mice problem!!!

weirdly enough I actually have grown to like the smell of mothballs, there's a lot of nostalgia attached to that smell for a lot of people.

I agree with Dale, you don't want to lure them in with grease traps and such, you want to keep them out, the two different approaches would be contradictory when used at the same time I think, even though they BOTH work.

I only put the mothballs at soil level so I can sleep better at night. I probable don't really need to place them there.
-Jay

It has been a very long time now since I have seen or trapped a mouse. I ended up using moth balls since it was much more convenient. The entire shop smells like the moth balls so i take that as a good thing.
Also, i have one of those "tin cats". Its a metal box that mice get into but cannot get out of. I initially placed it outside the door and one of the days, it had 5 mice in it. I neutralized the mice and then placed the trap inside the shop and trapped none(I assume the moth balls are the reason) I am however trapping moles left and right and they seem to be cannibalizing each other in there. Pretty gruesome scene. This is happening with the trap inside the shop.

Mitch - Cedarbog wrote:It has been a very long time now since I have seen or trapped a mouse. I ended up using moth balls since it was much more convenient. The entire shop smells like the moth balls so i take that as a good thing.
Also, i have one of those "tin cats". Its a metal box that mice get into but cannot get out of. I initially placed it outside the door and one of the days, it had 5 mice in it. I neutralized the mice and then placed the trap inside the shop and trapped none(I assume the moth balls are the reason) I am however trapping moles left and right and they seem to be cannibalizing each other in there. Pretty gruesome scene. This is happening with the trap inside the shop.

Since we have yet to have the ground freeze in any serious way, and no appreciable snowfall yet, I'm catching both mice and Moles. Nobody has bothered the trees yet though and my constant trapping is doing yeoman's service at keeping the Mice out of the house. between the mothballs and the Neem the trees stink!
-Jay

Today when I was checking my traps under my house I caught something new, past few weeks have all been field mice and moles, but today it was the dreaded VOLE!

So up all the trees went into the bed of the pick-up truck (twice) and over to my rental house which is much more rodent proof and is the current home of all my evergreens. Voles are no laughing matter. I've never had such animal issues as I have this year because of this extended mild weather the critters are going crazy.

Voles are like suddenly having the Borg show up. For those of you Trek fans
-Jay

drgonzo wrote:

Voles are like suddenly having the Borg show up. For those of you Trek fans
-Jay

I hope you don't have nice hostas planted in your yard...they're vole magnets.

Hostas don't last long where I am as they are also Deer magnets, but I do have some monster bleeding hearts which I would imagine might be tasty to a Vole, I'll just keep trapping under the house until I don't catch anything anymore.
-Jay

Spearmint oil on cotton balls works wonders and not toxic like moth balls. A little bit goes a long way. I used to have problem with them in my boat every year. Two cotton balls soaked in it keeps them out of my boat all winter. Wouldn't work too good exposed to the weather though. It's great for enclosed overwintering areas though

I am trying to figure out what is and what isn't.
IS MOTHBALLS TOXIC TO HUMANS AND/OR TREES?? If so, what and why is it so? I have no problem with mothballs and it is used to great effect.

The short answer is yes. Check out this from wikipediahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mothball
The spearmint oil is my recommendation-if for no other reason because it works and smell a heck of a lot better than moth balls.