Good News Bad News: First Winter Blast

[atom ant]

We had one we brought home in a stack of firewood from a campground we carried in the basement (big mistake). We watched him grow as his dropping got bigger and so did his nests.

I became obsessed trying to get rid of it and probably looked like Jack when we came to check on the trailer!



This guy would empty my boxes of Decon and carry it all into our bed under the pillow. He would then put everything he could find in the Decon box like small screws, paper clips, rubber bands, anything we dropped on the floor. He made a mockery of us! We brought the rig home one spring and we filled every hole with steel wool or expanding foam. Either that did the trick, or he just got bored with us!

[Dave&Ginny]

Just use a shot gun..,,,sooner or later you're bound to get them

[TNTBaker]

LOL Brad!!! That's exactly how it feels too. How can something so small cause so much misery?! I think we can make good progress plugging holes. Let's hope so. Todd loves the snap traps and peanut butter, and they DO work. However, I am always the one who finds them with the pathetic and disgusting little critter (often still alive) caught in it and it still bothers me. Plus they are SO messy!!! I don't know what the answer is. What I do know is that right NOW, SOMEWHERE in the Redwood, there is a giant nest consisting of a half of a roll of VIVA Paper Towels. :-( I wonder where????

[NW Snowbirds]

If you can stand the smell, moth balls will keep the critters out. It was recommended to us by the Toyota service dept when we camped in the desert and critters crawled under the hood to the warm engine and chewed on ignition wires. But that's another story!

[TnB]

When I stored our old SOB in an open field storage area for the winter, I spread a box of dryer fabric softener towels all around in the basement and in the bottom of cabinets. The rv didn't get any field mice and smelled okay in the Spring.

[spindrift]

I hate to say it, but...CAT.

[TNTBaker]

Cat. Yes, the lesser of two evils. We always had a cat. It usually went like this: Young cat catches mice. Gets a little older and says, "I have a bowl full of food, why am I working so hard?" Unless mouse runs right in front of fat lazy cat's nose, he doesn't get up. :-) Our last cat was a riot. Thought we were doing him a favor, put in a cat door so he could come in the house while we were gone camping. We would come home to live birds and rabbits cavorting around in the house. I am sure he got quite a kick out the personal zoo he made... We could have made big bucks on YOUTUBE videos of me trying to get very healthy, lively wild rabbits out from under the beds and behind the sofa.... <sigh> Sometimes it was snakes, or mice or the odd lizard. Never a scratch on them, so I knew he was carefully carrying them in the house to torture me. I remember one late night, in a dark living room watching TV and I felt someone watching me... turned on the light, and there is a rabbit, up on his haunches, casually cleaning his big ears with his front paws on the floor by my chair. That was it, I locked the "kitty door" after that.

[lwg]

Originally Posted by johnboytoo

Ouch ---- yech ---- but will still trade you - look what we found in our s&b bedroom !

I texted our pest control guy @ 10 at night !!!

re the mice have heard some DIY preventatives like comet spread around the tires, etc... but does anything really work ?

What the H$LL is that! It looks too small to be a snake, but has the head of a tiny snake. That would freak my wife out!!!

[Enroute]

I use the sonic sound plug in devices and bounce fabric sheets underneath all the furniture and in drawers and closets. I am a firm believer in the plug in mouse devices as I've not had any issues in my previous Montana or my Redwood with mice since I started using both methods listed above. If you are going to be stationary for the winter, I also heard throwing some moth balls around under your coach will also help keep the critters away. Now as for a snake - I think I would have died on the spot as well. I can deal with mice and spiders, but snakes are a deal breaker for me! UGH...

[TNTBaker]

Forget cats... I remember we had ducks on our farm and I used to laugh. The DUCKS caught tons of mice. They would catch the mouse and then run over to the water trough and hold them under water to drown them and the swallow them. :-) Efficient! Darn, I don't think ducks would be a good option tho

[Ian Smith]

We used Bounce Sheets until one winter found the mouse made a nest in the Bounce sheet box.

[atom ant]

Originally Posted by lwg

What the H$LL is that! It looks too small to be a snake, but has the head of a tiny snake. That would freak my wife out!!!

That's the kind that sneaks in your ear and comes out your nose while your asleep

[JerryL]

Originally Posted by TNTBaker

AAAAAAAAAAAaaack! That would make me scream and run in my jammies through the woods where we live. Im a-scared of snakes!! My weakest link, for sure. There must be lots of "remedies" to repel mice. I am hoping somebody knows some. I am researching today... will share if I find anything useful that actually works.

Reading your first 2 posts in this thread makes me want to give you a suggestion when posting, put whichever of you guys that is typing, at the end of the posts. I can't get the picture out of my head of that big, burly guy in your avatar standing in a chair, and screaming at the mouse, or a snake.

[spindrift]

Originally Posted by TNTBaker

Forget cats... I remember we had ducks on our farm and I used to laugh. The DUCKS caught tons of mice. They would catch the mouse and then run over to the water trough and hold them under water to drown them and the swallow them. :-) Efficient! Darn, I don't think ducks would be a good option tho

I think you're pulling our legs.

[TNTBaker]

Originally Posted by JerryL

Reading your first 2 posts in this thread makes me want to give you a suggestion when posting, put whichever of you guys that is typing, at the end of the posts. I can't get the picture of that big, burly guy in your avatar standing in a chair, and screaming at the mouse, or a snake.

LOL! Ok. Tempting as it is to let you think of Todd running through the woods in his jammies screaming... it was ME (Theresa). There's things Todd's afraid of but snakes ain't one of them. ~Theresa

[TNTBaker]

Originally Posted by spindrift

I think you're pulling our legs.

NO! I am certainly not! It sounds crazy, I know, but it's true. Ducks are very much carnivores! That's why I had them. They took care of all the pests in the garden (and the lettuce and the strawberries too).

I tried to embed a video, but I couldn't figure out how, so here's the link:
http://youtu.be/km6ok8NJx1g

[hoosierguy]

Originally Posted by Dave&Ginny

Just use a shot gun..,,,sooner or later you're bound to get them

Just don't use slugs or they will have an easier way to get in!!!

[TNTBaker]

And we know where this can lead...
caddyshack-murray-427fp072210.jpg

[hoosierguy]

Originally Posted by TNTBaker

Cat. Yes, the lesser of two evils. We always had a cat. It usually went like this: Young cat catches mice. Gets a little older and says, "I have a bowl full of food, why am I working so hard?" Unless mouse runs right in front of fat lazy cat's nose, he doesn't get up. :-) Our last cat was a riot. Thought we were doing him a favor, put in a cat door so he could come in the house while we were gone camping. We would come home to live birds and rabbits cavorting around in the house. I am sure he got quite a kick out the personal zoo he made... We could have made big bucks on YOUTUBE videos of me trying to get very healthy, lively wild rabbits out from under the beds and behind the sofa.... <sigh> Sometimes it was snakes, or mice or the odd lizard. Never a scratch on them, so I knew he was carefully carrying them in the house to torture me. I remember one late night, in a dark living room watching TV and I felt someone watching me... turned on the light, and there is a rabbit, up on his haunches, casually cleaning his big ears with his front paws on the floor by my chair. That was it, I locked the "kitty door" after that.

Don't you just love it? Isn't nature a wonder?

[homeguy]

Originally Posted by TNTBaker

LOL! Ok. Tempting as it is to let you think of Todd running through the woods in his jammies screaming... it was ME (Theresa). There's things Todd's afraid of but snakes ain't one of them. ~Theresa

3

Not sure what my wife would do about that thing 'cause I would have been running thru the woods right along with you!