Looking for mice proof foam

[Phil Waterman]

Hi All


Well it is spring time and in the process of cleaning and servicing the trucks for the driving season. One of the things I check for is critter damage. Even with leaving moth balls in all of the trucks in plastic pans, still get occasional damage. Really don't like using poison give that we have quite a few Hawk, Owls that like the area and don't want them picking up a mouse that has gone outside to die.


Anyway this year it was shifter boots, the photo below is of foam block around the base of the Pat 12 C60L should be the much denser black rubber padding buy have not found a source for that. Anyway used this much less dense gray packing foam, which the mice have ignored for probably 10 years until now.
C60L Mice.jpg


As you can see I have used fabric draft boots around the starter and parking brake levers. These are out of the same Dupont Cordura fabric that I use for seat covers. So far the mice have left the Cordura alone. You can see though that the Cordura will not hold paint, the boots having been sprayed with black paint.

Oh by the way the other shift lever they chewed up was on 78 Chevy pickup. That was one of the reproduction boots from LMC.

Cheers Phil

[rob love]

On my mk1 carrier, it was the foam in the headsets of the radio that the mice loved. When I first saw slight damage, I moved the headset to hand on the grab bar on the engine cover armored plate. The mice had to perform a high wire act to get to it, and they did, fully removing all traces of the foam.

In my workshop (and at work) we use the metal box type traps that have a tunnel and a paddle wheel in them that move the mice into a trap portion. The traps will get multiple mice, and when the trap starts to smell, you know it has several of them rotting in it, and it is time to empty it. I have had up to five in a trap.

The traps work best situated along the walls, and I'll often make some kind of a defile, where the mice will naturally head for the tunnel. They really do seem to keep the populations in check.

[David Dunlop]

Phil.

If you have access to an active litter box, try putting the dry cat poop in the areas the mice frequent. To them, poop = predator and they usually disperse (unless one of them, of course, wears an eye patch).

David

[Robin Craig]

My sincere condolences.

If I could go back and speak to Noah, it would be the mice and the racoons I would implore to leave behind.

[Phil Waterman]

Hi David

Currently we are cat less hence the mice problem. The cat poo will fit right in with environmentally friendly approach to pest problem we've been using Coyote pee to control the racoons who kept trying for the for the bird seed.

But your suggestion made us laugh, at the practical beauty of the logic.

Rob will have to look for the traps you are talking about, because we seem to get mice in waves that overwhelm the standard one at a time traps.

But finding a foam or something to soak the foam in so mice don't like it is my hope.

Cheers Phil

[Bob Carriere]

....but we have domesticated cats and a few feral cats that roam around the canvass Winter shelters all Winter long looking for a quick snack...... but the cats DO pee on everything so it works as a repellent......even repels us when we open up the Winter garages in the Spring time....... Now squirrels are another story..... and they love eating the plastic insulation on the barn electrical wires....... feeding them off the bird feeder does not help......

[rob love]

Here is the type of trap I use. So do the exterminators who maintain the museum. If the price scares you, compare that to the price of damages the little buggers cause.



https://www.amazon.ca/Kness-101-0-00.../dp/B00004RA4D


And here is a new one to me. They attach a jar of water and a tunnel from the trap area to drown them. https://www.ebay.ca/itm/Kness-Ketch-...4383.l4275.c10