would have it made.
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The recommendation used to be to use Irish Spring bar soap around the hangar floor...I found that I had the cleanest peperminted mice running around! They chewed the bars, and came back for more... Perhaps no mint in them....??
 
One of my weird obsessions is keeping mice out of my house and hangar. I have three dozen traps set up all around the perimeter of the house and hangar as well as under the house and inside the hangar and garage. I also set up five wireless cameras at the most active traps to watch mouse behavior around the traps. I've tried just about every trap on the market including three different electronic traps, two bucket style traps with ramp, three different glue pads, three different styles of snap traps, etc. For bait, I've used peanut butter, marshmallow cream, sunflower seeds and nuts.

What has worked best for me is the simple Victor snap traps with the yellow plastic bait pad and peanut butter. I catch 97% of the mice with that combination. The bucket style traps are hyped online as THE BEST traps but in my experience they are ineffective. I think I've caught maybe half a dozen mice total in three years with the bucket traps. Same with glue pads. Glue pads do work pretty well inside at catching spiders and scorpions though. The electronic traps can't be exposed to the weather so that limits where they can be used outside but they do work "OK" inside. I love electronic gadgets but I find the snap traps to be more effective and easier to clean, bait and "re-arm" than electronic traps.

The only weakness with snap traps is you have to set the trap with a hair trigger otherwise the mice will just sit there and eat all the peanut butter and move to the next trap. I've seen them actually stand on the trigger pad while eating. This usually happens with traps that are a couple months old and exposed to the weather. After a couple months of use outside, the snap traps should be replaced. My success rate with snap traps is probably 50%. I use a pea size dab of peanut butter so the mice don't get full while eating. If they eat the bait without getting snapped, they move to the next trap where they will statistically meet their fate.

To date, I haven't seen any mice in or under the house and none in the hangar. I like to think it's because I catch them before they can get inside but who knows?

As for wireless cameras, I have Arlo cameras that are grandfathered into the Arlo cloud service with no subscription. But, they are just 1080P cameras. Some day I'll upgrade to the 4K Eufy cams but that's a little overkill just to watch mouse traps. We live in a gated airpark out in the sticks so I'm not worried about humans breaking in- just mice. If I was renting a hangar at an airport, I would absolutely have 4K wireless cameras set up both outside and inside the hangar.
 
As far as mice go... Maybe I've been lucky? In 10 years of owning aircraft, I've never seen a mouse in any of my hangars.

For general security, I have a small computer running home assistant at the airport which is connected (over the network) to a few cameras, and some smart outlets to control stuff like lights and engine core heater. Tmobile will let you buy a $10 a month post-paid plan which gets you like 50GB of high speed data (which then is throttled, but not turned off, after). I use a Netgear LTE to ethernet bridge to connect that PC to the internet, and then OpenVPN to get it on my home network. It works pretty well for basic checking in on things.
 
Snap traps work well except I’ve had lousy results with peanut butter butter because bugs eat the peanut butter and don’t set off the trap. Instead I use an almond and drill a hole thru it and tie it to the trigger with a piece of wire. The rodent has to tug on the nut which does a much better job of releasing the trigger.
 
Webb said:
Snap traps work well except I’ve had lousy results with peanut butter butter because bugs eat the peanut butter and don’t set off the trap. Instead I use an almond and drill a hole thru it and tie it to the trigger with a piece of wire. The rodent has to tug on the nut which does a much better job of releasing the trigger.
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I just love experimental aviation... It introduces me to fellow mechanical thinkers.. etc. A hole drilled in an almond. I could go a whole lifetime and not think of that. smile
 
Talking about sonic devices - I don't have a lot of confidence in the "silent" type i.e. those that are purported to bug mice's ears but not humans. On the other hand I do use several of the very loud ones in a remote mountain cabin and they seem to keep the critters at bay. At least over several years of keeping them on while we're gone, we've seen little to no evidence of mices whereas before we had them, there were plenty. Can't be used if there's anyone nearby who would be bothered by the sound however.
 
WillG said:
Kind of like sheep
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That's the one that's purported to be the holy grail of mouse traps. I've seen the videos but the mice around here don't "fall" for it. The frogs seem to like it though. I live in the high desert of central Oregon USA and whenever I check the bucket (which has water in it), all I find are frogs. I have no idea where they come from.
 
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bertschb said:
That's the one that's purported to be the holy grail of mouse traps. I've seen the videos but the mice around here don't "fall" for it. The frogs seem to like it though. I live in the high desert of central Oregon USA and whenever I check the bucket, all I find are frogs. I have no idea where they come from.
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Those aren't frogs, they are mice in disguise.:rolleyes:
 
I have camera in my T hangar (Ubiquiti). This fella was found in a box on the floor this week. May have to burn down the hangar!
 

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For bugs I spray this around the inside and outside perimeter of the hangar once or twice a year. It's highly effective.
 
Would never have mice if I didn’t have to evict this bad dude. He got a ride back to the drainage ditch.

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i do the snap traps with metal trigger a dozen at a time.hot glue a kernal of corn to the trigger, then put on the peanut butter. they always stay for the dessert.
i usually toss after one or 2 uses. sometimes in the fall around my house i catch 20.
 
BobRv4 said:
In AZ my biggest worry are scorpions ugh! I always kick things on the floor before picking up. Always spray CYkick to keep the little buggers down.
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I have had more scorpion stings than all my barefoot kid’s bee stings!
Dang. Hate em; they came into the Texas house via the ridge vent and into living space via the wall switch face plates.
UV light at night illuminates them, pretty cool.
 
BobRv4 said:
Dr. Dave, I've had very good luck killing them with cykick, here's a link. Also kills crickets, their main food source.
Spray around any entrance that they may crawl over.
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Thanks. Been outta Texas for 10-yrs now.
Issues in Montana are black widows inside shop and grizzly bears, meth-heads outside.
I use Spectracide which has the same base ingredient for the spiders inside, and a Glock 10-mm for the things outside. ;)
 
Webb said:
Snap traps work well except I’ve had lousy results with peanut butter butter because bugs eat the peanut butter and don’t set off the trap. Instead I use an almond and drill a hole thru it and tie it to the trigger with a piece of wire. The rodent has to tug on the nut which does a much better job of releasing the trigger.
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The things we learn on VAF...
 
Plummit said:
The things we learn on VAF...
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I would put a 3/4” square of scotchbrite wired to the trigger mechanism.
Peanut butter with a few sunflower seeds smeared on it.
The mice would always get a claw into the scotebrite and trigger it.

I also like the Home Depot 5-gallon bucket trap.
Multiple catches with one trap..

(We cannot have cats as we have Malinois)
 
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