Baiting vs trapping

[Jim K]

Not talking about YouTube videos.

After you guys introduced me to the Shawn Woods Mousetrap Monday channel and wasted approximately 2.7 years of my life, I feel like I know a lot more about rodent control. To that end, I bought a couple electronic mousetrap and set them up in my new hangar. After a month now, I haven't caught any mice or seen any signs of them.

So my hangar neighbor comes over, looks at my thinking chair (aka old recliner), and says.... "that will draw mice, do you have any bait set out"?

"No, I don't like bait as it draws the mice in, but i do have some traps"

"Oh, traps don't work, I've got half a dozen bait stations over here, and they eat the bait all the time. There are mice everywhere, they're going to destroy your plane. Get some bait, they won't go into the plane to die, they go look for water. "

"Okay, thanks...."

So now I'm paranoid my traps aren't working. I've never liked bait as the mice always seem to carry it into the vehicle, then die & stink. I actually use cats on the farm, which seem to be more effective, although they are almost as irritating, leaving paw prints, vomit, and mouse heads everywhere.

He did have one good point though.... with bait you can see if there are mice feeding.

Its also possible I don't have any mice because they're all over eating the bait in his hangar. I'm thinking about making some barriers out of five gallon buckets to go around the landing gear.

What do you all do for rodent control?

 

[JOhnH]

I bought a couple of electronic rodent repellers. In spite of what many people told me, they work great.

My hangar neighbor is building an airplane in his hangar. He eats there and throws things like apple cores, banana skins and and even chicken wing bones out in the grass. I had mouse and rat droppings all over the place, until I put out these two electronic repellers a few years ago. Now I never see any evidence of rodents.

 

[cowman]

I won't use bait because we have cats and dogs here. Even if I secure it where they couldn't possibly get to it(harder than it sounds) they could still hypothetically eat a rodent that's got a belly full of poison and I'm not willing to risk it.

I have some experience with traps and what I've learned is it's all about the location. In the wrong spot, you'll never catch one. In the right spot you may be emptying that thing every few hours.

I've seen no noticeable difference with electronic repellers. My suspicion is that much like the traps their effectiveness depends on location but I haven't really played with them enough to be sure.

 

[Dana]

I haven't found anything nearly as effective as a bucket trap.

 

[Zeldman]

What do you all do for rodent control?

Place the bait outside to draw mice out. After they take the bait it causes great thirst and the mice leave the area looking for water and die elsewhere, not inside.

 

[Crashnburn]

I guess I have a soft heart. I’d rather kill a rodent quickly with a trap or electrocute him than have him paddle around in a bucket of water until he gets tired and drowns.

 

[Salty]

Why are rodents going in a hangar in the first place? Genuine curiosity. If there’s no food in there, why would they be bothering? Guess I’m lucky where I live, never had this problem.

 

[MacFly]

I solved my mouse problem in my storage building by putting in a cat door, setting out cat food, and putting out a couple of nice, heated cat beds. Recruited a couple of well-behaved feral cats in no time and haven't seen a mouse in 18 months.

 

[KeepWatch]

If you don't see mouse droppings, you don't have mice. Leave well enough alone.

 

[Jim K]

Why are rodents going in a hangar in the first place? Genuine curiosity. If there’s no food in there, why would they be bothering? Guess I’m lucky where I live, never had this problem.

Warmth and nesting material. Especially in the fall they try to move indoors to get out of the weather. I guess FL is warm enough they don't need shelter.

With cars, if you drive them often enough they don't move in. I assume airplanes would be the same. Another good reason to fly weekly. You're right in that food will draw them faster than anything.

 

[Jim K]

If you don't see mouse droppings, you don't have mice. Leave well enough alone.

It is amazing how much they poop. Watching mousetrap Monday it seems to be about every 5-10 seconds.

 

[Matthew]

Here’s one that kept pooping on my deck, every night until I trapped it.

You can see the poop on the left side of fhe frame.

 

[Chris Scherry]

I use a few of the electronic pest repellents plugged in around the hangar. For the old fashioned mouse traps I hot melt glue sunflower seeds to it. That way I don't have cheese or peanut butter getting moldy. And I don't have to replace the bait very often. What I think has worked the best, last year I started spraying peppermint oil around any openings and I haven't caught a mouse or seen signs for quite awhile.

 

[Jim K]

I use a few of the electronic pest repellents plugged in around the hangar. For the old fashioned mouse traps I hot melt glue sunflower seeds to it. That way I don't have cheese or peanut butter getting moldy. And I don't have to replace the bait very often. What I think has worked the best, last year I started spraying peppermint oil around any openings and I haven't caught a mouse or seen signs for quite awhile.

I used peppermint oil in the combine, seemed to work well and made the combine smell like Christmas. Not sure I want the airplane to smell like that all the time. Although if peppermint oil works, you'd think avgas and old electronics would work...

 

[KeepWatch]

......What I think has worked the best, last year I started spraying peppermint oil around any openings and I haven't caught a mouse or seen signs for quite awhile.

I have not heard a single person say they have tried this and it didn't work. They all report good results.

 

[Zeldman]

I use a mix of peppermint and spearmint oil and that works for me. Gets them out of the house and towards the bait station.

 

[Shepherd]

Put open tread, high voltage, high current traps around.
Also good for know-it-all neighbors.